'Gossip Girl': Hilary Duff and Tyra Banks fight the Nazis

Though I'm not exactly Hilary Duff's target demographic, I've been looking forward to her "Gossip Girl" arc. And even though it seems to echo one of those "First Daughter" movies where she goes to college just wanting to be a normal student, I'm praying for a future catfight with Blair. Also tonight: Tyra Banks turned in some better acting than usually she rolls out for the "America's Next Top Model" judging panels. Go on, Tyra.

First, let's discuss how refreshing it is to see Nate actually not attached to a girl at the lips, and actually doing some school work. I'm not sure I bought Dan's not knowing who Olivia Burke (Duff) was, but I suppose if I accepted the premise in "Notting Hill," I have to do it here. And he seemed to have a little bit of game, which was cute to see. And since Olivia is Vanessa's new roommate, he's going to get an opportunity to use it. She even blows off Larry King for Dan, so you know that boy's got charisma.

As Serena practices with Rufus her big reveal to her mother that she won't be going to Brown (Serena's coaching about Lily's mannerisms was very funny), Lily shows up, and is appropriately appalled. Serena's determined, however, to prove that this is the right decision, and swears that she'll get a job or an internship. After the gratuitous appearances by Tory Burch ("You came highly recommended by Anna Wintour" -- bleh) and Georgina Chapman (I could listen to her accent all day) and an interview with an art gallery, Serena confesses to Blair that everyone wants her to attend their parties, but no one's interested in having her work for them. Until, of course, she runs into Olivia's really pushy (and it turns out, really bad) publicist, Casey, who hires her to help with the premiere of "Fleur," the new movie starring Olivia and Ursula Nyquist (Tyra Banks).

Serena and the temperamental Ursula hit it off ("You're like the diva whisperer"), complete with sleepover/pajama lounging (not totallly sure what that was), and Ursula talks about her favorite scene in the movie: as Josephine Baker, she has to distract the Nazis who are trapping her and resistance fighter Olivia so they can escape. The trouble comes when the publicist finds out that Ursula's big scene has been cut, and doesn't want Serena to tell her. Because -- get this -- an actress who finds out her part's cut and skips the premiere is not a story, but an actress who learns about the cut and melts down at the premiere is a great story. Lame.

After Lily quite rightly notes to Serena that this Casey creature hired her only because of her connections, Serena advises Ursula to stay classy -- and she does, which prompts Casey to fire her. But Ursula comes to the rescue and threatens to fire Casey if Serena's fired, and the karmic balance rights itself.

Meanwhile, Olivia tells Dan she has to work and can't go out with him a second night, so he dejectedly turns to Vanessa -- who invites him to be her date to the movie premiere -- to which everyone else in the hall has also been invited. Dan hangs around clueless, still not knowing who Olivia is, until he spots her and barely manages to put two and two together in the paparazzi glare. He gives her a long spiel about how his last coulple of relationships have been filled with drama, and what he wants now is something low-key. Way to diss the movie star, you dope. But in the end, Dan comes back around -- and lucky for him, Olivia's a forgiving soul.

Not so Blair -- though that's no surprise to anyone. She's still on the warpath at NYU, unable to figure out how to rule over people she doesn't understand -- which I assume means sentient humans who are unimpressed by headbands. She confesses to Chuck that she misses Constance, and leaps in when the Mean Girls of Constance alert her that Jenny Humphrey is ruining everything. Jenny's decided not to buy in to the Queen Bee/Mean Girls bit, and insists that things become a democracy. It's not quite "change we can believe in," but it's not bad.

But Blair will not be stopped, lending monogrammed headbands to Jenny's overthrow and hosting the annual Waldorf sleepover -- which she charmingly refers to as "tutoring some girls at Constance." "Jenny Humphrey is destroying everything I worked for," she huffs to Chuck. "And those girls deserve to learn the meaning of the word aristocracy."  Chuck, bless him, totally calls her on it, and hatches an odd-couple plan with Jenny to snap Blair out of it ("Blair's gone Col. Kurtz," he tells her.). He goes to the premiere, using Blair's ticket, and brings Jenny as his date. When the new class of Mean Girls get the Gossip Girl text about it, Blair flies into a rage, dashes to the premiere and screams at them both. Chuck does a smashing job of taking the flak and calming her down (if I didn't know better, I'd say he'll be a great husband someday): "Next time you forget you're blair waldorf, remember I'm Chuck Bass and I love you." For good measure, he pays off a photog to snap a pic of Blair (or 10), which does wonders for her self-esteem.

Boosting it, in fact, to new heights that allow her to figure out how to make herself a Queen Bee again -- by creating a new club for prep-school girls -- a haven of hierarchy in the "patchouli-scented purgutory" of NYU. Chuck rewards her with a little kinky role-playing. But the Waldorf legacy, in the end, proves more difficult to shake than one might have thought -- and Jenny seems to be settling into her new role as Queen.



What did you think? Did the stunt casting of both Hilary Duff and Tyra Banks make it more interesting for you? Do you agree that Blair's longing for high school is one of the stupidest storylines ever? What are the odds that Serena will be able to make a go of things at her job?