Move over, Leighton Meester! Blake Lively has a new BFF on the Upper East Side: Anna Wintour, the notorious Vogue editor-in-chief who reportedly inspired the roman à clef The Devil Wears Prada!

The 23-year-old Gossip Girl actress has appeared on the fashion mag’s cover twice in two years — opens up about her new friendship with the famed fashion editor in the October issue of Marie Claire UK.

“I was speaking with Anna Wintour and we were just talking about different fashion houses and I said, ‘I love Chanel,’ and she said, ‘You should come with me to the show,’” Lively recalls. “I also said I loved Dior. She said, “Okay, well I’ll take you to the Chanel and Dior shows and we’ll meet with Karl [Lagerfeld] and John [Galliano] afterwards.’ Insane!”

And Lively says she’s learned a lot from sitting front row at Paris Fashion Week with the 60-year-old editor.

“I’ve always loved fashion. That’s why I don’t use a stylist,” Lively tells the mag. “It’s such an expression of self.”

Though she’s happy to dish on her newfound friendship, Lively stays mum on her relationship with costar Penn Badgley, 23.

“At the end of the day, you’re just in any relationship. How does anybody go to work every day and come home?” she asks. “You just do it and it either works or it doesn’t.”

Tags: marie claire

Now we’re going to fast-forward a bit to when Ben and Blake are talking about their work on “The Town.” Apparently Ben was very impressed with Blake’s commitment to her role, so much so he talked for what seemed like half an hour about how amazing she was. A segment:

“You were by far the best, and when I asked you how you got everything down, it turned out that you had tried to work with this one dialect coach, and then tried another one, and then just started doing all of this incredibly thorough, diligent, independent research on your own-seeking out people who spoke the way your character does, seeking out people whose own life experiences you could draw upon. How did you get to the point where that became your approach? Because it’s certainly nothing I ever did at any point in my twenties.”

But it gets even worse! Blake says she is really a shy person, but she has learned she has to act confident to work in Hollywood. This is understandable, and something we’ve heard before from other actresses, and Ben could have maybe followed it up by saying he was able to relate to that sentiment. But no, he goes ultra-flirtatious and says, “I wouldn’t really describe you as shy. That hasn’t been my experience of you.” Her response? “Well, I had to be bold with you!”

AFFLECK: Well, that was the last question. I didn’t get to some others I wanted to ask you, like, “Which day did you find yourself most impressed by me?”

LIVELY: Or am I happy that you don’t wear cashmere turtlenecks anymore.

AFFLECK: Oh, Jesus Christ. I don’t know what pictures you’re looking at. How about: Would you work with me again? When your price is too expensive, can I hire you for scale? I want you to say it now so it’s in a magazine.

LIVELY: Oh, gosh. You’re so tacky! I told you already that I’d never work with you again. Jason Bourne maybe.

AFFLECK: Do you remember when you and I had worked together for months and we were wandering around in Boston and at one point I just randomly pointed to a place and said, “Matt Damon lived there.” And you turned to me and were like, “What? You know Jason Bourne?” [Lively laughs]

LIVELY: Of course I’ll work with you again.

AFFLECK: I’m going to introduce you to Jason Bourne so that you’ll be grateful.

LIVELY: I’m already grateful.

AFFLECK: Now stop trolling the Internet looking for pictures of me and critiquing my wardrobe. Before I went to do this interview somebody said, “Blake is a fashion darling.” All of us can’t be fashion darlings, Blake.

LIVELY: Well, people like you make me fashionable, because if there is no wrong there can be no right.

AFFLECK: You’ve gotten so much more bitchy since we wrapped the film.

LIVELY: But I think you have to say that I’m charming at the end of the interview. I think that’s the rule.

AFFLECK: You’re very charming.

Tags: Ben Affleck, Blake Lively, gossip girl, Interview Magazine, The Town

Blake Lively never made it to the snowy mountains of the Sundance Film Festival, but her name was heard up and down Main Street, uttered by some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Ryan Reynolds declared that the Gossip Girl beauty is going to be “flawless” opposite him in the comic book adaptation, Green Lantern.

And Ben Affleck, who cast Blake last summer in The Town, had nothing but kind things to say about the 22-year-old actress, even though he’s never caught a single episode of the TV show that made her a star.

“I have never seen Gossip Girl, I have to say,” he admitted. “I saw The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which she’s really, really great in and she’s great in my movie.”

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