Blake Lively and Leighton Meester’s relationship goes way back to the 2000s when they worked together on the iconic show Gossip Girl. Amid her recent tension with Justin Baldoni of It Ends With Us , a throwback clip was unearthed on TikTok and other social media platforms where Lively called Meester a “monkey,” drawing an unimpressed reaction from the latter.
The video belongs to a panel discussion for the teen show that ran from 2007 to 2012 where the cast members talked about their experiences working on the drama series. In the clip, the 37-year-old reveals the ‘promises’ Gossip Girl creators made her so that she’d agree to star as ‘It girl’ Serena van der Woodsen in the teen drama. “Another promise was no pet monkey, Chuck has a matching pet monkey with coordinating outfits.”
“And I was like ‘I would love to be part of the show, but I can’t act with a monkey,'” Lively said. She then turned to her left, gesturing toward her co-stars and saying, “Well, I got a few of them.” Meester, seated beside Lively, seemed unimpressed, her face scrunching slightly at the comment. Westwick and Badgley, also sitting to her left, looked down without reacting, their expressions neutral. Sensing the tension, Lively quickly clarified, “C’mon, it was a joke! Lord have mercy!” she exclaimed, as the clip ended on an awkward note.
simplesmente blake lively e leighton meester pra rolling stone no auge de gossip girl https://t.co/xumF5ixs1y pic.twitter.com/FaGt7KWBlb
— maju (@favlively) February 12, 2023
Her quip was equally loathed by the fans on social media who called her out for her ‘Mean Girl’ vibes. For instance, a TikTok user reportedly wrote on the resurfaced video, “I remember seeing this panel with the Gossip Girl cast and thinking that was such a weird comment to make and Blake’s coworkers didn’t seem amused, lol.” Another fan noted, “I always wondered why they weren’t besties in real life because Leighton is the sweetest but now I see why.”
there were tons of rumors that leighton meester and blake lively didn’t get along. they were not friends once they stopped filming, but could easily pretend while filming. it caused tension on set, apparently cast members chose sides. they deny it though pic.twitter.com/IvY5CKloic
— popcultureangel (@lohanisgod) August 21, 2024
Though they have worked together, it was long reported that Meester and Lively feuded on the sets of Gossip Girl . While actresses never directly addressed the reports of beef, the tension between them was evident while filming. Back in 2017, the show’s executive producer Joshua Safran told Vanity Fair that they were “never friends,” as per Vogue Australia. Safran told the publication, “They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair. Yet the second they’d be on set together, it’s as if they were.”
He further compared their personalities, which, according to him are poles apart. “Blake is very much in the moment. Blake knows what’s happening. You talk to Blake on a very contemporary level, and she would be like, “I’m doing this thing tonight. Have you been to this restaurant?” noted Safran, adding that Meester, on the contrary, has a “very removed and very quiet” demeanor. She would begin “wandering the stage after her scenes were done.”
The unearthed video gained renewed traction amid Lively’s latest controversy with Baldoni. The rumors caught fire after fans noticed the co-stars weren’t promoting the film together, per E! News . Now her past behavior with her fellow actors has added fuel to the fire to Lively’s bullying personality.
