[artist id="1231896"]Hilary Duff[/artist] has signed on for a multi-episode arc on Gossip Girl, according to EW.com.

Duff will play a character named Olivia Burke, a movie star who attends New York University in search of a traditional college experience. Blair (Leighton Meester), Dan (Penn Badgley) and Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) were also accepted to NYU, and Duff winds up becoming Vanessa's roommate in the third season of the show, which debuts this fall.

Duff told E! News in December that she had become a fan of "Gossip Girl," and her favorite character was Chuck Bass. "I don't know why, because he's so bad and terrible," Duff said. "He is so sad that I feel bad for him," she admitted.

According to E! News, newly single Dan, who broke off his relationship with Serena last season, is looking to find love with Olivia and doesn't even know she's famous. Dan, according to E!'s sources, is looking to get serious with Duff's character.

At the time, Duff was developing her own pilot for NBC called "Barely Legal." She told E! News, "It's exciting. I've been meeting with writers. I'm ready to get back on TV." Producers eventually passed on "Barely Legal," but producers for "Gossip Girl" soon found a spot for the Disney teen queen on the show. She makes her debut in the fourth episode of the season, scheduled to air on October 5.