Pretty Little Liars has staged sensational surprises in nearly every single episode over the last three seasons, but the biggest shocker to date happened off screen as it was announced on April 30 that ABC Family’s recently announced spin-off was bringing Tyler Blackburn’s Caleb along for the Ravenswood ride.

Now, for the first time, PLL executive producer and Ravenswood co-creator Marlene King is exclusively revealing why Hanna’s hottie was tapped to front the new series.

“In terms of the mythology of Ravenswood, there is a reason his character was chosen,” King tells ETonline. “Caleb has an ambiguous past. He doesn’t know as much about where he comes from compared to the other [characters] and we’re going to use that as we unfold the Ravenswood story.”

Once fans got over the initial shock, thoughts — and Twitter trending topics — immediately turned to the following question: “OMG!!! What does this mean for Haleb?!?!?!?!” Turns out, Ashley Benson had the exact same thought after finding out her scene partner was packing up his laptop and amazing conditioner.

“I was so sad,” Benson recalled of hearing the big news. “This is the thing, I’m so happy for Tyler, he deserves it so much, but he’s like my other half! He’s just amazing. When the day comes to shoot his last scene, I’m not going to be able to do it. I mean, I don’t want to give him away to these other people. But, I talked to Marlene about [how Caleb will be written off PLL] and I’m excited for people to see that because I’m pretty happy with how she told me their story would end.”

So what did Marlene tell Ashley? You know I got that answer. “Hanna and Caleb are such a great couple and we’ve designed this beautiful Casablanca moment for them,” King teased. “Hanna really gives Caleb permission to leave Rosewood and, basically, go to this other show [laughs]. I hope our fans embrace it as much as we’ve embraced it as writers. That’s important to us.”

Shay Mitchell and Troian Bellisario recently spoke to Wetpaint and Ryan Seacrest respectively about the summer premiere of ‘Pretty Little Liars’. Read on below:

Speaking of Pretty Little Liars, how’s filming going for Season 4?
It’s good, but it’s crazy! I keep talking to people, and they’re like, “What happened? What was in the trunk?” And I have to be so careful every single time to make sure I don’t say what’s in there. I have to keep reminding myself that they haven’t seen that part yet. Even though we’re filming Season 4, no one has seen it, so I always have to remind myself to be careful about what I say.

And there’s so many photos! Norman Buckley can’t stop tweeting behind-the-scenes pics.
Norman is the social media king. He loves it! And he’s always snapping photos. I always know what’s going on even when I’m not at work. I’m like, “What is Ashley [Benson] doing today?” And then I look at Norman’s page and it’s like, “Oh, OK. I know what she’s filming.” He’s amazing. He’s directing two episodes at the same time.

Toward the end of last season, we saw Emily become Spencer 2.0 and lead the charge for “A” clues. Is she still sleuthing in Season 4?
Yeah! I think ever since Emily came out, there was a point in Season 2 where everyone was calling her “badass Emily.” She started to come out of her shell, and she became a lot stronger. Now she’s the one who really takes the lead, so I do think Detective Fields continues to sleuth in Season 4. More than anything, she just wants to look out for her friends and protect them all. Now she’s leading the situation, going in head first, which is really cool to play. There’s going to be a lot more of that. I love Detective Fields.

We know the Liars are going to work more with Mona this season, instead of against her. How does Emily feel about working with their former enemy?
It’s awesome! Usually, when we were shooting scenes with her in the past seasons, there was never a lot between Mona and Emily. She didn’t really have much to do with Mona in the beginning. Aside from being with the rest of the girls, she never had any one-on-one scenes, like she had with Spencer and Hanna, and even Aria. Now, she’s kind of in the group. You’re going to see the girls question, “Can we trust her? Do we trust her? Is this all right? Are we telling her too much?” So it’s one of those things where we cross our fingers and hope that she’s on our side for the good reasons.

