Pulling a Landingham on 'Gossip Girl'?

(SPOILER ALERT) There had been spoiler rumors afoot in recent weeks that something would happen to Bart Bass on "Gossip Girl," and so last night's off-screen car accident -- which I'm betting will be fatal -- was not a big surprise. Bart has been having big final moments with members of his family for a few episodes now, as if the writers have been toying with our expectations.

But the writers had me laughing out loud, and rewinding my DVR to make sure I heard correctly, when, mid-episode, they had Lily Bass call Bart's secretary Mrs. Landingham on the phone. Mrs. Landingham was the president's beloved secretary on "The West Wing," and she was very unexpectedly killed off in a car accident toward the end of that show's second season. Surely the Landingham allusion was buried joke to those few "Gossip Girl" viewers who also happened to have watched "The West Wing," a humorous foreshadowing of the not-very-unexpected accident later in the episode? Please let it be so.

Along with the many, many, MANY shots of Serena's cleavage, and Blair's offer to trade her loyal maid Dorota for a month, and Jenny's ever-changing look, goofs like the Landingham line are helping to make "Gossip Girl" as funny as "The O.C."