What Gossip Girl’s Dan Humphrey Buys at Other Music

Ha, note to celebrities: request someone other than Dave Itzkoff, should your publicist force you to go on a night out with the New York Times. 22-year-olds as pretty as Penn Badgley do not belong in Mars Bar. They do probably belong at former CBGB retail outlet John Varvatos, where Itzkoff also walked him through–“At least they didn’t turn it into a bank,” Badgley remarks, sagely. And what better comedy than to repeat the whole “Other Music is a judgmental cred-test” ritual with a helpless TV star?:

On a recent Wednesday night, Mr. Badgley, 22, the “Gossip Girl” star, was shopping at Other Music, an independent record store in the East Village. Under the noses of a couple of indifferent clerks who either did not know who he was or did not care, Mr. Badgley bought a stack of CDs by artists ranging from the hip-hop performer RZA to the Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté.

Outside, he confessed that his acquisitions were mostly impulse buys that his “Gossip Girl” salary could easily finance. “That’s one of the greatest things about working in TV,” he said in a low deadpan.

One senses the hidden hand of an Itzkoff recommendation in there, somewhere. But good records! They’ll go well with that song that that band played on the show the other night.

A Night Out With | Penn Badgley [NYT]