Are threesomes the final taboo of network television? The CW sure seems to think so. Yesterday, The Wrap obtained a strongly worded letter from the Parents Television Council, who got all riled up over an upcoming episode of Gossip Girl in which three of the show's characters engage in an OM3. The PTC writes, “Television is profoundly influential in the lives of children, especially when it comes to sexual decision making -- it has even been described by one researcher as a 'sexual super-peer' -- signifying television's power to amplify, many times over, the peer-pressure teens are already feeling to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors." Maybe they're on to something.

Last week on Gossip Girl, many of the characters took a cue from the show's queen of manipulation, Blair Waldorf. Nate lied to Serena, Vanessa lied to Dan, Dan lied to Olivia, Olivia lied to Rufus and Lily. Most tragically of all, Blair lied to Chuck, her man and partner in crime. (She manipulated him into seducing a male NYU alum so she could give the freshman toast.) Last season of GG was dedicated to the tumultuous on and off, "I love you," "I don't love you." Every time Chuck changed his mind, Blair would cry, and I would too (a little). But this season promised to move past all that. They're finally in a committed relationship; we see Blair waking up in Chuck's bed while he strolls around in a silk robe. This is romance, people.

Maybe it's Chuck Bass' tortured histrionics (who could resist that pronounced pout!) or the chance to admonish Jenny Humphrey for her sartorial sins (such sloppy bangs!) More likely, it's The Hilary Duff Effect. That is, the trotting out of marquee-caliber guest stars the show has drawn (including Tyra Banks and Lady Gaga). But the social-climbery soap has ensnared a superstar, a feat her her former bandmates couldn't: Victoria Beckham.

As Dan Humphrey, Gossip Girl’s loveable leading man, Penn Badgley traipses through New York with a coterie of privileged prep-school coeds. But when the cameras aren’t rolling, the laid-back actor, star of this month’s thriller The Stepfather, prefers tacos and street trucks to STK.

I'm not so sure that there's room enough in the pop pantheon for two queens. Not the Hall of Fossils, mind you, where certain others are eyeing shelf space proper enough to hold their cryogenically frozen heads when the time comes. But at the forefront of America's pop consciousness And if there is indeed space there, I'm not sure whether Beyoncé will quietly relent and offer Lady Gaga a chance to rule alongside her, as Americans are obviously in need of some capable pop despots after this horror. In this sense, Gaga's ubiquity -- from SNL to Carnegie Hall -- is quickly transforming her into pop royalty. Which is why snagging the one-woman search-engine optimizer for Gossip Girl might be the biggest casting coup for the soap yet.

City Wize [Free] Network TV’s hippest channel takes the hotspots from hit shows like Gossip Girl, 90210 and Melrose Place, and puts them right in the palm of your hand. Want to know where Serena van der Woodsen gets her truffled grilled-cheese sandwich? Where the Beverly Hills kids bowl? Where Auggie from Melrose buys wine? Look no further than this app from the CW, which helps users locate the bars, restaurants, hotels and shops featured in the most addictive shows on primetime. GPS location technology means that whether you’re in L.A. or New York City you’ll always be at the center of the world. “Spotted: You, living like S. and B. You know you love it.”

TV is simply a place where people go when they get tired of thinking. -- Kevin Devitte

The three-day weekend left me limp but bored, so I attended a Gossip Girl dinner with friends. I have an impossible work week ahead of me and wanted to get my mind out of the business and back in the gutter where it belongs. However, there was no escape for me, as the storyline of "the greatest show ever" had Chuck Bass buying a club. He spends the show trying to obtain a Patrick McMullan photo of the king of nightlife, Sean MacPherson. In the real world, Sean and partner Eric Goode are building one great place after another. The Jane Hotel, the Bowery Hotel, and the Maritime, as well as B Bar and the Park. These joints will soon be joined by a couple of new locations. A very secretive pal of mine tells me that Sean and Eric very secretively just started building something on the southeast corner of 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue. My source is a very quiet guy. It's as if every word spoken takes a day off his life. If that was me, I'd have been in the ground 25 years ago.

Fashion is going prep, and I don't just mean the fact that Harvard is moonlighting as a fashion house. Just in time for "back to school," collegiate nostalgia seems to be sweeping the fashion community here at New York Fashion Week. Saturday, Alexander Wang showed an entire SS10 collection whose inspiration was seemingly sourced from a high school football locker-room, albeit with looks intended for ladies only. (To boot, his after-party was held in a gas station on the West Side Highway -- spending Saturday night partying at a gas station? Hello high school.) Meanwhile, both Opening Ceremony (via a collaboration with Pendleton) and Balenciaga are offering up varsity jackets for FW09.

As the wickedly electric Georgina Sparks on TV’s Gossip Girl, actress Michelle Trachtenberg transformed from Jane Doe into this generation’s Joan Collins. Here, the star of NBC’s upcoming medical drama Mercy sharpens her claws.

● Taylor Momsen may cite Kurt Cobain as an inspiration for her newfound music career, but she stops short of a heroin addiction despite rumors to the contrary. [MTV]
● After an eventful two weeks, Michael Jackson’s children were visited by Los Angeles Child Protective Services to make sure they’re doing all right. [Rpulse]
● What started out as a parody has now become the real thing. The "Slap Chop Rap Remix" will soon be used as a real Slap Chop infomercial. [TMZ]