Behind Closed Doors: Leighton Meester Enjoys Fresh Flowers, Clean Fingernails And "True Blood"

Buzznet caught up with Leighton Meester in honor of the release of her new danceable single 'Somebody To Love', a collab with singer/songwriter Robin Thicke. The Gossip Girl's previous foray into music, you probably remember, was guest vocals for Cobra Starship's radio hit 'Good Girls Go Bad'. Teaming up was fun, but the TV actress has been in and out of the studio, writing and recording her own stuff. Find out what Leighton has to say about boys and love, Behind Closed Doors. It's no suprise that she believes in "undeniable chemistry"--how else would she nail the part of Queen B and Chuck Bass' lover on the CW's best show?

Buzznet: Do you have a morning bathroom routine? If so what does it entail from when you get out of bed until you are dressed for the day?

Leighton: I do exactly what everyone does, my butler brings me breakfast in bed, and I get up when my massage is over. Obviously not the case, I wake up early usually but occasionally get days when I can sleep in, so by that time, it's unfortunate to say, I check my phone and emails.  Then I shower, clean my face with la roche posay and dr haushka products, chanel also makes a great foaming cleanser, brush my teeth, I decide what to wear, which is really fun because I have a huge, fairly organized closet, my apartment's best feature.  If I have time I make a coffee.  But I'm usually out the door within 30.

Buzznet: Who was your first kiss? Details ... How old were you? Where were you?

Leighton: I was 16, a guy I knew through friends from school, he was walking me home from the movies, and I honestly was so nervous and couldn't believe I was getting my first kiss, so I don't remember much else but turning around and running home. People would always play spin the bottle and truth or dare but I never went through with it when it was my turn because I didn't want that to be my first kiss.  My friend from middle school and I were talking about that recently, we were pretty much not interested in guys at that age.

Buzznet: What do you have hanging on your walls in your bedroom? Posters? Artwork?

Leighton: I have a beautiful oil painting my best friend/boyfriend had made for me.  He told the artist about me, my favorite colors and poetry and she painted a large very special abstract work I have hanging in my dining room. It came with a disc of the music she listened to while painting it.

Buzznet: Do you have any fetishes? Any pet-peeves?

Leighton: I don't like when people bite their nails, or have dirty fingernails. Fetishes? I have things I love like fresh flowers and chocolate always on hand, as well as my obsession with True Blood.

Buzznet: What is the first quality you look for in the opposite sex? 

Leighton: It's usually when I'm not looking, something about someone will catch me off guard.  I love talent and intelligence.  I believe in undeniable chemistry, it's the strongest, most inexplicable attraction.

Buzznet: What do you wear to sleep at night?

Leighton: Nothing

Buzznet: Do you have a nickname?

Leighton: Lei, Lil Lei, Lei-Lei, Meenster, Meest, Mom...

Buzznet: What was your first job? What was your worst job?

Leighton: My first job was when I was eleven! I was in the newspaper in a Bloomingdale's ad. It was when I first moved to New York, I had no idea what I was doing.  I've been acting since then, and working non-stop since I was about 18, so I can't complain. I've been writing and recording music for almost four years, and that's been the outlet that's caused so much growth in me.  I babysat a lot as a teenager too.

Buzznet: What song do you know every word to, but are totally embarrassed that you know so well? 

Leighton: 'Without You' by Mariah Carey, but I have no shame, I've listened to it to find emotion for scenes.

Buzznet: Which era do you most wish you lived in and why? 

Leighton: I love ancient Roman history, my mom read us books about it when we were kids. The Roman Republic was so advanced scientifically. I love living now. People live similarly in every era.  Wake up in the morning, eat, work, love, entertain yourself.  I like the essence of the beat movement, I love love, and admire the movement of equality, freedom of expression, and change.

Buzznet: Do you have any scars? If so what happened? If not name one imperfection on your body?

Leighton: I have a scar on my forehead from falling off the bed when I was a baby, my big brother has it too.

Buzznet: When you hear the word “oatmeal” what is the very first thing that comes to your mind?

Leighton: Raisin.

Obsession of the Year

RIGHT, WE KNOW, we hear you: the girl from Gossip Girl? There isn't a single self-respecting male who watches the CW's lusciously bitchy comic soap about juvenile stylistas navigating the social spiderweb of New York's Upper East Side. Or at least that's what we hear it's about—because, of course, we have never seen this Gossip Girl, and honestly, we had to ask a young woman at work, because we're always riveted by Ultimate Fighting and chain-saw competitions.

"Guys are like, 'My girlfriend watches it, so I watch it,' " Meester says. "But sometimes they watch it on their own. Someone came up to me recently and said, 'I'm a Washington, D.C., police officer, and I tell everybody I'm busy on Monday nights—but I'm really watching the show.'"

If you're still pretending you don't, Meester, 23, plays the decadent heiress Blair Waldorf, whose acid bons mots ("Haven't you heard? I'm the crazy bitch around here") float in the air like the cigarette smoke she'd surely exhale if the CW would let her. Gossip Girl is a showcase of unnatural beauty, but the delicate Meester stands out. In person, Meester is free of pretension, arriving for a breakfast interview at Manhattan's Chelsea Piers wearing a pair of thick glasses that Tina Fey might reject as being too clunky. This is the paradox of the Meester-verse—"Blair is so controlling and such a worrier; Leighton is relaxed," says co-star Ed Westwick—and it surely speaks to her un-Park Avenue origins. As the tabloids giddily reported last year, Meester was born to a mother who was incarcerated at the time on pot charges, and she has spent the better part of her life on earth shuttling, Gypsy-like, from cramped apartments to soul-sucking auditions. Gossip Girl is the first stable job she's ever had.

"I've finally unpacked," says Meester, who next year will appear as Steve Carell's babysitter in the romantic comedy Date Night. "I didn't expect anything. I'm always like, 'Is the show going to get canceled?' 'Am I going to have to move?' It's hard to have any kind of luck in this business."

Meester lunges for a strip of bacon. Another one of her Gossip co-stars, Chace Crawford, has declared she's a "guy's girl." Meester allows that she's "not high-maintenance," and while she won't bullshit you with a Super Bowl prediction, she can give you five detailed minutes on Ray Liotta in GoodFellas—well, maybe not the whole movie, but one very specific moment in Martin Scorsese's Mob classic. "It's the look Liotta gives Debi Mazar in the bedroom," Meester says. "He's just thrown his girlfriend onto the bed, and when she runs out, he gives this look to his girlfriend's friend—Debi Mazar—as he's coming off the bed...." Meester blushes and fans herself with her hand. "It's the sexiest thing."