subject: Blair Waldorf - Laminate Slitter Manufacturer - Slitter Rewinder Machines Manufacturer [print this page] Novel series Novel series
Creation
At the beginning of the first novel, the teenaged Blair Waldorf is introduced as a privileged, comically vain overachiever living on New York's Upper East Side. While developing Gossip Girl, Cecily von Ziegesar originally envisioned Blair in a supporting role. As her work progressed, the author became increasingly aware of the character's "complexities," and eventually made her the center of the story.
Blair Waldorf has been called a successor to vintage film and literary figures such as Becky Sharp of Vanity Fair, and Lizzie Eustace of The Eustace Diamonds. She has also drawn comparisons to notable contemporaries, including Lila Fowler of the Sweet Valley High series.
The character's tendency to overachieve has been noted as a primary difference between Blair and her predecessors. While reviewing the series' introduction, Janet Malcolm of The New Yorker remarked that unlike some of her forerunners, "Blair already has all the money and position anyone could want. She is pure naked striving, restlessly seeking an object, any object, and never knowing when enough is enough." While discussing the collective Gossip Girl characters, she went on to state that Blair's issues made her "both a broader caricature and a more real person than the others."
Summary
Blair is described to be 5'4" and petite, with cobalt blue eyes, long wavy chestnut-colored hair (for the first four books), and a fox-like face. Her birthday is November 15. She is a student at the Constance Billard School for Girls, a small, elite, all-girls school situated at 93rd and Madison Avenue, and aspires to attend Yale University.
At the beginning of the series, Blair's former best friend, Serena van der Woodsen, returns from her boarding school in New Hampshire. From the start, Blair doesn't want to give up her spotlight as being the "most happening" girl in the room just yet. She and boyfriend Nate Archibald, who have dated for about a year, are in the middle of a passionate scene when Serena arrives and seizes attention, unintentionally kicking Blair out of the spotlight again.
Eventually, Blair finds out Nate had sex with Serena right after sophomore year, hence why Serena felt the need to escape to boarding school for a year before being kicked out for tardiness. When Jenny Humphrey, a freshman with a hearty bosom, steals Nate away from Blair on her birthday, which is also the day that her then pregnant mother marries Cyrus Rose, Serena and Blair make up once again while ignoring Nate and his new friend. When Blair's mom marries Cyrus Rose, she meets her new step brother, Aaron Rose, a vegan with an endless supply of Natural American Spirit cigarettes and an unrequited crush on Blair. Then comes the day Blair has been waiting for all her lifeer Yale interview.
Blair encounters a setback during her college interview at Yale by telling her interviewer about the recent stress in her life, and then kissing him on the cheek upon dismissal. Her father donates a multi-million dollar vineyard to Yale, but it is still not enough to clear her mistakes, and she is wait-listed at Yale.
After Nate, her relationships with other men are shown to be quite rocky. She started a brief fling with her Yale alumni interviewer, only to end it when she finds out that he was married and had a daughter also studying at Constance. She also had a brief relationship with Serena's older brother, Erik, during their spring break. Following another messy break-up with Nate, she begins a brief affair with a British lord she met at the Yale Club. However, this was ended upon learning of his relationship with his second cousin.
Blair is eventually accepted into Yale. She and Nate go on a month-long boat trip around the world over the summer and return a week before college starts, only to discover Serena waiting. Nate realizes he also loves Serena, but chooses neither of the two girls in order to avoid hurting Blair. At the end of the final book, Blair and Serena make up after Nate leaves them both to sail across the world with his father's Navy mentor, Captain Chips White, to figure his life out.
TV series
Casting
To prepare for the part of Blair, actress Leighton Meester, a natural blonde, dyed her hair brown before auditioning, and also studied the first novel. She has described the character as multi-faceted, labeling her "a little bit of everything which is pretty amazing." Meester has also claimed to relate to Blair on certain levels. Prior to the show's debut in 2007, the actress stated that, "The only way to play Blair, or any character, and make her human, is to find what she is inside me. And I know I have my insecurities, too." She went on to say that, "The way Blair and I are not alike when it comes to insecurities is: She pays so much attention to hers!" Meester's casting was described by Yahoo! as a star-making role which moved her "into the pop culture vanguard," while Cecily von Ziegesar has called her a perfect choice.
