when the media ROCKS

So the spoilers continue to pour in for the finale which is only HOURS away! Inca is totally trashed so she may not be in until later this afternoon nursing what she calls a 'hangover worse than my days in college. Freshman year to be exact.' HAHAA!! Love it! I've personally planned my hangover for Tuesday after I pop my celebratory champagne bottle that I've been holding on to since 2.01. And yes, the boyfriend understands I mean the alcohol.

So let us praise here for a moment the Boston Herald who is so decidedly OFF the Kool-Aid they may even become our new best friend.

Leighton Meester can do no wrong.

The formidable actress works her magic in the second-season finale of “Gossip Girl” tomorrow at 8 p.m. on WLVI (Ch. 56).

Meester’s Blair and her frenemies are graduating from high school, but this is no “90210” affair. That notorious texter Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell) interrupts commencement with a hot flash of trash.

Naturally, the students instinctively reach into their gowns for their cell phones and gasp at Gossip Girl’s audacity. She has some choice insults for the graduates. The worst? She terms Serena (Blake Lively) irrelevant.

That sets off the blond mannequin. She vows to expose the vicious blogger who’s got the 411 on everybody’s lives.

One of the first casualties in Serena’s war is the growing bond between her peers as they prepare to head off to college. Gossip Girl retaliates by unleashing all their torrid secrets in a text that practically causes their cells to combust - just as Blair is finally on the verge of getting Chuck (Ed Westwick) to admit to her that he loves her. (AHHHHH, the angst!)

Devastated, Blair decides she’ll have to move on. Chuck, like high school, is so over for her. But some things can’t be set aside as easily as a yearbook.

Blair’s graduation means the school will be without its queen bee.

“What would high school be without hierarchy?” wonders one of Blair’s teenage vipers-in-waiting.

“Bearable?” suggests Jenny (Taylor Momsen), who is tempted to fill the power vacuum, if only to rule benignly. That’s what she says.

Lily (Kelly Rutherford) and Rufus (Matthew Settle) can’t decide what they mean to each other. I know what they mean to me: time-killers.

Not every story is neatly resolved. Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg) makes a cameo that promises plenty of trouble for Blair in the fall. (OMG, Blair/Georgie roommates would be a dream come true but you know I'm NEVER that lucky!)

When “Gossip Girl” began, Serena was its heroine and Blair her bitter rival. But since Lively has mastered only one facial expression - something between surprise and a burp - the writers wisely shifted the story’s heart to Meester. She can move from witchy to lovelorn in a blink and cut through the script’s camp simply by lowering her gaze, exhibiting range and poise befitting a talent much older than 23.

Enjoy her on your TV while you can. She is going places, and that’s not idle talk.

You see?? THE QUEEN is rightfully praised. THAT is journalism. Boston Herald? You're our morning Hero - because you know the Canadians will be the evening one ;)