Latest News On the Upper East Side

Is Serena van der Woodsen a selfish, manipulative, unrepentant party girl or an indecisive college kid who can't fathom her own sexual power? Or is she simply an empty-headed cipher, a pretty projection of every man's desire and every woman's insecurities? Asking these questions may mean taking Serena more seriously than I'm inclined to, but they have fast become the theme of "Gossip Girl" Season 4.

In the past, we've been led to assume that Serena is merely a victim of fate -- the girl who ended up in the wrong hotel room on the wrong night, who can't stop loving either of the guys who had her heart in high school, who fell for a guy who she didn't even know would end up being her professor. Now, everything is starting to change. Her refusal to choose between Dan and Nate has gone on for so long it's become infuriating. The fact that she pouted her way into Colin's professional life and then dropped him as soon as he quit his job for her? Mystifying.

And, as of this week's episode, we're finally learning the history between Ben and Serena. When Lily meets Juliet and bribes her to leave Serena alone, Juliet reveals something I assume only she, Serena, Lily and Ben know: that Colin wasn't the first teacher Serena's been hot for. Lily pretends not to know what Juliet's talking about, but Juliet presses her: "Boarding school? Serena was a minor." Well, it sure looks like Serena got Colin's estranged cousin locked up for what may or may not have been statutory rape -- and that's likely why she left boarding school and returned to the Upper East Side over three years ago. (Of course, it's hard to imagine that Serena actually forced Ben to get physical with her.)

So, not only did Serena's pre-"Gossip Girl" life include witnessing a drug-related death, but it also featured a torrid affair with a boarding school teacher that her mother went to great lengths to cover up. No wonder Lily has such a hard time trusting Serena!

To be fair, though, all of this happened years ago. Basically, all Serena has done since is flit around in expensive dresses, flaunting her privilege, breaking hearts and stealing other people's boyfriends (namely, Vanessa's). As she reminds Eric at this week's masquerade party -- for which, tellingly, she had trouble deciding whether to dress as a saint or a sinner -- Serena has changed. Can she help it that she's irresistibly beautiful and impossibly wealthy? Surely, if Jenny and Vanessa (who don't have Juliet's demented, single-minded goal of destroying the girl who ruined her brother's life) want to attack one of the insiders, they could find a better target. How about Blair, for instance, who has twice banished Little J from New York and won't let Vanessa forget she's an outsider? Serena doesn't even care about that stuff!

But is she really so above it all? As Jenny notes, the trouble Blair makes often has something to do with getting Serena out of her most recent mess. Maybe people are starting to realize that Serena only looks so carefree and innocent because she has friends who aren't afraid to get their manicured hands dirty.

Whether she deserves it or not, Serena loses just about everything by the end of this week's episode. (Well, everything besides her looks and money.) At the masquerade, in a move Jenny already got away with at a different masquerade a few seasons ago, both Juliet and Jenny wear exactly the costume they spotted Serena wearing on Gossip Girl. Despite the fact that Serena, Jenny and Juliet don't actually look that similar and only part of the girls' faces are covered, the outsiders manage to pummel Serena's reputation. After Juliet-as-Serena smooches both Dan and Nate in full view of a roomful of willing Gossip Girl informants, Jenny-as-Serena pulls back a curtain to reveal Blair and Chuck secretly making out. Meanwhile, Vanessa has passed Nate's mom, Anne Archibald, an application indicating that Serena would like to be considered for a position she knows Blair covets at a powerful charity organization.

By the time the evening is over, Nate and Dan have both dumped Serena. Again. And Blair has decided that Serena is out to steal everything she's ever wanted. Again. And that's all before Juliet takes the plan even further than she let on to Jenny and Vanessa, throwing a woozy Serena into a cab to the middle of nowhere and using the passed-out girl's phone to e-mail a notice of withdrawal to Dean Reuther. At the end of the episode, it certainly looks like Juliet is planning to imprison Serena in her home.

These are all exciting developments, considering that the most wonderful moments on "Gossip Girl" tend to occur when someone comes completely unhinged. But do they tell us anything more than we already knew about whether Serena deserves her suddenly bleak fate? Not really. As far as I'm concerned, we still don't know her much better than we did the first time we spotted her making her way through Grand Central Station in the series premiere. Four seasons in, are we finally going to learn what (if anything) makes Serena van der Woodsen tick? And when we find out, will we even care?

Other scattered thoughts:

-- I continue to be bored with Chuck and Blair. This week, they were on again (as friends with benefits), then off again, then on again (romantically), then off again. At some point, during sex, Chuck said "I love you" to Blair and meant it. But other flimsy obstacles blocked their way to what would have undoubtedly been a mature, mutually respectful relationship, and they went their separate ways. Well, until next week. Yawn.

-- With Jenny and Juliet helming the outsiders' schemes, Vanessa is back to being her boring, morally uncertain self. I'm starting to feel for poor Jessica Szohr, who was great as a surprise mean girl last week but whose character just can't sustain a fun story line.

