No 'Gossip' spinoff after all

This coming Monday's "Gossip Girl" is a flashback episode that's meant to double as an introduction to next season's CW spin-off about Lily van der Woodsen and Rufus Humphrey in the 1980s. But the CW has put the kibosh on that series, according to Nikki Finke. Monday's flashback, starring Brittany Snow (above, right), from “American Dreams” as the young Lily, will just be a glimpse of what might have been.

Honestly, it sounded like a bad idea from the get-go. I’ve been loving Kelly Rutherford (above, left) as the older Lily -- she is remarkably sympathetic -- but she's not really a character worth pursuing further. Neither is Matthew Settle's Rufus, who is never quite convincing as a former 1990s rock star. A series about Michelle Trachtenberg's Georgina Sparks? Now that might be more entertaining. How much fun was it watching Trachtenberg as a born-again Christian Georgina in recent weeks?!