Ed Westwick is Ready to Leave 'Gossip Girl'

[Brian Damage]

Is another Gossip Girl cast member ready to fly the coup?

"It's all about the work, you know. The feeling you get when you connect to the work," Ed Westwick, 23, told U.K. magazine Tatler. "And that's what I had with Chuck Bass in the beginning — I was fascinated by him. But now, to be completely honest, I'm ready to do something else. Really ready to do something else."

Westwick's comments arrive just a month after Leighton Meester told E! Online she anticipated staying on the series only until the end of her contract, which expires in two years.

"I don't know," she said, "but I think there's that old saying about wanting to go out on top."

Before that, rumors began circulating in August that star Blake Lively was itching to leave the show. However, Gossip Girl creator and executive producer Josh Schwartz quickly denied those reports. "Have to respond. No truth to rumors that BL requested to have Serena killed," he tweeted. "All is well."

Series regular Taylor Momsen, a.k.a. Little J, is currently on an extended hiatus from the series, having only appeared in several episodes so far this season.

Westwick's apparent dissatisfaction on set may also be due to his split from girlfriend and co-star Jessica Szohr last year. Westwick said the break-up put him "kind of on a warpath." (Co-stars Lively and Penn Badgley were a couple for almost three years and Meester previously dated recurring guest Sebastian Stan.)

"Everyone's dated each other, and then broken up, or whatever," he said. "It's natural that romance would blossom. Blossom and then wilt. The wickedness of women!"

http://www.tatler.co.uk/