Lively slams 'Gossip Girl' rivalry rumours

Blake Lively has described her rumoured rivalry with Gossip Girl co-star Leighton Meester as "nonsense".

The actress, who plays Serena van der Woodsen in the US teen drama, accused the media of "pitting the women against each other".

She told E! Online: "I think it's so silly that they try to pry into our personal lives and create drama. All this me against Leighton thing is the biggest nonsense in the world."

She claimed that paparazzi would take pictures of the pair looking fed up between takes because of shooting frustrations, then use the snaps as evidence that they hated each other.

Talking about press reports of the cast's romantic entanglements, she added: "[They] say everyone is dating everyone. We don't even have time to date each other like everyone says we do. We work 18 hours a day... when do I really have time to date all of my co-stars?"

Lively is currently rumoured to be seeing Penn Badgley (Dan Humphrey).