It’s hard to believe that no one associated with The CW or Gossip Girl suggested this particularly coincidental storyline be changed.

Gossip Girl season 5 spoilers are inside, so don’t read further if you’re trying to stay spoiler free.

In a dramatic twist of events, (and even though we know Blair Waldorf does end up in a wedding dress) Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Blair (Leighton Meester) were in a horrific car crash at the end of the Gossip Girl episode “Riding in Town Cars with Boys.” (I always thought that Drew Barrymore movie was depressing, and this episode ended on a similarly depressing note.) Blair seems to be okay but Chuck is in critical condition.

So, a “princess” (to be) is in a limo – sorry, town car – with her boyfriend and they are in a car crash because of paparazzi. Sound familiar?

Princess Diana was fatally injured in a car crash back in 1997. Her boyfriend, also in the car, Dodi Fayed, also

Just like Princess Diana, Blair has found herself at odds with her royal lover. Both Princess Diana and Blair Waldorf have dealt with bulimia, as well. However, their public images are quite different.

Blair is a snotty and selfish character while Diana was a Princess of the People. Diana’s public image has long been one of a compassionate public figure, however Tina Brown wrote a book in 2007 that claimed Diana was actually manipulative, spiteful and only after power. That’s more what Blair is. (I know you all love her, but she’s not a nice person on the show.)

Whether it was intended or not, the crash seems to be punishing the Chuck and Blair characters for deciding to get together again. Which seems to almost then imply that Princess Diana also deserved her crash. The end-game for this Gossip Girl storyline is to attack the paparazzi, but that’s only the larger picture. The devil’s in the details.

From any angle you look at it, it’s hard to not see the similarities between this Chuck and Blair storyline with the Princess Diana Car Crash. There’s a lot of coincidental similarities. But does it disrespect what happened to Princess Diana or not? Should her real life tragedy be used as fodder on a dramatic soap opera? You decide, and let us know what you come up with.

Gossip Girl airs Mondays on The CW

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