Earlier this week various castmembers (not including Blake Lively or the trio of hawtness Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick and Penn Badgley) of the hit CW series Gossip Girl came out for a season 2 premiere event (to celebrate the show and costume designer Eric Daman specifically) at Henri Bendel boutique in NYC. Here are a few pics from the red carpet arrivals:

On the plus side, Leighton Meester was lookin’ very glam, very sexy … on the not so plus side, Taylor Momsen was trying to pull off an edgier look without much success. The new season of GG is nearly upon us … I know that excitement for new eps has hit a fever pitch among eager Upper East Siders. After the jump, you can watch the first 5 minutes of the season 2 premiere of Gossip Girl (and find out which of the show’s hotties starts things off this season with an older woman on top of him) which will debut on The CW next Monday September 1 …

Granted, the first 1:30 of this vid is devoted to a pretty thorough recap of the first season of the show, the rest of the vid sets up the season 2 premiere ep pretty nicely … at least for the guys. Is anyone else as excited as I am?

[Photo credit: Splash News]