August 19, 2024
Blake Lively was nowhere to be seen at the wedding of her Gossip Girl castmate Jessica Szohr.
Lively played the protagonist Serena van der Woodsen in HBO drama series while Szohr played Vanessa Abrams, the longtime best friend of male protagonist Dan Humphrey who later marries Serena in the series.
Szohr, who married former pro hockey player Brad Richardson last month, dropped some throwback pictures last weekend, including a group photo with castmates who attended the wedding.
"Tying the knot," the actress captioned the post on her Instagram Stories. Jessica and Brad have been together since 2019, during which they welcomed their daughter Bowie in January 2022. Brad also has a daughter, Lexi, from his previous marriage.
The bride was also joined by Gossip Girl alum Chace Crawford in the group photo, but Lively was noticeably missing from the picture despite both Szohr and Lively being regular cast members of the 2007 HBO series.
The throwback post coincides an ongoing controversy surrounding Lively whose old interviews have recently been making headlines amid her ongoing feud with Justin Baldoni, the director and her costar of It Ends With Us.
Amid this recent chaos, her real-life rivalry with Gossip Girl costar Leighton Meester, who plays Serena's onscreen rival and on-again, off-again best friend Blair Waldorf, also regained spotlight.
An April 2008 report from New York Magazine quoted sources saying that Lively and Meester had a tendency to 'avoid each other like the plague' while filming the series.
The rivalry escalated to the point that other cast members essentially had to 'choose sides' in the matter.
Penn Badgley who played Blake's onscreen lover Dan Humphrey, also happened to be romantically involved with the actress for three years during their time as costars.
As of Monday, Meester, Baldoni, and Crawford were among the 297 accounts he was following, while Lively was notably absent.
In another viral TikTok clip, Lively is seen offending her castmates Meester and Ed Westwick, who portrayed Serena's stepbrother and Blair's lover, Chuck Bass, during a 2008 panel discussion at Paleyfest.
Lively made a barbed remark during the panel, looking at her co-stars Meester, Westwick, and Badgley, and humorously calling them 'monkeys.' The trio appeared unamused, while Lively continued to insist it was meant as a joke.