The new season of Gossip Girl is going to be off the charts scandalous!

First off, Blair Waldorf faces a tug-of-war between Chuck and a handsome newcomer called James, played by Patrick Heusinger, OK! can reveal.

Blair, a.k.a. Leighton Meester, 22, calls the new season "Steamier and more scandalous than the last!"

"Chuck and Blair fight and make up," she told OK! at a YSL/Henri Bendel event in NYC on August 24. "She's harder because Chuck hurt her before she left, so she wants to punish him, even though inside she's sad."

And what's next for Chuck? "My character is trying to figure out if he loves or if he can love," Ed Westwick, 21, said at a Coca-Cola event on August 21.