Star Magazine | News | Leighton Meester, Born Behind Bars, Gossip Girls

Leighton Meester (Gossip Girls), Born Behind Bars

"Leighton's mom isn't the only member of her family with a record — her father, grandfather and aunt all did hard time in federal prisons for drug dealing!"

Surely there must be a movie called "Born Behind Bars." Now THAT's a noir premise. But if I had a child born in prison, I wouldn't name her some hoity-toity crap like Leighton. She'd be Rocky or Roxy or Blaze. Except if I called her Blaze people might think it was spelled "Blaise" and mistake her for a philosopher or mathematician or maybe a Catholic saint with a throat cult.

I was born on February 3rd, the feast of St Blaise, and my father's way-too-Catholic family thought Blaise should be my name. As I have the slowest foot speed for a non-obese person in recorded human history, this could have made for a miserable childhood. Luckily my parents had enough sense to overrule this selection.