Gossip is a film with an interesting concept. Unfortunately the execution leaves much to be desired, primarily because of the suspension of disbelief required at the end of the film which contradicts what is explicitly shown to us previously.
The movie showcases how rumours spread: Derrick (James Marsden), Jones (Lena Headey), and Travis (Norman Reedus) are three students living together in one of the coolest apartments. One day, they decide to start a rumour about Naomi (Kate Hudson) implying that she had sex with Beau (Joshua Jackson) while she was drunk. Soon the message gets twisted and turned, much like in the "telephone" game, and Beau is arrested on charges of rape. Jones has second thoughts about provoking this whole scenario, particularly when she finds Derrick may be hiding a few skeletons in his closet.
The reason this film bothers me so much is that I don't understand why certain scenes had to be put in the film: why does Jones have to sleep with Derrick when she knows he could be suspect? Why do they have to show us scenes of Jones at the end where she is frantically trying to reach Travis to warn him about Derrick? That is not consistent with the ending. Gossip has a lot of such inconsistent scenes, in contrast to movies like The Sixth Sense or Arlington Road, which have incredulous twists at the end but don't have scenes in the film that blatantly contradict the outcome. It's clear that the film makers didn't think through the editing process.
The acting by a cast of a teeny-bopper heart-throbs is decent. The notion of a college campus that is so sophisticated and where the students have classes that do everything but teach them how to learn is amusing (not to mention that homogeneity in the attractiveness of the students). Obviously the film was made in a place where the legal age for drinking was below 21 and the perceived solution to every problem is alcohol (shades of Homer Simpson)! I recommend skipping this film. If you must see it, wait for it to come out on video.