So now that Little J is officially not coming back to the next season of Gossip Girl, resident wild child Taylor Momsen will have plenty of time to make horribly cliched music videos with her band, Pretty Reckless.

However, it seems as though another GG teen queen is also maintaining her musical edge — but with much better results. Leighton Meester, who plays queen bee of mean Blair Waldorf, has been slowly working on her musical career over the years — teaming up with Cobra Starship in 2009 for “Good Girls Go Bad” and showing off her singing chops in last year’s Country Strong.

Meester recently performed in LA at the Hotel Cafe with Mike Frieman of Check in the Dark, and I have to say, up until now I was pretty down on the whole Leighton Meester wants to do music thing, but I am totally impressed with her singing skills in these videos. Beautiful vocals. Love that she’s doing less of that dance queen/pop star thing she’d been focusing on thus far and going for a more folky singer/songwriter feel.

Flawless face, hair, and singing voice? Sometimes life is just not fair. Well played, Meester.:

Looks like B and Little J are at it again–except this time in real life. Sensing a complete void in the actress-slash-singer market, Leighton Meester (aka GG’s Blair Waldorf) and Taylor Momsen (aka Jenny Humphrey) have come to the rescue, both unleashing their musical poweress upon the world in the very same week.

Let’s examine the contestants, and who won the war of the Gossip Girl singers this week.

ROUND 1: TAYLOR MOMSEN’S PRETTY RECKLESS DEBUT
Momsen struck first, with her band Pretty Reckless performing at The Annex on Tuesday…and judging by the available video (below), her growling vocals and saucy Courtney Love-meets-Debbie Harry onstage moves make for a surprisingly pleasing combination.

Momsen, who is only sixteen years old, supposedly will get a co-writing credit on the band’s LP, which will be released on Interscope later this year.

ROUND 2: LEIGHTON MEESTER LAUNCHES HER STARSHIP
Meester, who was probably waaaay too busy with Cinco de Mayo activities on Tuesday to do anything publicly musical waited until today to give the world some added Gossip Girl singing action. Meester lends her voice to the new Cobra Starship song, “Good Girls Go Bad,” which was premiered on Ryan Seacrest‘s show today.

The dance tune (which can be heard on Cobra Starship’s Myspace) sadly sounds as if the producer tweaked and twisted Meester’s vocals within an inch of their lives.

The “I make the good girls go bad,” chorus sung by Starship’s Gabe Saporta is catchy enough, but other than that the track is lacking that oomph that would take this song to the top of my summer song list.

Meester, who apparently has never seen Cobra Starship perform live, is currently signed to Universal Republic and will release her debut album later this year.

WINNER: MOMSEN
I admire her hutzpah for co-writing her songs and like that she’s gone the rock ‘n’ roll route rather than taking a pop princess road…and she actually can sing. As for Meester, I have yet to hear anything she’s produced that doesn’t sound like it’s been manufactured by a computer. Lord knows her horrifyingly synthesized cover version of “Bette Davis Eyes” ain’t helping her case.

More on Pretty Reckless over at: SPIN, Guest of Guest

So I didn’t wake up today and say to myself, “Dude, you should totally be a paparazzi specializing in CW stars,” but it seems as though I ended up being one today… I just happen to spot almost all the major players in the cast of Gossip Girl! I was walking around the tent for Diane von Furstenberg at Bryant Park today and all of a sudden out the corner of my eye I saw a girl wearing yellow, and then a herd of people instantly swarming around her and her friend.

Walking closer, I recognized Miss Leighton Meester! I snapped a few photos, and then only later did I realize that the other girl accompanying her was none other than Jessica Szohr!

Then an hour or so later, I stopped by the Nederlander Theater (the home of the Broadway cast of RENT) for one last pass. (Today was the last performance of the show on the Great White Way. RENT RIP!)

As I’m standing there I hear people shouting “Luther! Luther!”…as in Luther Creek, a replacement ensemble member of the Bway cast of RENT who was infamous for having the worst “Mark” known to man. As everyone was screaming “Luther! Luther!” I noticed a pretty blonde walking toward him and realized it was none other than Blake Lively wearing a cropped black leather jacket and awesome wedges that had straps snaking up her foot. When I took a moment to stop staring at her perfectly wavy hair, I noticed the shlubby guy next to her was boyfriend and co-start Penn Badgley. Michelle Hurd, who plays Laurel was also there. Who knew they were theater fans?!?!

More from the final day of RENT…

Fans wait outside…

The Nederlander!

Original cast members Jesse L. Martin, Daphne Rubin Vega, Anthony Rapp, Wilson J. Heredia, Byron Utley, Freddie Walker showed up to the final performance. Past RENT alum like Jay Rodriguez, Frenchie Davis also appeared and random folks like Chris from Project Runway.