Gossip Girls Story Riles Real School

INSPIRED Gossip Girl cast (Photo: Getty Images)

Headmasters at several of Manhattan's private schools must have choked on their scones while reading Ruth LaFerla's story about Gossip Girl in the New York Times on September 16.

The following week, several of the Spence and Hewitt students interviewed for the story were called in to meetings with school administrators and scolded for cooperating with the piece. "The shit hit the fan," says one Hewitt source. "They were called in and dressed down. They won't be suspended but they were told not to participate in any more stories about the series."

Meanwhile, the board of Nightingale-Bamford, the inspiration for the CW TV series about catty prep school girls, has demanded a meeting with Dorothy Hutcheson, the school's headmistress, says an insider. Apparently, board members aren't up on teen reading habits—they were shocked that the book's characters are thinly-veiled portrayals of Nightingale students.