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Brittany Snow slips back in time again

The CW

Brittany Snow goes back in time again on tonight's "Gossip Girl," playin a young Lilly van der Woodson.

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By WALT BELCHER

wbelcher@tampatrib.com

Published: May 10, 2009

Updated: 05/11/2009 03:40 pm

TAMPA - Once again Brittany Snow is going back to the past.

After exploring the 1960s in the NBC series "American Dreams" and the musical comedy "Hairspray," the Tampa native is tripping back to the 1980s on The CW's "Gossip Girl."

In flashback segments on Monday night's episode, Snow plays the 17-year-old incarnation of Lily van der Woodson, a "Gossip Girl" character played by Kelly Rutherford.

Lily, a wealthy New York socialite, is the mother of central character Serena van der Woodson (Blake Lively), and apparently she was a wild child.

"Her parents are divorced and when she gets kicked out of boarding school, she runs away to Los Angeles to find her dad," Snow says. "She ends up living with her sister who is the black sheep of the family."

The story sets up the possibility for a spin-off new drama series starring Snow. It would cover Lily's coming-of-age in the 1980s. "There is so much to explore on how she became the woman she is on 'Gossip Girl,'" Snow says.

Andrew McCarthy plays her dad, Cynthia Watros plays her mom and Krysten Ritter plays her sister, Carol. The episode at 8 p.m. Monday also features an appearance by No Doubt, playing an '80s band called Snowed Out.

"I hope it is picked up because there is potential to explore the darker side of the '80s as Lily becomes involved with the underground punk rock scene," says Snow, who was born in 1986.

"It would be fun to do because I like 'Gossip Girl' and I was honored to be considered for this part," she adds.

On Friday, rumors were circulating on the Internet that The CW had decided late Thursday not to proceed with the spinoff. However, CW officials say the spinoff's fate will be known when the fall schedule is announced May 21.

The 23-year-old Snow says "if it is not meant to be there will be something else."

She is scheduled to begin work on "Walks," an independent film being produced in New York this summer by her boyfriend, actor/producer Ryan Rottman. "It's about a graffiti artist who is arrested and sentenced to jail," she says.

The daughter of John and Cynthia Snow grew up acting and modeling in Florida-based film productions and TV commercials. By age 12, she had landed a role as troubled teen Susan Lemay on the soap opera "Guiding Light." She traveled between Tampa and New York to appear on the soap from 1998 to 2001.

While she was still a student at Gaither High School, Snow got the role of Meg Pryor, a wholesome Philadelphia teen on NBC's drama "American Dreams." She played a 1960s teen who was one of the regular dancers on "American Bandstand."

She played another '60s teenage dancing queen, Amber Von Tussle, in "Hairspray," the 2007 film adaptation of the Broadway musical.

"I like playing characters that live in different time periods," Snow says. "I learned a lot about the 1960s from being on 'American Dreams' and I would like to learn more about the 1980s."

Snow, who keeps a low profile on the Hollywood party scene, has avoided the scandals that have plagued other former child stars. "I think I'm pretty well-grounded and I'm nice to a fault," she says.

In 2007, when "Hairspray" was getting a lot of media attention, Snow revealed that she suffered from anorexia, exercise bulimia and suppression during much of her teen years. At one point, she was down to 85 pounds.

She overcame the disorder in 2006 with the help of friends and therapy and began to speak publically about her struggle to warn young girls about the dangers of obsessing over body image.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.

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