Um — a little stiff, no? What did you think of Leighton’s live performance?

The Gossip Girl actress teamed up with the platinum-selling, prison-bound Dwayne Carter on a track called “Make It Rain” — which ironically shares its name with the strip club anthem Weezy recorded with rapper Fat Joe in 2006.

“I sent him a couple of my songs,” Leighton told MTV of how her partnership with the Young Money boss developed. “He’s been diggin’ on them for a while. Then he heard ['Make It Rain'], and he was like, ‘All right, I’m gonna kill it’. [He's] really optimistic, and super supportive of me, which I’ve really, really appreciated so much.”

Leighton was amazed at how prolific Wayne was during their recording sessions: “It was like, literally, 4 o’clock in the morning. He was so sick – he didn’t even write anything down. He just, like, vibed to the music and dances. I don’t even know how he does it; he’s amazing.”

Poppin’ or Floppin’?

Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester has been busy working on her debut album, which is set to be released later this year or very early next year. She was previously featured on Cobra Starship’s “Good Girls Go Bad,” and now she’s branching off on her own. Check out this radio rip of Leighton’s first single, “Somebody To Love,” featuring R&B singer Robin Thicke. The uptempo track, produced by Mike Caren, will hit radio nationwide Oct. 27.

“I really wanted to make something completely different than anything that’s on the radio right now,” Leighton told Ryan Seacrest during his morning radio program on Tuesday. “I feel like it’s really dancey and fun, but still laid-back, relaxed and moody and sexy.”
Rock It or Drop It?

Here’s the first promo, which features Cobra Starship and Leighton Meester working their musical magic on the subway platform.

In the September issue of Harper Bazaar, Leighton sets the record straight for the first time about her reported sex tape, claiming it doesn’t exist. “[The tape] is not real,” she says. “So it makes me sort of sad. It’s unfortunate that it got carried as far as it did.”

In June, an adult film company released a dozen screencaps from a X-rated video that allegedly featured Leighton, then 18-years-old, performing various nude acts — including foot worship — with a former boyfriend.

“I definitely understand the nature of people better now and that the mere allegation of something like that could be headline news. People think it’s real because somebody says it is,” she adds.

Leighton Meester’s still singing. Gossip Girl’s own Blair — who was most recently in the headlines after a vintage sex tape fell into the hands of a greedy porn broker — has released a new single just in time for the projected September 2009 release of her debut album.

What Are Your Thoughts On Leighton’s Pop/Rock-Inspired Single, “Body Control?”

“It was years ago, when she was going through tough times,” a source blabbed to In Touch Weekly this week.

The tape, shot when Leighton was 18, has become a hot topic of conversation on the set of the actress’ hit CW teen drama, Gossip Girl — leaving Leighton “devastated.”

Sources close to the star claims she had been hoping to “lay low” until buzz over the tape subsided, but that has proven tough since production on the show’s third scene is already underway.

“Everyone is buzzing about this on the set. She was always acting out in different ways and rebelling when she was a kid. Now, she’s devastated.”

Leighton’s handlers, on the other hand, are hoping this is one cloud that comes with a silver lining. Some advisors are reassuring the aspiring singer that with her debut album set to drop in September, “any press is good press.”

Really?