Marlene King has promised a lot of answers this season, particularly in the first episode, and a lot more Sasha Pieterse, so what can you tell us about how Ali will be involved in Season 4?
Ali will definitely be involved a lot more because where we last left off, it was all about what happened that summer and was she really pregnant. So a lot of those questions will be answered. There’s going to be a lot more flashbacks as well, as the girls try to put all the puzzle pieces together, so we are definitely going to be seeing Alison a lot more and see other relationships that she had with certain people who might have a big clue in the whole thing.

Troian Bellisario, better known as Spencer from Pretty Little Liars, stopped by On Air with Ryan Seacrest to chat PLL and her YouTube series, Lauren, as well as how boyfriend Patrick J. Adams won her back!

First things first, what was up with that Season 4 poster which had all four PLL stars donning red coats? Troian says even she is in the dark!

“It’s actually really funny. When the photo came out, I put it in my head and was like I need to call Marlene King, who is the creator of the show, and talk to her because I have the same question: ‘What is going to happen?’ I know with the season finale the girls all think they saw Alison … in the red coat, so it brings up the question, ‘Is Alison red coat? Is Alison dead?’ So I think all of us are wrapped up in this red coat because they don’t tell me anything.”

Troian continued: “The slogan is ‘Liars Unite,’ so I think the idea is we are all coming together to take down this new adversary.”

Although Troian stayed hush about the poster, she did reveal insight as to what was in the trunk during the last (and very memorable) scene of the finale.

“I can say, which is kind of funny, because when we shot the scene there was nothing in the trunk. When I say we know nothing, we were looking at nothing in the trunk, and I said to Marlene … ‘I just have to know. I’m an actor. Tell me what’s in the trunk so I can imagine it.’ And she said, ‘It’s pretty close to your worst nightmare.’ But when we shot the scene picking up with the season premiere where you see what’s in the trunk, she wasn’t far. It’s pretty awful.”

Ashley Benson may not have attended prom herself, but turns out the actress knows a thing or two about shopping for— and wearing— fancy dresses.

After all, there’s absolutely no question this girl can work it on the red carpet (just check the entire Spring Breakers press tour for evidence!), but she’s also the face of Faviana, the New York-based label that designs celebrity-inspired special occasion gowns.

We stopped by the company HQ recently to check out the new prom styles and get the lowdown on all the offerings from Ashley herself.

In between chatting about all things Spring Breakers-related, she filled us in on her new spokesmodel gig and the best parts about helping girls pick out dresses for their own big nights. She also dished on her signature red carpet steez, gearing towards “edgy, chic looks” that’s a more glamorous extension of her casual everyday uniform.

Oh, and one more thing: clearly we’re not the only ones obsessed with the Olsen twins around here, because Ashley admitted that MK&A have been her style icons since Day One (and still are today!). Get the scoop on all this and more in our interview!

In my review of “Spring Breakers” for The Suffolk Voice, I referred to it as our generation’s version of “Easy Rider.” It has the potential, like Dennis Hopper’s initial directorial masterpiece, to transform the way that this generation views movies altogether.

It could also change the way that films are financed so that auteurs are given more freedom, and so that people like Harmony Korine are given the resources that they need in order to make unhinged masterpieces like this.

However, Korine has never been one to be exempt from directorial freedom. The writer of “Kids” has made a handful of movies since 1996 that can, in the simplest way, described as experimental. They include “Gummo,” “Julien Donkey-Boy,” “Mister Lonely,” and most recently “Trash Humpers” – none of them receiving wide distribution. “Spring Breakers” has already grossed more than all of Korine’s other films COMBINED, in part due to the fact that it has a highly recognizable cast – including a role played by “Pretty Little Liars’” Ashley Benson.

The Suffolk Voice recently got the chance to interview Korine and Benson about “Spring Breakers.” The interview was completed over the phone with The Suffolk Voice along with other members of the press.

Harmony Korine: Hello, Ashley?

