Don't wear a giant watermelon unless you want to look like a follower—this girl will probably arrive first.

While originally suspicious of any e-mail tip regarding a “Three-Minute Shower Challenge” event, we were happy to read on and learn that the one taking place this afternoon will be both child-friendly and teeming with smoothies. Masturbation jokes aside, it’s Earth day tomorrow, which means that you should start celebrating today. And you can do so from 11:30 to 2:30 pm in Lerner C555, where the Body Shop is hosting an “Earth Day and Earth Lovers Three-Minute Shower Challenge” celebration. Apparently, that new female character on Gossip Girl is one of the hosts. The flier (at right) also boasts free smoothies, “giveaways,” and a DJ.

Don't get stuck in a boring Black and White gown—buy an authentic baby blue one!

Phew, now that we’ve gotten that Gossip Girl headline out of our (collective) system, we can go on Bwogging until the urge strikes again.

No, but seriously—if you’re looking for a barely worn Columbia Masters Ceremony graduation gown, have we got the deal for you! Check out this overseen Craigslist ad to work out the specific details of your purchase, and in the meantime, mull over this highlight:

“I’ve literally only worn it for 30 minutes during the private individual school ceremony. Can definitely pass for brand new—don’t understand why we cant just rent it -.-”

Because nothing says exasperation like an emoticon.

Stoic graduate, devoid of school spirit, via Wikimedia Commons.

The beautiful people of Gossip Girl have been here before. And they’re here again, this time in and outside of Riverside Church.

Apparently they’ve been filming since Tuesday, from 6 am to 10 pm. That means you’ve got the rest of tonight plus Thursday and Friday to gawk to your heart’s content.

Send Bwog your pictures of the illustrious cast!

Before you read this, click play on the video below.

Remember that day when we all maybe thought that Barnard would be written into the Gossip Girl plotline and they’d film at Barnard all the time and everything would be pretty much the same, except some people would be excited but most people would be annoyed?

The sun has set on that day, friends. After consulting with the Admissions Office/some Barnard students, the Barnard administration has decided not to allow the Gossip Girl team to film on campus. The students who helped decide whether GG should film at BC received an email explaining the no-go: “During negotiations,” the email read, “it became clear that the interests of the producers and the interests of the College were likely to conflict at some future point.”

Take solace in the fact that Gossip Girl films on Claremont every five minutes, and that the cast pretends they go to Columbia.

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C, B and D on 116th and Riverside

Paparazzi on Claremont! Nate, Blair and Chuck were talking to each other off-set, just like regular friends do!

Update: Leighton Meester spotted from behind the bushes

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We'll be back with sightings!

Rufus!

During filming, a Bwogger approached a GG tech person and asked which characters were coming to Barnard. “None of them,” the tech-lady replied. “We’re just pretending they go to Columbia.”

UPDATE: More pictures from the filming, this time of Serena (!) thanks to the quick lenswork of Elissa Mendez-Renk:

Columbia and Gossip Girl have been pals for a while.

Hangin' in Sulz, after a fro-yo binge at Hewitt

There was the time that real-life Blake Lively was going to take classes here. There was that great episode “New Haven Can Wait” (relentless, GG, relentless!) filmed on campus that the CW pretended was Yale. Then they filmed all around campus all the time, and it was exciting.

There are rumors that a new, strong, beautiful chapter of the CU-GG alliance is about to begin. Before we say more, let’s get one thing straight, compadres: these are rumors. This is an idea. It’s a big, big maybe.

And here it is: the CW and the Barnard administration are in talks about including Barnard into the plotline. One of the main characters on the show would be a first-year at BC. That means that Barnard will be featured pretty prominently and regularly, and that the GG crew will be up on campus fairly often, filming and looking for extras (hey you, in the leggings, that’s you!)

Barnard confirms that CW/BC are in talks about this, but warns that it may well not happen.

And…exhale! We’ll keep you posted.

Completely unrelated: help Esosa Oviasu, CC’12, win a guest appearance on 106th & Park by following this link. Go to BFABB Contest (Esosa) and vote!

Roar, Lion, Roar! Photo via designscene.net

Here is some news: the Emporio Armani Fall/Winter 2011/2012 ad campaign is public!

Here is why that news is sort of relevant: those ads were all shot on our fair campus mere months ago!

Take a look: there’s the model shrouded in smoke wearing all black next to a building that looks like Uris, the other model shrouded in smoke wearing all black on Broadway next to Lewisohn, and variations on that theme.

The Bwog listserv chattered late into the night about which buildings were which in these photos. It’s kind of impossible to tell, what with all the smoke and models, but give it your best shot in the comments.

