I remember so distinctly going to see the 1996 film adaptation of the book, starring Michelle Trachtenberg, who truly brought Harriet to life. Girls needed a role model like her, and Michelle instantly gave the character more realness and depth. My grandma had taken me to see the movie at a strip mall, and afterward we went over to the neighboring Barnes & Noble where she bought me not just a new copy of the book with Michelle’s face on it but my own notebook to spy with. I can’t wait to show my own daughter the film one day, and to show her such an iconic character to aspire to through her own girlhood. —Stephanie McNeal, senior editor
Leighton Meester and Michelle Trachtenberg in season 3 of Gossip Girl, which aired in 2009.©CW Network/Courtesy Everett Collection
Gossip Girl
Every time Michelle Trachtenberg strolled on to the screen as Georgina Sparks, it was electrifying. The character, first introduced to us as an old frenemy of Blake Lively’s Serena van der Woodsen, only exists as a chaos agent and, oh, what chaos she wreaks. In season one alone she: drugs Serena (causing her to miss the SATs), befriends Dan and Vanessa under a false identity, bribes Serena with a revenge-porn video, seduces Dan to get back at Serena, and eventually is sent away to a boot camp for troubled teen girls. TL;DR: when Georgina Sparks showed up, you knew things were about to get wild.
In another actor’s hands, the character would have been too much, too cheesy, too unbelievable. But Trachtenberg handled every extreme storyline with sharp wit, a gleeful twinkle in her eye, pitch-perfect delivery, and a sense of groundedness that kept the viewer wanting more. Not every actor could pull off the line “You can tell Jesus that the bitch is back.”
Trachtenberg’s performance of a character as messy yet iconic as Sparks played a large part in what made Gossip Girl a success—and she’s why so many of us, myself included, return to the series year after year. —Anna Moeslein, deputy editor