Ashley Benson: Hey Harm!

Harmony Korine: What’s up?

Ashley Benson: I don’t even know what we’re doing…

Harmony Korine: Me neither. Is anyone else here?

Press: How does music influence your writing and vision of films? Does it serve as a guiding force?

Harmony Korine: Music is a huge part; sound is a huge part; energy is a huge part. I listen to music constantly. Sound is half of what a film is. I definitely pay attention to it.

Press: Ashley, you’re known for your role in “Pretty Little Liars” – most of your audience knows you from that role… So why the huge jump to this?

Ashley Benson: I don’t know, I’ve been on that show for 4 years now and I feel as if people see me a certain way because of it. I wanted to do a film that was different than anything I’d ever done. I read Harmony’s script and I liked it. I wanted the chance to work with Harmony and James [Franco] and do something different.

Q: This film really starts off showing spring break as something like a wet dream, but it progressively evolves into more of a nightmare. Do you see spring break as a wet dream or a nightmare, or both?

Harmony Korine: A wet dream… Damn, wet dream… You know, I see it as it is in the movie. I guess if you want to say some of it’s a wet dream that’s okay, but it is what the movie is. It’s how it plays out. There are emotions, images, ambiguities, strangeness, and horrors all kind of mixed up and dancing together – kind of a cultural mash-up or interpretation of all these feelings.

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“Pretty Little Liars” star Ashley Benson makes the jump to film in the most attention-grabbing way she can: alongside Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens as coeds gone bad in Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers.” The film finds the girls’ characters knocking over a diner to fund a wild week in Florida, ending up in jail and bedding down with a crazed, gun-toting, drug-slinging amateur rapper named Alien (James Franco), all in a kaleidoscope of American culture taken to the brink. Not surprisingly, it’s courted some very strong reactions. And you know what? Benson likes that you may hate this movie.

I’ve talked to some people who didn’t get this movie.
I don’t think a lot of people do, actually.

There’s a lot of noise surrounding it, about the content and the Disney backgrounds of your co-stars. When you’re at the center of this kind of storm, how do you deal with it?
I don’t really listen to it. Harmony just wanted people to be left with a feeling, and if they’re horrified that’s amazing. If they loved it that’s even better. So I like when people hate the movie because it’s like, wow, we really affected you and you’re really disturbed, and that’s great. Because it is a disturbing movie, but it’s also a beautiful movie. So whether you like it or not I’m just happy that people are seeing it and it’s being talked about, because it’s being talked about whether it’s negatively or positively. If they’re talking about it, that’s great.

How much of the “pop poem” nature of this, as Korine describes it, was clear from the get-go?
Honestly, I was kind of thrown into it at the very last minute — like two weeks before we started shooting. When I was reading this script, I viewed it as, “Oh my God, this is such a gritty, raw, organic, edgy script, and I have to be a part of this.” And my character was so different and just didn’t give a sh— ever, about whatever she did. You know what I mean? She was just, like, so ballsy, and I’ve never played anything like that. And I told my agent when I was looking for a movie I wanted to play a tough girl who deals with drugs, who deals with violence — and then this script came out of nowhere and I was just like, “Oh my God! I have to get this role!”

click to read more »

The sexy star of the bikini outlaw flick reveals behind-the-scenes secrets.

Opening this weekend, Spring Breakers tells the story of four college girls who go on the ultimate spring break adventure. (And by “ultimate,” we mean lots of guns, drugs, sex, and crime.) The film stars two former Disney good girls—Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens—as well as former Pretty Little Liars star Ashley Benson. So what really went down while they were shooting this naughty movie? Here’s what Ashley told us.

The girls actually bonded.
“When we got to Florida, Harmony Korine, the director, really harped on the four of us being with each other all day every day. So we got a whole week of just rehearsing and hanging out. All of us got along so well, and Vanessa and I were born a few days apart, so we’re quite similar.”

