In yesterday's New York Times profile of playwright and actor Wallace Shawn, an executive producer for Gossip Girl, the teen soap that Shawn is guesting on for a spate of episodes, said that the diminutive chrome-dome brings to the series a level of smarts and sophistication that "that was way beyond [the writers].” He's referring, we guess, to Shawn's artsy intellectual pedigree—he's the celebrated writer and star of plays and films like My Dinner With Andre and the son of legendary New Yorker editor William Shawn. And we agree! Seeing Shawn on the occasionally sharp but mostly silly series is like a breath of fresh Bordeaux-scented air. It got us thinking about some other ways that Gossip Girl can fancy itself up, which we'll list after the jump.

New Yorker dance critic Joan Acocella is allll hot 'n bothered over Paul Taylor dance company star Michael Trusnovec. "Every one of Trusnovec's muscles is worked, while every cell in his brain seems to be pulsing with the music," she marvels. The entirety of the little Critic's Notebook piece is very lusty and makes me want to meet her. She also manages to throw in a little subliminal message about her "large rack." [New Yorker]