Blog IV: Cornwall was on TV!

If there’s one thing that reporters like, it’s…having money to pay rent and eat. But if there were two things reporters like, the second would be name-dropping!

I have in my arsenal the Senior Editor of Fortune Magazine, Peter Wolf of the J. Geils band, Caldecott-winning illustrator Marc Simont, Yale Art School dean Sam Messer, Connecticut Attorney General (and now U.S. Senator) Richard Blumenthal, and I ALMOST got to interview Ralph Nader (though the opportunity was nixed).

My coworker likes to brag that he’s talked with Mary Higgins Clark and Juliette Lewis—to which I retort that I recently spoke with someone who lives in Litchfield County named Stephen King.

And now, town of Cornwall, prepare to be name-dropped, as per Mike Agogliati over at our sister newspaper, the Torrington Register-Citizen:

“CORNWALL — A Litchfield County town was featured Monday night in an episode of the hit TV show “Gossip Girl”

Several of the show’s main characters traveled to Cornwall in search of the truth about “Juliet,” a character played by Katie Cassidy.

The search leads them to a fictitious boarding school, “The Knightley School,”,which another character, “Serena,” played by Blake Lively, used to attend.

Dan, played by Penn Badgley, and Blair, played by Leighton Meester find that Damien, played by Kevin Zegers is dealing drugs at the school.”

Unfortunately the episode (called "The Townie") is not available for streaming online. (Maybe that's fortunate for me, since I'd probably have to watch it if it were and I don't want to watch some TV show with people more well-dressed than I ever saw in high school.)

However, rumor has it that one scene set in at a teenaged house party in Cornwall had drinking and *gasp* drugs. This is incredibly shocking, since given Cornwall's nature as a second-home community, I don't think there are nearly enough teenagers in the entire town to fill a house and create a party.

Here's a recap of "The Townie" to browse at your leisure:http://tvrecaps.ew.com/recap/gossip-girl-season-4-episode-11-townie/

If anyone knows if there’s a local connection to this—like one of the show’s writers is a Cornwaller or grew up there—I’d love to hear about it. The closest I can find is that Cecily von Ziegesar, who wrote the novels on which the TV show is based, was born in Norwalk, but maybe there's more to it than that.  Let me know at mwittstein@ctcentral.com.