Blake Lively shockingly referred to her Gossip Girl co-stars as ‘monkeys’ in an unearthed clip — amid the drama surrounding It Ends With Us and her ‘feud’ with the film’s director.

In a now-viral TikTok, she is seen partaking in a panel discussion with the rest of the CW series’ cast, including Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick, at Paleyfest in 2008.

Lively made the barbed remark while revealing the ‘promises’ Gossip Girl creators made her so that she’d agree to star as ‘It girl’ Serena van der Woodsen in the teen drama.

‘Another promise was no pet monkey,’ she revealed. Lively was referring to Westwick’s character Chuck Bass, who, in the books, has a pet monkey.

‘Chuck has a pet monkey with coordinating outfits. And I was like, “I would love to be part of the show but I can’t act with a monkey,”‘ Lively recalled with a laugh.

She then turned and quickly gestured to her left to her co-stars as she quipped: ‘Well, I got a few of them.’
The remark earned immediate laughter from the audience and Lively insisted she was ‘just joking.’

Meester, donning a bright yellow dress, looked unamused by the jab as she scrunched her face at Lively.

Gossip Girl stars Chace Crawford and Penn Badgley failed to crack as smile and, instead, looked down at the stage floor.

‘C’mon it was a joke! Lord have mercy!’ exclaimed Lively as the awkward clip came to a close.

‘Probably not a good idea to call your co-workers monkeys,’ wrote TikTok user thedisasterguru, who helped recirculate the awkward panel interview on Wednesday.

Fans in the comments slammed Lively’s joke as ‘gross’ and felt it was more evidence of her alleged ‘mean girl’ behavior.

‘Since day on, Blake has been a mean girl,’ read one angry comment.

Another wrote: ‘Ew! She is so terrible’

Many felt Lively was cruelly taking aim at Meester, specifically.

‘I always wondered why they weren’t besties in real life because Leighton is the sweetest but now I see why…’ one TikTok user wrote.

Another fan speculated in the comments: ‘The pause before she quickly groups everyone because she wanted to single out Leighton.’

It’s long been rumored that Lively and Meester had major drama behind-the-scenes while shooting Gossip Girl’s six-season run from 2007 to 2012.

The teen romance drama, which was created by Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz, focused on a group of wealthy teens on New York City’s Upper East Side, with a gossip blogger (Kristen Bell) narrating the proceedings.

Lively and Meester played the respective roles of Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf on the series, which also featured Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford and Kelly Rutherford. Fans have taken a renewed interested in Lively and Meester’s rumored feud as Lively comes under fire for her rumored rift with It Ends With Us director/co-star Justin Baldoni.

‘Blake and Leighton were not friends,’ executive producer Joshua Safran told Vanity Fair in an August 2017 article commemorating the 10th anniversary of the show.

He compared the actresses to their respective characters, saying, ‘They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair.’ The performers had very different personalities, Safran told the publication: ‘Blake is very much in the moment. Blake knows what’s happening.

‘You talk to Blake on a very contemporary level, and she would be like, “I’m doing this thing tonight. Have you been to this restaurant?”‘

Meester, in contrast, had a ‘very removed and very quiet’ demeanor, and that ‘after her scenes were done, she would wander the stage,’ Safran said.

An April 2008 report from New York Magazine quoted sources that said 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 members at the case essentially had to ‘choose sides’ in the matter.

A publicist for Lively commented on the professional relationship, according to Harper’s Baazar in 2017, ‘Blake and Leighton have never been best friends, and never professed to be. Blake goes to work, does her job, and goes home.’Also noteworthy in the alleged rift between the former costars are the Instagram accounts actor Penn Badgley, 37, who played Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl, are following.

Badgley, who was romantically-involved with Lively for three years during their time as costars, was not following Lively, but both Meester and Baldoni were listed among the 297 accounts he was following as of Thursday night.

Amid the recent headlines about Lively, a number of Twitter users referred back to the relationship between Lively and Meester.

‘Watching all the Blake Lively drama while promoting “It ends With Us,”‘ said one user, ‘makes me feel like we all owe Leighton Meester an apology…’

One user asked, ‘Why is everyone acting like Leighton Meester didn’t already tell us about Blake Lively years ago?’ while another said, ‘Blake lively acts like she’s better than everyone she isn’t even a great actress she was outshined by a side character aka leighton meester in her show #gossipgirl.’

One user suggested, ‘Real ones know Blake Lively has always been unlikable which is why she wasn’t friends with angel on earth Leighton Meester.’

Another user said that ‘witnessing Blake Lively’s downfall has been delicious’ and that ‘the icing on the cake would be my girl leighton meester having her well deserved resurgence.’

Meester has been married to actor Adam Brody, 44, for more than 10 years, and the pair are parents to two children, daughter Arlo, nine, and a son, three, whose name they have not publicly revealed.

Lively shares four children with husband of 12 years, Ryan Reynolds, 47 – daughters James, nine, Inez, seven, and Betty, four, and son Olin, one. Meester has steadily worked in both TV and film in the 12 years since Gossip Girl went off the air.

She has appeared in motion pictures such as 2023’s EXmas, 2023’s River Wild, 2022’s The Weekend Away, 2014’s Life Partners, 2014’s The Judge and 2014’s Mice and Men.

Among the TV roles she has had include on shows such as Single Parents, How I Met Your Father, The Orville and Making History.

Multiple users said in social media posts that Meester is more worthy of professional success than Lively, whose career is soaring amid her starring role in It Ends With Us and cameo in her spouse Reynolds’ summer blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine.

Said one user: ‘My Friday morning Ted Talk is that Leighton Meester is a far better actress with significantly better comedic skills and timing than Blake Lively, and she should be the more famous one. Thank you. Another said, ‘It’s funny how everyone says Leighton Meester deserved Blake Lively’s success cuz Blake’s acting career is honestly nothing to write home about.’

One user posted the popular ‘Disaster Girl’ meme, saying, ‘leighton meester seeing the 2024 exposé of blake lively.’

Lively’s heavy promotion of It Ends With Us, which was released in theaters last Friday, has resulted in a whirlwind of backlash for the once beloved actress.

The romantic drama, based on Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, follows Lily Bloom (played by Lively) as she becomes embroiled in an abusive relationship with Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni).

The movie is already a $93 million box office hit but has been plagued by rumors of on-set tensions, a bitter feud between Blake and co-star/director Justin and her lighthearted handling of the film’s serious subject matter.

Fans have been split by the off-screen drama, with some taking Blake’s side and others branding her ‘tone deaf’ and a ‘diva’.

But thing took a major turn for Lively when fans began scrutinizing her press tour interviews, many of which downplayed or failed to address the domestic violence in the film.

She was accused of, instead, trying to ‘play this movie off as a fun romcom’ and encourage moviegoers to wear ‘florals’ to their film showing.

‘The drama also led to the resurfacing of several of Lively’s past interviews, in which many have slammed her as being ‘rude’ and ‘dismissive’ towards reporters.

(Armani)