High-school Confidential.(Gossip Girl)

There was every reason to think that "Gossip Girl," one of the new fall shows on the CW, would be a hit. It comes from the kind of stock that makes it a perfect fit for a network geared toward young viewers: it's based on a best-selling series of novels for teen-age girls which are centered on the juicy extracurricular doings and desires and the brand-name possessions of the most privileged kids in the most privileged part of Manhattan--private-school students on the Upper East Side. Because this is a world open only to the few, it's of great interest to the many. (And, it goes without saying, of ginormous interest to the few.) It's not hard to imagine that girls all over ...