They didn’t stick to the script.
“We got to improv a lot, which I’d never done, and I don’t think the other girls had either. It was my first time being able to do and say what I wanted. Every take was different: some lasted 10 minutes, some lasted one minute, and some had no talking at all. It wasn’t your average memorize-every-single-word-and-if-you-miss-a-word-you-have-to-start-over experience, and that’s what made it so awesome.”

Fans snuck on the set.
“Word got around that we were filming, and every day we would have people by the set waiting. They’d say they were working on the movie, or that they were extras, so they could get on set. We finally buckled down security, and no one was allowed anywhere. It was crazy!”

James Franco stayed in character.
“The first time I met him, he was in costume. He came out of his trailer and had cornrows, tattoos everywhere, and gold teeth, so we met James as his character, Alien, rather than James himself. Alien has an accent, and he kept it whether we were filming or not. It was really funny; the whole time we only knew him as that character. He did a lot of research for the role…”

Shooting fake guns was really scary.
“This sounds horrible, but there’s something about holding a gun. Obviously the ones that we had were fake, but you still feel like there’s so much power in your hands. I never knew what that was like, and it’s actually really scary, because when you have one, you just become a different person. I’d never shot a gun before, and you can see in the movie that I back up because I was so scared to shoot it. I thought it was going to blow back in my face and burn me.”

Spring Breakers opens Friday, March 22.

It’s one thing to obsess over Spring Breakers from afar, over the internet, or from that perfect seat halfway toward the back of the movie theater. But it’s a totally different situation (and obviously a WAY better one) to obsess over the new Harmony Korine film with one of the stars herself!

Yep, we’re talking about Ashley Benson, who invited us to come visit her at the Faviana HQ in New York City—she’s the face of the special occasion dress brand—and dish on allllll stuff fashion.

In between talking about prom (we’ll have more on that later…stay tuned!), Ashley filled us in on what it was really like filming Spring Breakers down in Florida with Selena, Vanessa, Rachel and James. She also gave us the lowdown on how RELIEVED she was to sport shorts and sneakers on the regular (comfiest costumes ever?!), her favorite premiere outfits, and how she and the rest of the cast always discuss their red carpet ensembles beforehand.

Oh, and another thing: although Ashley seems like a great girl on Instagram and in other press interviews, she’s even cooler and nicer in person. But don’t just take our word for it…see for yourself in our exclusive chat!

If Pretty Little Liars‘ Season 3 finale left you with a slew of burning questions, you’re in luck: TVLine tracked down the ABC Family drama’s exec producer Oliver Goldstick and got to the bottom of all things “Red Coat,” “Spoby,” “Ezria,” “Mon’A’” and much more!

Read on to learn what fates await your favorite Rosewoodians in Season 4, which bows June 11 at 8/7c:

Warning: Spoilers under the cut. Click HERE to read! »

TVLINE | I’ve got a bit of a bone to pick with you about this Toby revelation: Over the past year, you’d convinced me that he had good reasons for hating all of the girls — and that those reasons were very real.
I’ve got a job to do here, Meg! [Laughs] I’m supposed to be titillating and playing with you as well, to some degree. Now, you will see a flashback early on in Season 4 between Toby and Alison, and you will know that he had strong feelings about her — and he assumed the girls were the same way. Things have changed because he got to know Emily and then Spencer very well, but I don’t regret saying that because he had a lot of residual anger and animosity toward these girls for what happened to him.

TVLINE | Will his working with Spencer in the finale impact his covert role within the “A” team moving forward?
The thing that really is cool in Season 4 is that Toby has a storyline where “A” — the “A” team and “Red Coat” — lures him back in. It’s a very emotional and interesting storyline for him. I won’t give away too much, but he deals with some very personal stuff that “A” knows about him.

