Showbiz — the great destroyer of childhood.

I remember thinking back when I first saw Lindsay Lohan, in that 'Freaky Friday' remake, what a nice un-Hollywood vibe she had. Finally, an unprecocious young actress.

Liewe aarde, how completely I struck out on that one!

But 16-year-old 'Gossip Girl' Taylor Momsen is making it really easy, even for me, to see that there's no child-like wonder going on with her.

She's only just turned 16, actually, with a big, star-graced bash at NYC's yuppie Maritime Hotel. Entertainment for the party was Momsen herself, fronting her rock band The Pretty Reckless.

And in attendance were fellow GG-ers Jessica Szohr (Urgh, can't her character Jessica have some kind of tragic, fatal accident, already?), Chace Crawford (Nate Archibald, who looks as if he's been lifted straight out of a Tommy Hilfiger ad), and Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass, he of the perpetual brooding stare).

The birthday party-come-promotional gig culminated in Taylor getting to blow out the candles when her two-tier cake that was brought on stage.

Despite being five years off New York's legal drinking age, Momsen is hardly hiding from the party world.

She's on the cover of next month's Teen Vogue, in which she comments that, "I live a very adult life. What am I going to do, hang out with high-school kids? I just can't relate to what they talk about — it seems so petty."

Petty, perhaps — but less likely to lead to an Amy Winehouse-esque early-20s meltdown, no? As for guys — older is better in Taylor's view: "Boys are so much less mature than girls as it is. I would eat a boy my age alive."

Fellow older-man-fancier Katie Holmes is getting headlines, too — but it's nothing to do with Tom Cruise this time, thankfully.

My Facebook friends will have seen the vid of Katie's star turn on 'So You Think You Can Dance?', by which I wasn't entirely blown away. I mean, she looks great and sings really well, but all the trumpeting of how amazing it was that she was doing this, never having had any formal dance training... well, the lack of training was — How shall I put this? — slightly more obvious than surprising.

The show's producer has Twittered in Holmes' defence, though: "I'm trying to figure out why Katie is being judged as a dancer. When a star throws out the opening pitch [at a baseball game] no one says, 'Ooh, crap pitcher'." I guess not, but throwing a single pitch isn't quite like doing a whole Judy Garland-inspired number, is it?

But, hey, snaps to Katie for the effort. And kudos to Eva Mendes, too — a Hollywood actress advocating a smart, thoughtful approach to life.