-- Did everyone notice the surreal moment when "Make Me Wanna Die," the single by Taylor Momsen's band, The Pretty Reckless, played as Jenny pulled the curtain on Chuck and Blair? I'll go on record as saying the song is far better than I ever expected it would be. But the convergence of Raccoon-Eyed Rock Star Taylor Momsen and Raccoon-Eyed Upper East Sider Jenny Humphrey has really gotten out of control.

-- It is high time we addressed the tumultuous bromance between Dan and Nate. Wouldn't we all feel better if the two of them would just start swapping spit already? Serena would be so confused!

Best line of the episode: "As long as I'm with you, I'm Hillary in the White House, and I want to be Hillary, secretary of State -- but with better hair." -- Blair to Chuck

Tangled beats out Harry Potter

LOS ANGELES - Hair has won out over Harry Potter at the weekend box office.

Mandy Moore's animated musical "Tangled," a new take on long-haired fairy-tale princess Rapunzel, sewed up the No. 1 spot with $21.5 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. That raised the Disney release's domestic total to $96.5 million.

"Tangled" had debuted in second-place over Thanksgiving behind "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," which had been at the top of the box office the two previous weekends.

"Harry Potter" slipped to No. 2 this weekend with $16.7 million. The next-to-last chapter in the Warner Bros. franchise about the teen wizard lifted its domestic haul to $244.2 million.

Playing largely to family crowds, "Tangled" should hold on well through the holidays, said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.

"It's not very often the second week of a movie that it ends up the No. 1 movie," Viane said. "This will be one of those leggy movies that just keeps playing and playing."

Business was off sharply after a brisk Thanksgiving weekend, which is one of the busiest periods of the year at movie theaters.

With just $88 million in overall receipts, this was Hollywood's second-worst weekend of the year, behind the meager $81.8 million haul the weekend after Labor Day, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

"It was a bad weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for Hollywood.com. "It just shows that people got a lot of their movie-going out of the way over that five-day Thanksgiving weekend, and this weekend, they went, `Ahh, we've seen it.'"

Overall revenues also were down from last year. The $88 million in revenue was off 11.5 percent compared to the same weekend in 2009, when "The Blind Side" led the box office with $20 million, according to Hollywood.com.

The weekend's only new wide release, Rogue Pictures' action tale "The Warrior's Way," was a dud with just $3.1 million. Playing in 1,622 theaters, "The Warrior's Way" averaged a weak $1,881 a cinema, compared to $5,967 in 3,603 cinemas for "Tangled."

Starring Kate Bosworth, "The Warrior's Way" is a martial-arts adventure about an assassin hiding out in the Old West.

Natalie Portman's ballet drama "Black Swan" had a huge debut in limited release, taking in $1.4 million in just 18 theaters, for a whopping average of $77,459 a theater.

Released by Fox Searchlight, "Black Swan" stars Portman as a dancer who begins to lose herself in delusion amid the pressures of preparing for the lead in Swan Lake. The film gradually expands into nationwide release through Christmas week.

Also in limited release, Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor's gay romance "I Love You Phillip Morris" opened solidly with $113,200 in six theaters, averaging $18,886.

Carrey stars as a scam artist who finds the love of his life (McGregor) in state prison. The movie gradually expands into wide release through early January.

Kyle Richards is Happily Married

On Reality television, happy/healthy relationships are extremely rare.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards and her husband Mauricio Umansky seem to be an exception.

Kyle, who is the sister of Paris Hilton's mother Kathy Hilton, and her real estate mogul husband appear were spotted leaving Boa Steakhouse in Hollywood last night.

Every time I watch this show it is so apparent that Kyle and her husband are in love. They are not like the other couples on the show or on any of the other Real Housewives extensions.

Perhaps they come across so happy is because all of the other Housewives on this show seem completely miserable with their significant others. They are constantly complaining of how there is no love in their relationships. Real Housewife Camille Grammer, she seems the most miserable with her celeb husband named Kelsey Grammer. She goes months and months without seeing him and when they do see each other he will ask Camille to leave him alone. They are currently divorced, that just goes to show you how in love they were. On last weeks episode, fellow cast mate Taylor Armstrong goes to Kyle for relationship advice and how her and her husband can be happy again.

I feel that Kyle and her husband are so happy is because they are actually physically attracted to each other, this is unlike most of the other Housewives since they marry for money and their husbands are old and unattractive. Kyle married for love unlike the other gold digging wives.

Special Education: Episode Recap Part 2

Before Sectionals begins, my favorite part happens. Kurt and Rachel have a little heart-to-heart moment. They talk about how Kurt didn’t get the solo and the differences between the Warblers and New Directions. Kurt asks about Finn and Rachel tells him about the whole Santana thing and she finds out that she was the only one who didn’t know about it.

