Here are some photos from last night’s Time Magazine “100 Most Influential People” Gala in NYC. This is not a fashion event. You can tell because the fashion is AWFUL and because Sen. Rand Paul was there. Sen. Paul is on the list… and Claire Danes is not. Claire was there to honor Lena Dunham, I think? Anyway, Claire wore this Lanvin dress which I had to examine very closely. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve starting to think that Lanvin really sucks. Much like Erdem, it’s become a really overrated label and this dress is a good example why. Claire can wear all kinds of looks and pull them off – she’s just got that kind of body and face. But even she can’t pull off this fugness. It’s like they were trying to make a hideous dress and Claire is trying to be avant-garde by wearing it. Her husband looks cute though!

Here’s Lena Dunham in Saint Laurent. This just looks awful on her. I think I’m starting to “get” what she’s aiming for, style-wise, but I wish she would rethink the look she’s failing to pull off. Instead of going for some twee hipster look, I wish she would aim for “classic, flattering”. I do think her hair looks sort of cute here though.

Padma Lakshmi in… an optical illusion dress (I can’t find the ID). The dress is bad enough, but her styling just seems meh. What’s with her hair?

Olivia Munn in Michael Kors. I had to do a double-check to make sure Olivia wasn’t included on Time’s Most Influential list. She’s not on the list. Thank God. Her Kors dress is terrible.

Tracy Anderson AAARRGH!!!

Photos courtesy of Andres Otero/WENN.com.

Lena Dunham did the “20 Questions” thing in Playboy’s April issue, and… I don’t hate her. I know that I’m supposed to have all of these complicated feelings about Lena Dunham and Girls, but I’ve only seen a few episodes and while I didn’t think it was groundbreaking TV or anything, I admire Lena from a distance for many different reasons. And I seriously didn’t hate this interview. You can read the whole thing here and here are some of the most interesting quotes:

On the gender divide: “I never chalk up anything to the gender divide and say, “Well, that’s just a male thing.” I hate the conventional wisdom that men are supposedly complete pieces of s–t and it’s our job as women to put up with them. Men are just as sensitive and easily victimized as women are, but there’s not as much of an infrastructure for expressing it. That drives me nuts. We’re all humans and doing human stuff. We’d have a better world if everyone had someone they could pay for talk therapy.”

Writing male roles: “Just as careful as when writing female roles. Saying that women have been written as sassy best friends or slutty girlfriends since the beginning of time so now guys deserve whatever comes to them is not an acceptable excuse—even though it’s amazing to me that Hollywood persists in writing these two-dimensional female characters who don’t really exist. No wonder it’s hard for actresses to find parts that are meaty enough to connect with. It’s important to me to create fully formed characters who don’t feel just like good guys, villains, creeps or sluts. I want it to feel real. I want my male friends to feel just as much of a connection to my work as my female friends do.”

The feminism of Girls: “On Girls I like being a mouthpiece for the issues I think young females face today. It’s always shocking when people question whether it’s a feminist show. How could a show about women exploring women not be? Feminism isn’t a dirty word. It’s not like we’re a deranged group who think women should take over the planet, raise our young on our own and eliminate men from the picture. Feminism is about women having all the rights that men have.”

What if she woke up and had the body of a Victoria’s Secret model: “I’d be really disoriented and wonder what had happened in the night. Which enemy had dragged me to the doctor? I don’t think I’d like it very much. There would be all kinds of weird challenges to deal with that I don’t have to deal with now. I don’t want to go through life wondering if people are talking to me because I have a big rack. Not being the babest person in the world creates a nice barrier. The people who talk to you are the people who are interested in you. It must be a big burden in some ways to look that way and be in public. That said, I probably would want to see if I could get free food at restaurants. Then I’d call a doctor and see if she could return me to my former situation.”

She’s a romantic: “When I was younger I liked men who gave me some guff. I liked badasses with hearts of gold, though they often ended up not having a heart of gold. They were a little like the Adam character on Girls. Now I’m much more into someone who is interesting and open with his emotions, has a really good sense of humor and a passion for what he does, wants to hang out with my parents and doesn’t want to stay out too late. If I can get excited imagining funny things he did as a kid, there’s a pretty good chance I’m in love with him. It’s a sad day when you stop believing in the idea of having a soul mate or having someone who understands you deeply and loves you eternally. I’m a pretty unorthodox girl, but I guess people might be surprised to learn that despite what some of the characters on the show are doing, I remain an eternal romantic with a desire to hear all the things girls like to hear said to them.”

Her favorite items at the grocery store: “I cannot get out of the market without six trashy magazines and seven packs of gum. I wish I could resist those things. Oh, and sometimes a Cadbury Creme Egg, if it’s in season.”

How she learned about sex: “I think I was five. A girl at school explained it to me. I didn’t believe her because it seemed so barbaric, so I went home and asked my parents if it was true. They sat down together and explained sex to me. My parents were sensitive. They said, “Your dad and I did this so that you could get made.” They gave me the male and female perspective. That was the traumatic part. I remember thinking, I don’t want to learn this, and I definitely don’t want to learn this looking at the faces of both of you. I wish one of them had taken the job and come into my bedroom alone. But I asked. It was because Amanda DiLauro told me, so it was really her fault.

