Even though I don’t watch Gossip Girl, I kind of like Leighton Meester. I think she’s gorgeous, sort of like the younger, more-dimpled version of Rachel McAdams. Think about it – they could and should play sisters. I also like 23-year-old Leighton because, unlike Blake Lively, Leighton doesn’t go to the opening of an envelope. Most pictures of her out and about are when she’s filming Gossip Girl in New York, not on every single red carpet for every single event like Blake.

Leighton’s career is going pretty well, and next year we’ll get to see her star in some movies. But for now, she’s the September cover girl for Harper’s Bazaar, most likely to promote the returning Gossip Girl. Leighton talks clothes, aging and being a “good girl”. She also tries to set the record straight about the alleged sex tape. A few months ago, a hot streak of gossip gold came out that a then 18-year-old Leighton was the “star” of a sex tape – except it wasn’t really a sex tape, just the alleged Leighton hanging around naked and maybe jacking some guy off with her feet. She denied the whole thing at the time, and she’s denying it again in this interview:

Having recently been bitten hard by a peril of fame, an alleged sex tape, she arrives at the interview coated in metaphorical sheet metal. Let’s get it out of the way, then: In June, some provocative pictures of a rumored “18 years old!!” Leighton were splashed around the Web. While a sex tape can now conceivably be used as a marketing tool (hello, Paris Hilton), in Leighton’s case, the reaction was “Oh, no, she didn’t.”

And, according to Leighton, that would be correct. “[The tape] is not real,” she says bluntly, “so it makes me sort of sad. It’s unfortunate that it got carried as far as it did.” She pauses. “I definitely understand the nature of people better now and that the mere allegation of something like that could be headline news. People think it’s real because somebody says it is.” She takes a sip of her Coke. “By the way, [as for] me being 18 in those pictures, I don’t believe I was.

“I don’t want most of what comes along with all of this,” Leighton continues at a Blairlike clip. She is protective of her friends, family — much has been written about mother Connie’s entering federal prison on drug-smuggling charges while pregnant with Leighton — and relationship (with actor Sebastian Stan). “I’m doing everything I can to keep things separate. I feel like my friends are in a cult because we’re like, No outsiders! I’ve never been crazy. I’m a very good girl, to be honest. I don’t do anything to hurt anybody. Honestly, all I ever do is work.”

And what’s not to love about the near-Shakespearean drama of Blair and her pastel-clad Romeo, Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick)? Westwick says, “The first thing I thought when I met Leighton was, F-cking hell, this girl’s gorgeous. And she was incredibly sweet.” He chortles. “Now we tell each other to f-ck off whenever we want to.” Both Blair and Chuck are fond of impractical accessories — especially removing them. “There’s always something great to undo or pull on or tug on, so it’s always like, what can I do to make this more fun?” Westwick says, laughing. “We’ve been fake shagging for a year and a half now.”

“Any fear of aging, I think, is simply vanity,” she says. “Because what comes with age is so many wonderful things: wisdom, understanding. … Every year, I’m always happy to be done with the previous age,” she says. “Sixty, that doesn’t seem old to me. I think it comes from my mom going, That’s not old! She’s in her 50s, but she looks like she’s in her early 40s.” Asking Leighton, whose skin looks as if it was born retouched, about Botox is faintly comedic. “If you get a wrinkle, I don’t feel that’s indicative of your losing ground,” she says. “That’s ridiculous. But I do support Botox. If people want that, do it.”

“If I don’t take risks with fashion, where the hell am I going to take risks?” she asks. “I love Stella McCartney, Chloé, the Row, Lanvin, and Calvin Klein.”

It doesn’t hurt that Leighton is blessed with the metabolism of an overworked 23-year-old. One memorable paparazzi picture involves her shooting on a freezing New York street, inhaling a large sandwich. “Ha!” she laughs. “It’s normally the only thing I have to eat on set.” Westwick says, “She can handle these big, gigantic sandwiches, and she’s got the most tiny little gorgeous figure. I don’t know, man, it certainly doesn’t work for me.”

But Leighton, our Upper East Side heroine, can handle rather more than a sandwich. Press her on guilty pleasures and she replies, “You know, I’m trying to think of what I’m ashamed of. But, damn, I don’t really have any shame.”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

According to US Weekly, Leighton is currently dating Sebastian Stan, a guest star on Gossip Girl. He’s pretty cute. They make a lovely couple – although they could pass for siblings. That always freaks me out a little, when a couple looks related. But I digress! Even though I’m a fan of Leighton and everything, I hate when magazines get really young girls to talk about “aging” and plastic surgery. Of course a 23-year-old with perfect, firm skin is going to be anti-plastic surgery. And of course those perfect girls are going to sound like a-holes. So stop asking!

Here’s Leighton Meester filming a scene with Blake Lively for ‘Gossip Girl’ in New York on July 27th. Images thanks to WENN.com .