Season 1
Main article: List of Gossip Girl episodes
In season 1 of Gossip Girl, Blair is introduced as the Upper East Side's beautiful and popular Queen Bee, possessing an exquisite sense of style, long, glossy chestnut hair, and her trademark headband. She is dating Nate Archibald (whom her friends joke that she has dated "since kindergarten", best friends with Serena van der Woodsen, and also close friends and plotting allies with Chuck Bass. When Serena returns home from boarding school, she tries to reconcile their friendship, but Blair learns from her boyfriend, Nate Archibald, that he and Serena slept together. Blair, upset, tries to retaliate after learning from Chuck that Serena has been visiting a rehab hospital. But when it turns out that it was Serena's brother Eric who was an inpatient there after trying to commit suicide, Blair is repentant and remorseful, and she and Serena make up.
After finding out that Nate doesn't love her anymore, she falls for and sleeps with Chuck Bass. Blair's fashion designer mother convinces her to model her fashion line. But Blair is convinced that Eleanor enjoys Serena's company more than her own, an insecurity that is furthered when Eleanor chooses Serena over Blair to model her clothing line without telling her.
After uniting with Chuck and Nate once more to save their mutual friend, Serena, from Georgina Sparks, Chuck realizes his feelings for Blair and implies this in his speech at his father's wedding. This wins her over, she realizes that she loves Chuck too, and the two plan their Summer in Tuscany together. Unfortunately for the pair, Chuck is given cold feet by his father at the last minute and stands Blair up.
Season 2
At the launch of the second season, Blair was described by creators as the queen at the center of the Gossip Girl chess game. A large portion of her story line in season 2 revolves around her love-hate relationship with Chuck Bass, which was labeled "the heart of GG" by People magazine. At the beginning of season 2, a brief love triangle ensues between Blair, Chuck, and Blair's new boyfriend, Marcus Beaton. Blair's unresolved feelings for Chuck eventually lead her and Marcus to separate. Later, it is revealed that Serena has regained her original spot as Queen Bee and acquired the favor of the girls in their clique once more. Blair then forms an unexpected friendship with Jenny Humphrey, who states that they each work for everything they achieve, while Serena often glides through life. During their interviews at Yale University, Blair and Serena apologize for their ill feelings and resume being best friends. Blair then regains her social status.
Blair and Chuck maintain a relationship as convenient allies and temporary enemies as the season progresses. All the while, they remain conflicted and confused by their romantic feelings for one another. In the episode "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?", Chuck reels from the news of his father's death, prompting Blair to offer her support while telling Chuck that she loves him. He initially shuns her advances, but later turns to her for comfort. In the episode "In the Realm of the Basses", a drunken Chuck stands on a ledge and is on the verge of suicide. However, Blair arrives and talks him down, saying "I'll always be here." Afterward, they share a moment of affection. Later, however, the two stop seeing each other.
Meanwhile, a new young teacher named Miss Rachel Carr arrives at Constance Billard. Tensions abound between she and Blair when Blair feels that her prospects at getting into Yale are threatened. Eventually, Blair gets rejected by Yale, and is devastated by the current events in her life. However, she finds unexpected encouragement from Nate. Later, she is accepted into NYU, and her competitive relationship with Georgina is eventually renewed.
As the season ends, Blair crowns Jenny the new queen of Constance. In the season finale, it is discovered that Blair slept with Chuck's uncle Jack on New Year's and that Chuck had slept with Vanessa Abrams, Dan's best friend. Chuck then departs for Europe. He later returns to New York and reconciles with Blair while declaring his love for her.
Season 3
In the third season, it is revealed that Blair and Chuck are still happy together and continuing their relationship as Blair joins Dan, Vanessa and Georgina at NYU. Blair finds it hard to fit in, and she joins the dorms at NYU to establish herself as queen. However, she continues to be met with competition from Georgina.
