"Gossip Girl" spins a new tale

It's been the biggest mystery on the CW's "Gossip Girl" this season. No, it's not whether Lily and Rufus will find their love child, though the two are conspicuously related. It's whether the show will launch a spinoff.

After months of gossip and speculation, "Gossip" creators/executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are proceeding with a spinoff that will serve as a prequel to the hot sophomore drama and chronicle the wild teen years of Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford) in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

The network has ordered a "backdoor pilot" for the project, which will air as a "Gossip" episode May 11.

"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," Schwartz said.

Written by Schwartz and Savage, the spinoff will center on young Lily Rhodes (her maiden name) who, after a falling out with her parents, is forced to move in with her sister, the black sheep of the Rhodes family. Overnight, Lily has to transition from a life of luxury and schooling at a wealthy Montecito boarding school to living deep in the San Fernando Valley she once made fun of and going to public school. Caught between two worlds, Lily dives into the fast-paced Sunset Strip and the Hollywood lifestyle of the '80s, journeying over the hill to a world of wealth and excess that used to be her own.

Eventually, she meets rocker Rufus Humphrey (played on "Gossip" by Matthew Settle) for a fling that will result in Lily's secret pregnancy.

Unlike the original series, which is based on Alloy Entertainment's series of novels, the spinoff is based on an original idea by Schwartz and Savage.

Instead of utilizing a character from the Manhattan-based "Gossip" to anchor a spinoff, Schwartz and Savage settled on a prequel idea that is set in a different city and different time than the original series as they didn't want to "diminish 'Gossip Girl' in any way."

"We didn't want to upset the chemistry of our cast -- all of whom are crucial to the show," Savage said. "Nor did we want to dilute New York City as a character."

By doing a prequel, if it goes to series, different versions of some characters will co-exist on two shows.

"We are inspired by the opportunity to tell overlapping stories and introduce characters that will appear in the past and the present -- and hopefully enrich both shows," Schwartz said. "We love exploring fashion, pop culture, music and a heightened world that's just a little more fun than the one we actually live in. L.A. in the '80s totally fits the bill."

Via reuters.com