Celebrity
Penn Badgley Was Pranked By Gossip Girl Co-Star Blake Lively
“I was speechless.”
Blake Lively has a long history of pulling pranks on her nearest and dearest, including her former Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley.
On a recent episode of his Podcrushed podcast, Badgley recalled one of her “remarkable prank[s],” in which she convinced him that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was his father.
“I cannot muster a single eff to give about pranks. I actually really admire people who do,” the actor told his podcast co-hosts, Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari. “Somebody who may or may not be known for this — Blake Lively is, as I recall, very serious about pranks.”
The prank occurred during the height of their Gossip Girl days. “I get an email, just like, ‘There’s this press item that we’re trying to kill, but just so you know, somebody thinks or Steve Tyler thinks he’s your dad,’” he said.
Lively apparently got his manager, publicist, and mother in on the joke, and convinced Badgley to call his mom and ask about the situation.
“My mom is so not an actress, so not a prankster either, and she’s upset,” he continued. “I’m like, ‘Mom why are you upset?!’ And then she takes a pause, that is like, the pause that sold me, and she goes, ‘Why do you think we moved out of Maryland?’”
After being left “speechless” for a few seconds, he soon realized what day it was. “Ah, f****** April Fools,” Badgley recalls saying in the moment, adding that Lively “couldn’t keep a straight face” when the truth finally dawned on him.
Badgley and Lively starred on Gossip Girl together for six seasons as Dan Humphrey and Serena van der Woodsen, respectively. The pair dated for three years in real life, breaking up in 2010, but remained good friends. In 2017, Badgley tied the knot with his wife, Domino Kirke, while Lively recently celebrated 11 years of marriage with husband Ryan Reynolds, who’s also fallen victim to her jokester ways.
