Caffeinated Clint
Not that the current Kelly Rutherford is immerse with spider-veins and liver spots….in fact, she’s quite the fox.
According to Variety, the proposed “Gossip Girl” spin-off will be a prequel series, fixing on Rutherford’s character, Lily van der Woodsen, as a youngster.
The spin-off will be produced as a backdoor pilot, as expected, and air May 11 as an episode of “Gossip Girl.”
In the new project, which is based on an original idea by Schwartz and Savage, Lily moves in with her sister, the black sheep of the family, after a falling out with her parents. In the process, she must adjust to living in the San Fernando Valley (during the height of the Valley Girl craze) and going to public school, having previously attended a wealthy Montecito boarding school.
The spinoff will center much of its action on the Sunset Strip (which was in the midst of its own heavy metal, hairband era) and Hollywood, where Lily discovers a world of wealth and excess.
“There has been a lot of speculation about a ‘Gossip Girl’ spinoff, but we were adamant that it had to be the right time and the right idea,” the producers said in a statement.
The duo said they didn’t want to diminish “Gossip Girl” or upset the show’s chemistry by spinning off a character; they also said they didn’t want to dilute the metropolitan feel of the New York-set original — hence the decision to set the spinoff in 1980s L.A.
