I have to admit I was a little amused by the “Ooops, I’m an actress!” approach of Blake Lively of the CW’s “Gossip Girl” during an interview with the Associated Press. I’ve known of this gal’s family for a long time: Her dad Ernie (Brown) Lively appeared in the “Dukes of Hazzard” pilot back in 1979 as the Dukes’ buddy Dobro Doolan, then popped up later as a different buddy, L.B. Davenport. His son (Blake’s big bro) Jason Lively also appeared in the pilot of that show, then played an episode later on. But that’s just how I know them. Both of them have countless other credits over the years, and Ernie has been a producer and director. His wife Elaine is a talent manager. The other kids in the family – Eric Lively, Lori Lively and Robyn Lively – are all longtime actors. You might remember Robyn as the luscious fiery-tressed part of the blond-brunette-redhead triumvirate of the ‘90s soap “Savannah” (a fabbo guilty pleasure, that short-lived WB creation was). The whole heckin’ family is in the biz.

To be fair, though, Blake Lively says she wanted to pursue another path: “I had no clue what I wanted to do, but I knew it was not acting,” she said to the AP, “just because my whole family and it was the only job I really knew of. … So I worked my whole life to go to Stanford, and the summer between my junior and senior year of high school ... my brother decided I would love acting. So he made his agent send me out on a few auditions.”

Hmmm, but to say that she “got her big break as a soccer-loving teen in 2005’s ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’”? Is it a “big break” when your whole family is already firmly ensconced in Hollywood? Seems like a roll of the eye to all those aspiring actors out there who don’t “know” anyone.