“I don’t think network TV really has the balls to make one of their [teenage] series regulars gay.” That’s what Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley told me last Fall when I spoke with him over the phone — guess he wasn’t a big Dawson’s Creek fan — but even the writers on his own show are proving him wrong.

Now that Eric van der Woodsen (Connor Paolo, photo, left) is out of the closet, will he disappear into the shadows? Perhaps do another stint at the Ostroff Center, leaving more room for storylines about scheming and hot hetero sex? Executive Producer Stephanie Savage says not. We will indeed watch this young kid come to terms with his sexuality over time, see him dating and maturing. “One of the reasons we wanted to do this story was because we’d have places to go with Eric’s character,” Savage explained. “It felt like a really organic way to dimensionalize and activate Eric, so Connor Paolo would have some great stories to play next year. I think he does a terrific job and is up taking on more than he has up to this point.”

As for Asher, Eric’s first love-gone-wrong, he may be heading back to the Ostroff Center after last night’s very public humiliation. Savage tells me his Gossip storyline is over for now, but they really enjoyed working with Jesse Swenson (photo, right), the actor who played him, so there’s no reason why Asher couldn’t rear his ugly, Upper East Side head again later…

SOURCE Zap2it.com