Here's what Gossip Girl executive producer Josh Safran doesn't — and won't — talk about when it comes to the show's fifth season: the identity of who is pregnant, a possible second glimpse of Oscar-nominated director David O. Russell (so impressed by Serena's knowledge of The Beautiful and Damned he handed her a summer job), Ivy, the whereabouts of the real Charlie (and if it even matters), the fall-out from Dan's Upper East Side-bashing book, Georgina, gone-but-angry outcast Vanessa ...
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Fortunately, some of those cliff-hangers will immediately be dealt with when Gossip Girl returns (Monday, 8/7c, CW). TVGuide.com instead got Safran's thoughts about why Blair has become the show's most interesting character (by far), what makes this season more fun than last (even if it didn't begin in Paris) and why Serena could wind up being the best movie producer ever:
At the end of last season, you said Dan (Penn Badgley) and Blair (Leighton Meester) were totally not over.
Josh Safran: I stand...
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Are Dan and Blair over already? Blair's blunt brush-off last week certainly made it seem that way, but this is Gossip Girl and there's just no way fans would be rewarded with so little pay-off.
That said, we've got some unresolved issues. Why do we care about Raina, again? Will Vanessa stop pining for Dan? And haven't all the lead actors said recently that they want to move on from the show?
Gossip Girl's Billy Baldwin: William will once again rock the apple card
With these questions burning a hole in our gut, and just four episodes left this season, we turn to executive producer Joshua Safran, who gives TVGuide.com the dirt on that, as well as what to expect for Blair and her trio of suitors, whether or not Ben is really out of Serena's life, and where new girl Charlie fits in.
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Leave it to Billy Baldwin's William van der Woodsen to throw himself in the middle of a Gossip Girl mess.
"[He] can't help himself," Baldwin tells TVGuide.com. "He can't get out of town without doing something to rock the apple cart."
When the show returns on Monday, Lily (Kelly Rutherford) is staring at a possible jail sentence for forging her daughter's signature and therefore landing an innocent man in jail. Matriarch Celia (Caroline Lagerfelt) and ex-husband William (Billy Baldwin) come to town for moral support.
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Blair forgave Chuck after he signed her up to sleep with his uncle, then he one-upped himself by sleeping with Little J. Serena neglected Nate, and then messed around with Dan. So when summer arrived, the love-weary girls escaped to Paris.
Can any of our Upper East Siders handle love?
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In Part 2 of our interview with Chuck and Gossip Girl executive producer Josh Schwartz, we discovered that the big hubbub over the threesome is the least of Gossip's worries. Schwartz tells TVGuide.com that there's another story line that will cause quite a stir when the show returns and it involves one of the people pictured here. Get the scoop on that, the progression of Dan (Penn Badgley) and Vanessa's (Jessica Szohr) relationship, Serena's (Blake Lively) daddy issues and more ...
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