July 23, 2003 – By: Phoebe ReillyConfronting teen immortality in Tuck Everlasting,Gilmore Girl Alexis Bledel plays a role she knows all toowell It's a given that actors don't play their ages on television anymore, but 21-year-old Alexis Bledel may be as closeas it gets. As precocious bibliophile Rory Gilmore, the adolescent half of the WB's mother/ daughter drama Gilmore Girls, she's thelatest incarnation of the girl next door--a more confident Felicity, a less surly Angela Chase. It's an alter ego the actress hasn'toutgrown. "I'm not as rebellious [as Rory], but I did a lot that I was never caught for," she says. "I don't think my mom knowseverything, but she knows more than she used to." This month, Bledel works her spirited verge-of-adulthood persona in Tuck Everlasting,Disney's adaptation of the Natalie Babbitt novel.

July 15, 2003 – Northern StateDying in Stereo(Startime) Picture three energetic MCs, some in-your-face feminist politics and one very danceable album--and no, they're not Le Tigre (though they are thanked in the liner notes). Meet Northern State, an all-female rap group that bring steady beats, smart rhymes and some serious party stamina to a genre dominated by bling-bling excess and arrogant boys. Hesta Prynn, DJ Sprout and Guinea Love became something of a phenomenon a couple of months ago when their four-track demo, Hip Hop You Haven't Heard, made waves in New York's insular music scene and earned them props on MTV. Named after the expressway that runs through their Long Island home base--the "other" New York where kids grew up with malls but claim city cred--Northern State have grown tired of the inevitable Beastie Boys comparison.

June 26, 2003 – By: Phoebe ReillyShe bitches, she broods, she has her roommate committed, butMichelle Williams is still the sanest person in ProzacNation Whenever a television program is showing the symptoms of impending cancellation, its cast has to worry whether they're going to follow it to the grave. Such is the case with Dawson's Creek, which, after nearly six seasons of melodrama and suspiciously sophisticated dialogue, is rumored to be limping its way toward a permanent finale. For all the bravery and raw talent she's demonstrated on the series, Michelle Williams can't mask her concern that she'll always bear the stigma of the show that made her famous. "I don't know what it will be like to move on from something that has defined me for so long," says the 22-year-old actress.