On the Scene: EW's Upfronts Party

New York City’s Bowery Hotel was the place to be last night, especially for TV stars who needed a break after a rigorous few days spent promoting their new and renewed series at their respective networks’ upfront presentations. And who better to host a TV soirée than Entertainment Weekly? I snagged the only designer item in my closet and camped out for nearly two hours on the packed red carpet, which featured a parade of stars both random (Jaslene and Saleisha from Americas Next Top Model) and hotly anticipated (hello, casts of 30 Rock and Gossip Girl!). After the jump, my rundown of the night’s festivities…

While it’s hard to exactly measure the amount of buzz for any given series, I can report that the aforementioned cast of Gossip Girl (pictured, l to r, Jessica Szohr, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley and Michelle Trachtenberg) was the hands-down winner on the Photographers’ Shout-o-Meter coming down the press line. In fact, the noise alone heralded their arrival before I even laid eyes on them. Unfortunately, Blake Lively (Serena) sped right down the red carpet without doing any press — not even a word for the humble reporter from the very magazine responsible for the food and drink? (Sigh.) But on a brighter note, I did get to have a brief chat with Penn Badgley, who broke my heart by expressing his frustration with the fact that his GG character, Dan, is simply too nice (let a girl dream, dude!). Meanwhile, Connor Paolo (Eric) told me about the crazed fans who stalk GG‘s Manhattan shooting locations, while showering affection on his girlfriend, Alice Kremelberg (seen most recently in Baby Mama).

Of course, GG isn’t The CW’s only addictive hit drama, and I’m not ashamed to say I was just as excited to grill One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton about whether her character Peyton will ever get back together with Lucas (Chad Michael Murray). Fans of the on-again, off-again couple rejoice: Burton says a makeout session is in their immediate future.

It wasn’t all CW stars, of course, but as much as I tried to score some scoop from Grey’s Anatomy star Sara Ramirez, she wouldn’t reveal any future plotlines for her possibly-lesbian character, Callie. I geeked out talking to Heroes‘ Zachary Quinto, who joked that his impending Star Trek film will probably skip a theatrical release and "go straight to DVD.” And lastly, Lindsay Price admitted that the best thing about her character, Victory Ford, on NBC’s Lipstick Jungle, is her awesome sense of style. The actress herself didn’t look too shabby, rocking quite possibly the biggest rock-vintage ring I’ve ever seen in my life.