TVLINE | The tables have been turned on Mona. Is she now part of the group and also on “A”‘s hit list?
Yes, Mona is. She’s still a vicious little dumpling, we know that, and she will remain that. But it is very cool to come into Season 4 with five PLLs, and that’s what we’re doing — which is what it was when Allison was still “alive.” We come into Season 4 exploring what it means when you get an adjunct PLL, which is now Mona, their former tormentor. You want to keep her close, because God knows she has more insight than anybody into who’s been doing this to them.

TVLINE | But does anybody actually trust her?
As far as trusting her, I always think of it as a spectrum; Hanna may trust her most, only because they shared a year of close friendship, but Spencer sees her as an attention whore who she’d never trust.

TVLINE | We’ve seen many sides of Mona over the seasons. Will this development create another new version?
Because of some other events and what happens with [Wilden's car's] trunk, and how game-changing what they find in there is, it shifts the relationship to where Mona might be needed. She becomes more necessary to them, and they can’t necessarily ostracize or antagonize her. Mona may have a three-hour time limit on being good, but you’ve got to take advantage of those three hours! [Laughs] Because of what happens in the trunk, they might need to have her around.

TVLINE | Speaking of that trunk, what can you say about its contents?
You’ll know what’s in there in the Season 4 premiere. And we pick up the season really moments after where we left off in the finale… I don’t know if you realize this, Meg, but we’re in senior year now and it’s going to move very slowly. [Laughs] It’s like, will high school ever end?!

TVLINE | We may have seen the face of Red Coat, though we can’t really trust it because they girls were so out of it…
We’ve also introduced masks, as you know. There was an Alison mask that we saw last week.

TVLINE | Why reveal it in that way?
For us, we felt like the girls had to catch up with an audience that strongly suspects that Alison is pulling the strings and is alive. We felt that it was time our girls were on the same page as viewers.

TVLINE | Where does the start of Season 4 find the newly split Aria and Ezra?
She’s got to move on. It’s gonna be tough, as he’s going to be her teacher, standing in front of that classroom. But she’s got to move on.

TVLINE | But the show’s EPs have said over the years that “Ezria” is endgame. So, is this just something they’re going through for the time being?
Yes. There’s some shocking developments with Ezra Fitz in Season 4. I cannot tease them, but your eyebrows are going to fall off! Hold onto them! [Laughs]

TVLINE | You raved earlier this year about Troian Bellisario’s arc in Season 3 — and rightfully so. Does anyone new have a standout storyline like that in Season 4?
Several, actually. Hanna’s got something that’s very juicy — juicy, juicy, juicy, juicy, juicy. [Laughs] And Emily and Aria have personal arcs that are really interesting, as well.

TVLINE | And lastly, just because you’re always so good at this, sum up Season 4 in a few words.
Is she or isn’t she? Only air traffic control knows for sure… [Laughs]

Opening in theaters on March 22nd comedy/crime drama from writer and director Harmony Korine (Gummo) called Spring Breakers. The film stars an eclectic of actors including Selena Gomez (Hotel Transylvania), Vanessa Hudgens (Sucker Punch), Ashley Benson (TV’s Pretty Little Liars), Rachel Korine (Trash Humpers), and Academy Award-nominee James Franco (Oz the Great and Powerful).

IAR’s Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down with Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine to talk about their controversial work on Spring Breakers. The young actresses discussed their new film, why Selena Gomez is so tired, the controlled chaos on set, acting with real college kids on spring break, the craziest thing they saw happen while they were shooting, why Gomez wanted to be a part of this project and play against type, if Vanessa Hudgens expected it would cause such a controversy when she agreed to do the movie, what it’s like for Rachel Korine to work with her husband director Harmony Korine, if James Franco is really crazy, why he stayed in character throughout production even when they weren’t shooting, and the fact that the actresses don’t feel like they ever met the real James Franco.

To watch our exclusive interview with Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine about Spring Breakers please click on the video player above.

Emmy winner Jake Hamilton sits down to talk with the stars of SPRING BREAKERS — Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine — only on Jake’s Takes!