Lisa Loeb Explains Her Cameo on the \'Gossip Girl\' Finale

Angela Weiss/Getty ImagesLisa Loeb

Warning: this post contains spoilers about the series finale of “Gossip Girl.” XOXO.

Monday's installment of “Gossip Girl” was a series finale for the ages: in the final episode of this long-running CW soap, viewers at last learned the identity of the pseudonymous blogger who had been making life miserable for the show's stable of well-to-do Upper East Siders. (No, Mayor Bloomberg, it was not Dorota.) Blair Waldorf (played by Leighton M eester) and Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) were finally married. And, in a coda set five years in the future at the wedding of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), it appeared that Dan's father, Rufus (Matthew Settle) had found love, too â€" with the singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb.

What exactly was this bespectacled pop star doing on “Gossip Girl”‘s turf? Ms. Loeb (whose new album, “No Fairy Tale,” will be released next month) spoke to ArtsBeat on Tuesday to explain.

Q.

I'm sure you've been keeping a tight lid on this appearance. I don't think anyone knew this was coming.

A.

I know! Isn't it great? It's so fun to be involved in those kinds of things.

Q.

How did that come together?

A.

They asked me to be a part of it, actually. I'm friendly with one of the writers on the show. Somebody who I knew back in New York City, back in the early 90s when I started out after college â€" there was a group of us that used to hang out together that included Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton and Jesse Harris, Pete Dinklage. One of the people that we hung out with was Jonathan Marc Sherman, and he dated this girl Jessica [Queller], who was one of the writers on “Gossip Girl.”

So years and years later, she told me about a story line that they had for one of the characters, Rufus, and that he dated this girl in a rock band. So they asked me to be a part of that, to be the girl that he had dated. I guess to make the finale special, it was one of the extra-special surprises. [laughs] They asked me to return. Which was funny but logistically a little complicated because I have a new baby. He's six months old now, but we shot that li ke a month and a half ago. I had just been in New York the week before, working, unfortunately, without my family â€" I have a daughter, also, who's three years old. It's complicated enough to be away for five days, working. All of a sudden I get a call to come back to New York for 24 hours. And I'm bizarrely parked in my trailer, like, literally down the block from the apartment I most recently lived in, in New York City. I was subletting from a friend on 75th Street, and I was like, “Oh my God!” I knew exactly where to go to get my lunch.

I got there at night â€" the next day we shot that scene, and later that night I was in a van with Billy Baldwin, hoping I could get home that night but not sure if I could make a plane, probably having to leave the next day. And all of a sudden, we got a call that I could actually get on the next plane. So Billy jumped out of the car, hailed me a cab, I threw my luggage in there, ran to the airport and got home later that night .

Q.

What a gentleman.

A.

Yes. And it's fun to be part of an iconic show.

Q.

You're basically enshrined in history. Are we to assume that, at least in the fictional world, you and Rufus are now back together?

A.

Yes. Exactly. My husband asked me this morning, “Now, does that make me your first husband or your second husband?” It's kind of like the same question I got when I dressed as Sarah Palin, years and years ago, for Halloween. People at the parties were saying, “Are you Lisa Loeb or are you Sarah Palin?” Very confusing.

Q.

But your husband is cool with loaning you out for these fictional purposes?

A.

Yes. He's done some movies, like “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” so he can basically understand anything having to do with different dimensions.