Chuck notices that Blair is missing her high school days since she feels unworthy at NYU. When Blair denies it, he goes to Jenny for help. They discuss how to bring Blair back down to Earth and how to restore order at Constance, where he wants her to claim the role of queen. Chuck ends up bringing Jenny as his date to the movie premiere of Fleur, causing Blair to be humiliated.
When Blair shows up at the premiere to confront Jenny, Chuck confesses that it was all his idea. He says he did it because he thinks she is selling herself short. He further asserts that if she can make him admit he loves her, she can win over NYU. It is also revealed that he paid a photographer to take pictures of Blair at the premiere so that she would regain her confidence. Chuck also sends a gift to Blair asking for "one-on-one tutoring."
In episode "Enough About Eve", Blair mentions that she deceived Chuck while competing with Vanessa, all the while not realising that she is on the loudspeaker at a gathering. After realizing her errors, she later apologizes to Chuck, who states that he needs time to accept. She then appears to form a truce with Vanessa.
Blair and Chuck ultimately reunite and she continues to support him through the anniversary of his father's death.
Reception
Novel series
While covering the book series, Fresh Online, which interviewed Cecily von Ziegesar, called the creation of Blair "a masterstroke," asserting that "her selfishness, stubbornness and complete self-obsession make her the focus of much of the humor, but while she is the most flawed of the series' main characters, she is also the most likable." The reviewer went on to state that the character was "satisfyingly human" despite her bravado, also asserting that the things Blair desires represent "normal teenage issues," and that "she is far more than the stereotypical Barbie rich girl who creeps into much teenage fiction." The New Yorker labeled the character "an antiheroine of the first rank," and asserted that "the series belongs to awful Blair, who inspires von Ziegesar's highest flights of comic fancy."
TV series
Meester's portrayal of Blair has met with critical acclaim. The actress prepared by reading Gossip Girl.
The show's breakout character, Blair Waldorf has garnered much media recognition. Yahoo! proclaims Blair a member of "television's pantheon of razor-witted, solipsistic high school Alpha females." While commenting on Meester, New York magazine's 2008 cover story of the series states, "Her villain-you-want-to-root-for is the most sophisticated performance on the show." In another 2008 article, People magazine commented that "Meester has burst out of this ensemble to stardom." Variety acclaimed her performance as similar to that of "a predatory junior Joan Collins who practically breathes fire out of her pinched, perfectly WASP-ish nostrils." FHM Online ranked the actress the "Hottest TV Star" of autumn 2008, stating that as Blair Waldorf, "Leighton Meester has stolen the spotlight with her mind-blowing good looks and amazing performance." OK! magazine likened her character to Audrey Hepburn's portrayal of Holly GoLightly. In a 2008 recap of the show, Rolling Stone cited Blair as "the reason we love the back-stabby soap most." Regarding the fictional fame of Blair's friend Serena, Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly asserted that "Serena may be the star of the media but Blair is quickly becoming the star of this show." While citing Serena's long-revered allure, Glamour and its readers compared the two characters in 2008, with Blair being recognized as more beautiful than Serena. In April 2009, TV Guide ranked Blair Waldorf #1 in its listing of TV's top royals. In May 2009, Blair received attention from Forbes, which interviewed her via the series' writers. Television Without Pity lists Meester in their "Golden Globes 2009: Overlooked TV Shows and Performances" article, labeling Blair "so multi-faceted, well-dressed and beautifully played that she elevates this teen soap to something we don't even feel guilty about admitting we love." In August 2009, Meester won a Teen Choice Award in the category of Choice TV Actress Drama.
The character's wardrobe (credited to designers Abigail Lorick and Eric Daman) is popular, earning mentions from periodicals such as InStyle and New York, along with recognition from Websites. TV Guide listed Blair among its "Best-Dressed TV Characters of 2007". Entertainment Weekly named Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass the "Most Stylish" characters of 2008. Lifetime Television ranks Blair #1 in its listing of "The Top 10 Best-Dressed TV Characters", while Glamour has named her among its best-dressed TV characters of all time.
References
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