Former Hofstra student now a "Gossip Girl"

By Kelli DeWalt

The hit WPIX series, "Gossip Girl" may dish some pretty scandalous rumors, but Margaret Colin, who plays Blair Waldorf's catty mother, knows where real gossip thrives: Hofstra University's campus. That's where Colin first learned her craft, 30 years ago.

A Long Island native, Colin chose Hofstra because of its great reputation and notable alumni such as director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Madeline Kahn. Hofstra also gave her a generous scholarship and grant aid, which was important because she was one of five children.

“My first semester there, I was enormously comfortable,” Colin says. “I was cast right away.”

The professor who cast her and became her mentor was Dr. Richard Mason. “He didn’t really take anyone under his wing; he focused the laser of his attention on you. So, he hurt you and tortured you at the same time,” she says.

Fellow Hofstra drama student Jean Tafler remembers Colin in college as having “a sophistication that was beyond her years. . . she was always 30 years old.” She’s not surprise by her success because, “with that maturity and sophistication, she was savvier about the business side than the rest of us.”

While most actors struggle for years after college before landing a substantial role, Colin received hers in her junior year at Hofstra. “I was doing a [play named] "Clearing in the Woods" when an actor came to see me and left his agent’s card backstage. I auditioned and got a job.” That job was “The Edge of Night” a half-hour soap opera. Although she went back to take a few classes, she never graduated, yet would like to.

“I think I have to set a better example for my children and actually get my degree. . . I wouldn’t mind going back to school for it but I’m not going to take math. So, if Hofstra felt like giving me an honorary degree I’d be really thrilled,” Colin says.

From “The Edge of Night,” Colin appeared in popular soaps like “As the World Turns” and “Now and Again,” and movies including “Pretty in Pink” and “Independence Day.”
Colin's been with "Gossip Girl" since it began and said she was given the pilot and was impressed by its flashiness. “After you do theater you need a money gig,” she says. “It was a put together, slick and glamorous show that was shot in New York.”

The show was an instant success and then came the perks. “I love the clothes,” she says. “Watching that wardrobe room explode with more and more designer bags -- it’s become very contagious.” She’s impressed at the reaction to the show. Leighton Meester and Blake Lively are both big media stars, and she says: “I’ve never seen anyone with only a year and a half of being on a television series under their belt, be on the cover of W and Vogue.”

Colin also has a large following of her own. “I can’t go to high schools; I can’t go see my cousin and nephew in plays because I’d be swamped,” she says. “It’s very entertaining. I’ve never been on such a television hit such as this and certainly not for this demographic.”

Colin’s favorite episode was the one in which all her models for her fashion week show disappeared. “It was such a wonderful out of control moment and she was so sabotaged by these vicious young women,” she says. She also admits how brutal her own character can be: “I think Eleanor at her best is an absolutely, wonderful reason why Blair is so obnoxious.”

Off-screen, Colin's life is much different. She is the honorary co-chair of “Feminists for Life,” an organization of women who oppose abortion. She heard about the organization from her mother, who was an active member. “The idea that the unborn don’t have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the rights to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, she didn’t accept and neither did a lot of people 36 years ago,” says Colin.

She believes that the early feminists were very much in support of a child’s right to be born and she doesn’t see this view as conservative. “I think it’s a kind of radical idea that you want everyone to be born,” she says. “You want everyone that’s been created to be born, wanted or unwanted, planned or unplanned.”

Colin takes pleasure in tackling such a controversial subject and enjoys speaking to people about it, especially younger people. She was even invited to the White House along with her friend, actress Patricia Heaton, to speak on the subject when President George W. Bush was in office.

While Colin has been in the business since college, she has no plans of stopping any time soon. “I really want to play more dynamic women on stage, more powerful, life-changing women,” she says. She’d also like to be more involved with her community. Montclair State University, near her home in New Jersey, has asked her and her husband, Justin Deas, to teach master classes.
What would she do if she weren’t acting? “I’d make an excellent president,” she says.