" They Shoot Humphreys, Don’t They? "

Two years ago when this CW teen soap let loose its first gregarious giggle, I asked, "Which of Gossip Girl’s wildly mixed messages are young viewers most likely to internalize—and emulate? Will they pay closer attention to Serena’s mature decisions to turn from destructive choices? Or will it be the parade of high schoolers drinking, gambling, smoking pot, flaunting lingerie, occasionally engaging in casual sex and living as if there were no rules?"

The answer has for some time now been emphatically answered. And the Nov. 9 episode merely adds insult to injury. In doing so, though, it generated as much pre-broadcast publicity as anything I’ve seen for some time. The reason? CW had promised it would include a ménage à trois.

Leaked information about a sexual threesome on the teen-oriented show began to surface weeks before the airdate. The only mystery was which characters would be involved.

But I’m not sure any of us expected Lizzie McGuire to lead the charge. Well, not Lizzie exactly. But Hilary Duff. Close enough.

Duff joined the cast of Gossip Girl this year, and she clearly seems more than willing to help push the show into increasingly risqué territory. Los Angeles Times television reviewer Enid Portuguez said of Duff’s involvement, "If this was her segue into more adult roles, she’s surely got an enthusiastic game face on."

The promised three-way involves Duff’s character, Olivia, her roommate, Vanessa, and their good buddy Dan. The catalyst for the tryst? A list of 15 crazy things every college student should do before graduating (and they’ve already completed the first 14).

By the time the credits roll, the camera has spied several passionate kisses among the threesome (including one between Olivia and Vanessa) and all three exhausted participants sacked out together—their romp concluded.

The fact that the onscreen proceedings don’t get more explicit than kissing hardly blunts the impact of the message: Having a threesome is just normal college behavior. In fact, you’d be missing out, it’s suggested, if you skipped this pinnacle of college debauchery.

In a case of unintentional irony, elsewhere in this episode high school girls at a posh debutante ball receive designated mentors to help them navigate the potential land mines and faux pas that could be their social undoing.

Now if only the many young women watching this show—it’s the No. 1 show among 12- to 34-year-old females in its time slot, according to CW press release—had a mentor to help them avoid the moral land mines onscreen.