(Photo: Patrick McMullan )

It’s a tough life, being lent expensive jewelry. When Van Cleef & Arpels gave Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester a $42,000 pair of diamond-and-sapphire clip-on earrings for the opening night of La Fille du Régiment at the Metropolitan Opera in April, one slipped off. “I was freaking out,” Meester said at a Piaget party on August 7, decked out in around $1 million of Van Cleef baubles. “We were on our knees looking for it.” Ginnifer Goodwin found the bobbled bijou and returned it to the Met’s staff. It’s why Emmy Rossum, who was with Meester on the fateful night, won’t accept gratis clip-ons. “I’m worried that they’re going to fall off,” she said. “I haven’t lost anything, but I have nightmares.” The jeweler took the crisis in stride. “They gave me a gift to say thank-you for losing it,” Meester said. Why so relaxed? “We’re insured,” explains a Van Cleef rep.

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Table of Contents: Aug 25, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!