The gross Aaron Rose character on teen soap Gossip Girl is just that: gross. A greasy, judgy young artist, it makes no sense that the blonde, be-titted Serena would fall for the likes of him. Heck, even Cecily von Ziegesar hates him! She told New York Mag that she finds the TV Aaron just plain old icky:

“I do not believe that Serena would go for icky Aaron as he is portrayed on the show,” she says. “He’s so slimy! He’s just … ick.” In the books, she insists, Aaron Rose isn’t so bad. “He smokes herbal cigarettes and eats vegan and has cute mini-dreadlocks,” she says. “He is not an artist. He’s more like a happy suburban hippie. He gets in early to Harvard, infuriating Blair. He and Serena fall in love, but it only lasts for about one book.”

Which, hah. Yes. As silly (but ridiculously enjoyable) as they are, at least the books had the presence of mind to not fashion objects of teen girls' lust after things they would never lust after. A shaggy hippie-dip smoker who is secretly smart? That sounds like a teenage boy that a certain kind of senior in high school would truck for. But a pretentious, rat-faced (it's no fault of the actor's, really, it's just the way he's styled) self-centered artiste type? That boy doesn't really exist in high school. There are some boys on their way to becoming that, but why force an adult-type like that on a (mostly) non-adult audience? That is not what a girl wants.