It's tough being rich and pampered

If J.D. Salinger and Jackie Collins had a love child, she would be writing for "Gossip Girl." The CW's new show is based on a popular series of young adult books by Cecily von Ziegesar. And although the literary effort may not have quite captured the lush, almost fetishized fascination of prep school youth seen in "The Catcher in the Rye," the television version does.

Here are the beautiful young rich, tormented by expectations, limitations and the duplicity of their pampered lives, taking comfort in Champagne and casual sex, fashion and the phoniness of it all.

"Do you ever feel like our whole lives have been planned out for us?" asks golden boy Nate. "Aren't we entitled to choose? Be happy?"

"Listen up, Socrates," answers the world-weary and wicked Chuck as they saunter through Central Park, smoking dope, scarves rakishly askew. "What we're entitled to is a trust fund, maybe a house in the Hamptons, a prescription drug problem. But happiness does not seem to be on the menu."

Delicious.

The CW's new show does in fact have it's own zeitgeist pedigree -- in addition to Von Ziegesar, it was adapted by "The O.C.'s" Josh Schwartz, who, buoyed by success, is taking on the more iconic East Coast elite. Fueled by a dishy blogger of the same name (voiced by "Veronica Mars' " Kristen Bell), "Gossip Girl" follows the inner circle of upperclassmen at a posh Upper East Side prep school. As it opens, the return of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) from boarding school threatens the social order, especially the bit currently ruled by Serena's former BFF, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), not to mention the composure of Blair's boyfriend Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford).

Really, the show is worth it for all the High WASP names alone. Serena van der Woodsen. It makes me smile every time someone says it, and they say it a lot.

Serena, however, seems to have changed; she's more interested in the well-being of her troubled brother and her friendship with Blair than taking up the mantle of It Goddess. "I missed you, B.," she says with a sincere shake of her blond curtain of hair.

"B." has other ideas, of course, and, flanked by a Gossip Girl-addicted entourage of fashionista harpies, excludes Serena from the splendid Kiss on the Lips party. No! Yes!

Hurt but resilient, S. takes up with Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) and his sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen), the two "normal kids" (Jenny sews her own clothes; Dad's a former rock band member; they live in Brooklyn).