The Internet was abuzz today with a juicy bit of Gossip Girl gossip: Little Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen) might be shipped off to boarding school and handed her own Gossip Girl spin-off TV series. If not her, a new character intended to star in the spin-off would be introduced in the upcoming season who would follow a story arc similar to Jenny's in the Gossip Girl book series by Cecily von Ziegesar.

Not so fast, says Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz. Though they aren't necessarily opposed to a spin-off of the buzz-worthy and scandalicious teen soap, currently the Gossip Girl crew is worrying only about the show's second season and not about a potential new series.

"The books do have a spin-off, but we have no plans right now for a TV spin-off," Schwartz told Entertainment Weekly this morning. "Everyone is focused on making season 2 as good as possible -- that's our goal right now. Not saying never, just very premature."

As fans of the Gossip Girl book series know, the literary Jenny Humphrey found herself getting into increasingly bigger trouble at Constance Billiard and ended up being forced to choose between repeating ninth grade or being shipped off to boarding school. Boarding school was the choice, and the wannabe Queen Bee landed her own book series -- The It Girl -- and a chance to reinvent herself as the popular girl she always wanted to be.

Such a story wouldn't be out of line for the TV series' Jenny, who herself spent most of last year attempting to rise to the top of the popular girl heap. Early reports also suggested that Gossip Girl might want to keep Jenny actress Taylor Momsen around and instead create a new character for the spin-off that would first appear in Gossip Girl's new season.

It should be noted that while Gossip Girl has a lot of media attention and word of mouth buzz, currently it stands as the ninth ranked show on the CW behind Supernatural, One Tree Hill and Smallville. Though we all love the sleazy, heart-wrenching stories of the Upper East Side socialites that pepper Gossip Girl, the CW might want to see the series do a whole lot more than 2.3 million viewers before potentially diluting its audience with a spin-off, especially with the new 90210 coming soon to fill any teen soap void there may already be.

Our thoughts: scandal and power plays at an all-girl boarding school starring Jenny or a Jenny-lite character sounds like tons of fun. But for now, the notion is nothing more than unbridled gossip.

Gossip Girl will return with its second season this fall on the CW.


- , BuddyTV Staff Writer
Sources: Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter
(Photo courtesy of the CW)