Then Sectionals start. They first to go on is the Hipsters, which are a bunch of elderly people trying to get their GED. They sing “The Living Years” and they end up being pretty good. The older ladies have some soul!

Then the Warblers perform. They sing “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train. The arrangement of the song was really fun and Blaine had the solo, which was really the entire time. While watching them, you can tell that Kurt is new and sticks out a bit since the new club is so different from what he is used to. While they perform they shoot to Schuester, who has a really strange facial expression. It looks as though he might have seen a ghost or his parents having sex. I just really didn’t get it and kind of laughed it off.

After yet another dramatic scene with the glee clubbers in the green room, New Directions is getting ready to perform. Behind stage, Artie confronts Brittany about cheating. She is confused because she didn’t really cheat on him. She was only avoiding him because she had lost the “magic comb” and was scared at what he would do. He tells her that it wasn’t real and that it didn’t have magical powers.

Then the show starts. Sam and Quinn start it off and come through the back of the auditorium…since that’s what they always do at competitions. They sing “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from the movie Dirty Dancing. The group does some really good dancing. Then Santana gets to sing a song by herself called “Valerie” which is where Brittany and Mike are featured. They end up getting a standing ovation.

The results come in and the Warblers and New Directions tie for first. So both groups are going to Regionals!

When Schuester goes to show Emma the first place trophy, she shows him something else too. She shows him a ring, which he thinks is an engagement ring. But it is actually a wedding ring. Her and Carl went to Vegas over the weekend and got married.

Then Rachel and Finn make up…for about 3 minutes. She admits that she made out with Puck when they were fighting. Finn gets mad and can’t believe that she did it. He ends up breaking up with her as they make a scene in the hallway.

They end the episode with Mercedes and Tina singing Florence + The Machine’s “Dog Days are Over.” Which I thought was actually really good. I wasn't a fan of the original song, but listening to their arrangement made me want to listen to the original again. It turns out that I actually really do like the song. I'm happy that the show gave me a new appreciation of it.

Special Education: Episode Recap Part 1

Can you say drama? This week’s episode was full of drama. Right from the beginning clip, things in the glee club aren’t going so well.

While Schuester is talking to Emma about what he plans to do this year for Sectionals, she cuts in and says, “No, let me guess. Finn and Rachel are going to do a ballad, right? Followed by the kids joining in with a classic rock number where Mercedes will belt out the last jaw-dropping note.” She continues talking about how the glee club is full of talent.

Schu decides that he is going to finally change things up and go with what he has been trying to do since the beginning. He announces that he is going to feature Brittany and Mike Cheng’s dance moves and Quinn and Sam are going to do a duet. Rachel is clearly upset with the decision.

When Rachel and Santana start to go at, arguing about Sectionals, Santana spills the beans that her and Finn had sex last school year (which Finn lied to Rachel about during the “Furt” episode). In a counseling session with Emma, Finn admits that she lied. Rachel ends up storming out of the session after Finn says some pretty stupid things.

Meanwhile at Dalton Academy, Kurt is “inducted” into the Warblers, which is Dalton Academy’s glee club. He is given an actual Warbler bird and is to take care of it as part of his initiation. They begin talking about their set list for Sectionals and Kurt, as always, has an idea up his sleeve. But when he tells the council his idea, they shut him down because they really have all the say in song selection. You can see that Kurt is hurt, but he seems to be okay with it. They notice that Kurt is a good player about his idea being shot down, so they offer him to audition for a solo at Sectionals.

Back at McKinley, Artie finds Brittany hiding in a corner. She is nervous about being featured at Sectionals, so Artie gives her a “magic comb” that is supposed to make you win if you come your hair with it. Being as intelligent as she is, Brittany believes in the comb and is ready to conquer high school show choir!

With bad energy still going on in the glee club, Schuester ends up getting really upset after seeing Rachel walk in with her mouth duct taped shut. He tells the club that they should be happy since they are in a club with so much talent and they should stop focusing on themselves. He says that they are going to be good sports about Sectionals and be happy, no matter the outcome.

Later, Puck realizes that Rachel is in a bad mood and offers to help her out. She takes his help and they walk together down the hallway with Rachel practically feeling up Puck’s arm. You can tell that something may happen between them.

The next day, Tina walks up to Artie in the hall and tells him that Brittany and Mike are having a little affair while getting the dance moves for Sectionals. At first Artie doesn’t buy it and starts to be worried. Artie runs into Brittany later, and she blows him off because she has to rehearse. He seems really worried now about it.

Then while Rachel is sulking in her favorite place to sulk, the auditorium, Kurt asks for her help with his solo audition. She tells him to sing “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.” Even though his singing wonderful, Kurt doesn’t get the solo because the Warblers aren’t used to such theatricality. They are more about the team and less about individuals, which Kurt isn’t used to at all.

*Part 2 will come Friday!*