[Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin]

Despite less-than-stellar ratings and only one season in the bank, the creators of the hormonally charged, red lipstick-laced Gossip Girl are already hard at work on putting together a spin-off. As THR reports, producers will use the original books’ It Girl series as a blueprint, in which the social-climbing, scandalous and date rape-prone Jenny Humphrey character (Taylor Momsen) is shipped off to boarding school to clean up her act — just as the show’s main character, Serena Van Woodsen, had been punished for bad girl behavior like sex with BFFs’ boyfriends and being an über-lush by spending a year in the supposedly rigid countryside enclaves north of Manhattan. As the producers spin their wheels hoping that GG network CW bites, we took a look back on the Boarding School For Bad Boys And Girls phenomenon on television to get a sense of how ridiculously and erroneously Hollywood writers have been depicting these New England pastures in the past:

While the rumors of the CW's demise haven't quite been greatly exaggerated, they're looking a little premature this morning as news of the network's upfront success trickles out. Amid panic over plunging ratings and the looming ouster of boss Dawn Ostroff, the House of Gossip Girl apparently wrapped up its advance sales with as much as $370 million — about half of last year's numbers but not half-bad under the circumstances. 90210 apparently speaks for itself, after all:

[Blake Lively, an actress who appears on "Gossip Girl" and in a movie about magic pants, in downtown Manhattan yesterday, where she took a stroll with costar and lover Penn Badgley; image via Splash]

[Blake "Serena van der Woodsen" Lively at CW up-fronts at Lincoln Center yesterday; image via Splash]

It's always cute when newbie stars brush off rumors about their love lives by calling them "silly" and saying "we're just good friends!" Fresh faces like Gossip Girl's blonde bombshell Blake Lively have yet to learn that making public denials like these mean only one thing: the rumors are true. Back in January, Lively said just that regarding tabloid stories linking her to on-screen make-out partner Penn Badgley (he's the hot-but-nerdy one, a la Seth Cohen on The OC). And shockingly (!), pictures released today prove not only that Blake and Penn have been fooling around poolside - in an uncanny rendition of Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer's beachy-keen gallery last week - but that they may actually make it after all.

[Blake Lively, who is on some sort of television show called "Gossiping Girls," arriving at the New York City, NY set yesterday; image comes to us by way of photo agency WENN]

[Blake Lively, star of "Gossip Girl" (returning tonight, muthafuckas!), filming in New York over the weekend; image via Splash]

[Gossip Girl, one of the whitest shows on TV, cast member Blake Lively leaving the show's New York set; image via Splash]

[Gossip Girl's Blake Lively at a Reebok shoes event last night in New York City; image via WENN]

Dave Letterman has a long history of getting flirty with his guests. From Madonna to Drew Barrymore, from Julia Roberts to any one of the countless number of leggy supermodels he's talked to over the years, Diamond Dave has never been one to shy away from batting his proverbial lashes at his guests. Depending on his mood, this flirtatiousness generally takes shape in either a slew of complimentary bon mots or, when he's feeling aggressive, a subtle graze of the knee. But when Gossip Girl Blake Lively showed up on the set on Friday night proclaiming that Dave was one of her "childhood crushes", the sexual tension between the two was not only palpable, it approached the level of David Addison and Maddie Hayes.

[Gossip Girl's Blake Lively outside the Letterman show last night; image via INF]

[Gossip Girl's Blake Lively at an Old Navy "Brand Relaunch" party in New York last night; image via INF]

[Gossip Girl's Blake Lively seen in New York City last night; image via INF]