TV Line snoopsters have learned that Taylor Momsen and Jessica Szohr won’t be back when Gossip Girl kicks off a fifth season on The CW this fall.
The series, which stars Blake Lively and Leighton Meester as the Queen Bees of a clique of divas and divos from Manhattan’s ritzy Upper East Side, was renewed by the network earlier this month, but while the core cast is expected to reprise their roles for another run, Momsen and Szohr will be missing from the lineup.
Both actresses will reportedly be invited to return as guest stars on future episodes.
The news hardly comes as a surprise: Momsen, 17, took hiatus from her role as Jenny late last year to concentrate on working with her band, The Pretty Reckless. Szohr’s Vanessa has played an increasingly smaller role over the fourth season, following her highly-publicized real-life split from co-star Ed Westwick. Word on the Curb had it that the pair found it increasingly difficult to work with one another after Szohr, 26, allegedly bedded one of Ed’s buds behind his back.
