Chace Crawford and Gossip Girl

I never heard of Chace Crawford, the Travis Turner lookalike, until about 20 minutes ago, but apparently he's muscular enough to get hired to take off his shirt in multiple tv programs, especially aimed primarily at an audience of heterosexual ladies. And pretty enough so that every time he even glances in the direction of a guy, the gossip mongers yell "Aha!  Proof positive that he's gay!"

Born in Dallas, a graduate of the conservative Trinity Christian Academy, Chace got his start in the teen horror movie The Covenant (2006).

I remember the trailer -- he and the girl literally leap into each other's faces to kiss. I'm surprised they didn't crack their jaws.

Next came more teen horror and Twelve (2010), which may have some buddy-bonding: White Mike (Chace) sees his best friend arrested for his cousin's murder.  And What to Expect When You're Expecting  (2012) may have some buddy-bonding among the four guys who are all expectant fathers.

But his main celebrity came with Gossip Girl (2007-2012), a CW series about privileged teens who live on New York's Upper East Side.  Sort of like Beverly Hills 90210, but with skyscrapers instead of palm trees. "Gossip Girl" writes revealing exposes about them; the ongoing mystery is, "Who is she (or he)?

Chace played Nate Archibald (left, using his crotch to advertise 90210).  

He's a rich, powerful "golden boy" who dates most of the girls on the series.  But he does get to do a gay scene when Dan (Penn Badgley, left) writes a book and makes his character gay.

In the first three seasons, there was also a recurring character: Eric (Connor Paolo, left), who had a lot of confused/depressed/suicidal problems.  Big reveal: he's gay!  (The hot pink shirt should have given you a clue.)

Unfortunately, he's the only gay person in Manhattan, so he has relationship problems.  He dates the bisexual Elliott for a while, and then he makes out with Asher,  but Asher gets all homophobic and defensive.

At least when teens appear in programs aimed at adults, they are allowed to Say the Word.  Teens in programs aimed at other teens must always pretend that there are no gay people in the universe.