Kelly Rutherford: The Talk of the Town

Silk dress, Bottega Veneta ($1,850). Americana Manhasset, 2060 Northern Blvd.; bottegaveneta.com. Belt, Bally ($525). 628 Madison Ave., NYC; bally.com. Trinity de Cartier bracelet, Cartier ($4,875). Americana Manhasset, 2060 Northern Blvd.; cartier.com. Gold earrings, stylist’s own

	Telly sweater, By Malene Birger ($235). 25 Park, 2415 Main St., Bridgehampton; 25park.com. Earrings with white topaz in rose gold, Pomellato ($4,020). London Jewelers, 47 Main St., Southampton; londonjewelers.com. Sutra bracelet, Diane von Furstenberg by H.Stern ($15,200). London Jewelers, SEE ABOVE. Ring, Casato ($1,930). Rose Jewelers, 57 Main St., Southampton; rosejewelers.net

“IT’S FUNNY—I guess The Beach Boys made California seem so beautiful and glamorous, and maybe it was. But you go to the Hamptons now and it’s wonderful,” says Newport Beach native Kelly Rutherford, unapologetically. Now filming her fourth season of Gossip Girl in Manhattan, she has officially put her Los Angeles house on the market and is hoping to spend much of her downtime on the East End.

She’s hardly a recent transplant. Though she spent three notable years in Los Angeles starring in the ’90s hit Melrose Place, as she explains it, much of her childhood was bicoastal, in a life not far removed from a Gossip Girl storyline. “My mom was a model for Bill Blass, so we were always between New York and California,” says Rutherford. “Then I studied acting in New York and was back in LA for work, but I kept being drawn back to New York, which I love.”

Did bouncing between coasts with a model mother give her some quality source material for embodying her role as Lily Bass, the most sought-after socialite on the Upper East Side? “Oh, definitely. I draw on my mother and her friends a lot for this role,” Rutherford, 41, laughs. “After certain episodes air, my mom will say, ‘That part wasn’t me, was it?’ And after any of the bitchy scenes, she’ll say, ‘I never acted like that.’ Blake [Lively, her on-screen daughter] and I are the exact age difference that my mother and I are, so I understand my mother a lot better these days.”

On a show where the median age hovers somewhere around 21, one might think Rutherford would feel protective of the show’s young stars, who could single-handedly keep Us Weekly, Gawker and Perez Hilton in business. But she brushes that notion aside to give them credit. “Yes, they’re adorable and I love them all. When I’m getting my makeup done and listening to them, I smile thinking, Wow, these young adults—grown-ups, practically—are just so smart, have great senses of humor and all these other talents they’re pursuing. Do I worry about them? No. I think they can all take care of themselves,” she says.