Different, yet similar: Gossip Girl is shooting today on 105th and West End.

Different, and not similar: PrezBo wrote an Op-Ed for the WSJ, calling for public funding for the press. (Hey, Mr. President, we know you read this: do you think we could talk about Bwog getting an office? Just our own table at Brad’s or something! Much love, editors@bwog.net.)

He also writes that the priority should be expanding America’s public broadcasting network, and imagines an “American World Service,” similar to other global broadcasters like the BBC and China’s CCTV.

Tha Heights is the Cinema Capital of the Universe. First Law and Order, then Gossip Girl, now Law and Order again! Mystery, intrigue, crime and punishment: Law and Order Criminal Intent is filming at UTS today.

The beautiful people of Gossip Girl have returned to campus. The cast and crew are set up and shooting on 116th near Claremont, and tipsters are abuzz with sightings of “good ol’ Blair Waldorf” (who, we might suggest, looks like a yellow Carmen Sandiego) and “Lacrosse Hottie and Actor-Extrodinare Chase Crawford” giving “a performance for the ages.” Think twice before heading over there in your sweats, kids! We’re supposed to look like Yale, after all!

More photos after the jump.

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Evidence: (1) There was actually a giant Earth on Low Plaza today, brought to you by Global Brigades, which will be holding information sessions with free food tonight in Earl Hall at 7:30pm and 9:00pm. (2) Gossip Girl is set up at on Claremont Ave. near 120th St., perhaps poised to shoot on campus. (3) A line of police cars showed up near 122th St. today for no explicable reason, perhaps looking for coyotes.

Free food, Gossip Girl, a spot on World’s Wildest Police Videos–what else is there to life?

Image via CabinetMagazine.com

Campus Crusade for Christ, along with its buddies the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, the Remnant (no, not replicant) Christian Fellowship, and the oft-maligned Korea Campus Crusade for Christ, is hosting the ReCharge “Cofeehouse” tonight from 8-10.  Head over to 114th and Broadway to sip some free coffee and see Kayte Grace (of Gossip Girl fame) do her singer-songwriter thing.  Don’t forget, also, to consider accepting God’s love while you’re there.

Say hello to the first member of the class of 2013: Blake Lively, from TV’s Gossip Girl program.  There she is on the right, looking studious.

Lively mentioned in a recent interview to W magazine that she’d like to take classes here, at “Yale”, one day a week. Apparently, “the possibility of attending Columbia University one day a week was a motivating factor behind accepting the role on the show, which is shot in New York.”

And just in case you cynics are about to write Lively off as another mindless celebrity — an anti-Franco, if you will — there’s this Revealing Insight in the following paragraph: “I probably have, like, 60 gorgeous bags. I have a closet with my really sharp, fancy, nice ones — the ones that go with my Valentino pumps, for example. And then I have a closet with the ones that are a little more rugged-feeling, the kind that go with my Belstaff motorcycle boots.”

Have fun in Lively’s LitHum class, Thirteens!

Bwog has pretty much used up our Gossip Girl references and cliches at this point, but we were nowhere near GG-ed out enough to miss tonight’s Big Episode: “The One in Which Those Kids Pretend Columbia is Yale” aka “New Haven Can Wait.”

We spent an enjoyable hour squealing with our friends every time we saw a glimpse of a Columbia landmark. The camera angles were tight, to be sure, but the GG crew covered much of our beloved campus: they fought, lied, hooked up and backstabbed from International Affairs to Furnald.

The CW seems to have also hired somewhere in the realm of 10,000 extras all clad in plaid sweaters and horn-rimmed glasses, which we would never find in Morningside Heights, obvi, to stroll around campus. Some favorite moments from the episode after the jump.

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Columbians, ready yourselves: only 7 short days until the very campus you call home is featured on the greatest television show in the history of the world. Next Monday’s episode promises to be full of grand, sweeping shots of Earl and what looks like the Math Lawn, the only catch being that Columbia isn’t Columbia at all in Gossip Girl world: it’s Yale! 

The kids head up to “New Haven” (hey, Cecily von Ziegesar, if that is your real name, what’s wrong with Morningside Heights?) for a college weekend that the seizure-inducing preview touts is “worth the price of admission.” This seems a fair approximation— there will be a Skull & Bones kidnapping of some sort, bitchy glares galore, girls throwing things at each other, and a make out scene! Bwog thanks the CW for providing all obligatory snark in this post by actually naming the episode “New Haven Can Wait.” Here’s to hoping we can too.