On Girls not being representative of a wider demographic: “I think that’s a valid criticism, but we can’t let that erase someone’s ability to tell a personal story. While being racist and promoting inequality are crimes that should be punished, the sin of writing two Jewish girl characters and two Waspy characters feels less egregious to me. I’ve tried to be elegant about it and receive the criticism, and I understand what’s hard about it. At the same time I’m like, Really?”

What’s in her purse: “I still keep a paper date planner, which seems pretty old-school. I always have a novel. The stray-vitamin situation is pretty out of hand. But most surprising? A spoon. I’m always dragging one around. It’s a metal spoon. A plastic spoon makes sense. A metal spoon from your house makes it look like you’re going to commit a spoon murder.”

[From Playboy]

I think she’s funny and clever. Is that wrong? I know I would probably feel differently about her if I actually sat down and watched all of the episodes of Girls – like, I’m pretty sure I would find her annoying – but I take Lena in small doses, and I enjoy her. She’s an interesting voice added to the conversation about media, television and entertainment. And she’s right about this: “we can’t let that erase someone’s ability to tell a personal story…” While I don’t really relate to Lena or her life or her show, why is that such an all-or-nothing criticism?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Here are some photos from the Writers Guild Awards, which were held last night in NYC and LA. Winners included Mark Boal’s original screenplay for Zero Dark Thirty, with the Argo script winning adapted screenplay. The TV winners included Lena Dunham, Louis CK, and scripts for episodes of Mad Men and Modern Family (which are two of the arguably best-written shows on television today). Shall we talk about fashion? Let’s talk about fashion. Jessica Chastain was there to celebrate Mark Boal, and she wore this Christian Dior dress which… I don’t like. What is Jessica’s issue with tailoring?! This bustier thing looks flat-out LUMPY. And it’s the wrong color for a pale ginger too.

Here’s some Walton Goggins, just for Bedhead (and no one else!).

Nathan Fillion, because bitches be all up on some Fillion.

I love Mindy Kaling. I LOVE The Mindy Project, which… if you haven’t watched it and you’re one of these people throwing fits about Girls and Lena Dunham, you really should watch The Mindy Project. Mindy is hilarious, it’s an exceptionally well-written romance-comedy show, and it has a great supporting cast. So, even though I love Mindy, I just CANNOT START with this outfit. The dress looks cheap and the booties are terrible.

Bad news, y’all. Amy Poehler got breakup bangs. NOOOOOoooooo.

And here’s Lena Dunham in Reed Krakoff. Can I just say? I think this is the cutest she’s looked all awards season. No joke.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Yesterday, Dustin Rowles at Pajiba had a great piece about the hatred/disgust of Lena Dunham and Girls – go here to read it. Considering that I’ve only watched a few episodes of the first season of Girls, I’m not qualified to bash Lena (at least according to Dustin). While I didn’t care for the episodes that I saw – I thought it was too insider-y, too “whiny over-privileged hipsters complaining about everything”, too… small. But I still don’t really get the enormous backlash unleashed against Lena and the show, except maybe that people should stop treating the show like it’s the future of comedy or that it’s the new big thing. It’s just a small TV show that doesn’t say much about anything.

One of the really unfortunate parts of the show’s success and the even bigger backlash to that success is that Lena Dunham has been overanalyzed and criticized to a ridiculous degree. She’s naked in the show a lot, and her body isn’t perfect, which she freely acknowledges. And? Why do people throw around the “fat” criticism so often with her, like they can’t believe HBO has the audacity to let a non-model-thin woman star in a TV show? Anyway, Howard Stern dropped an f-bomb (the “f” being “fat”) the other day, which didn’t surprise me in the least. What did surprise me? Howard kind of apologized for saying it and he praised Lena and said he was obsessed with her, and she called into his show. Now they’re BFFs or something.

Typically brash Howard Stern surprised both fans and critics alike by issuing a public apology to Lena Dunham on his radio show Monday, Jan. 14, so the Girls creator did what any gracious Hollywood starlet would do: She called in.

The 26-year-old director/actress/writer dropped a line during Stern’s SiriusXM Radio show Wednesday, Jan. 16, to reassure Stern that his comments were water under the bridge — and call him out on one comment in particular.

“I don’t even know where to begin with all of this,” an apologetic Stern began. “The reason I felt so awful was because when Perez Hilton wrote his article, he told half the story. …I started to compare you to Woody Allen … the whole thing came together for me.”

The shock jock, 59, continued with a declaration: “I realize: Not only am I addicted, but I totally get you… I’m in love with you and your character… I guess I just wanted to tell you I love you and I think you’re terrific.”

On Monday, Jan. 7, Stern caused an angry buzz online after he slammed both Dunham and her hit HBO show Girls.

“It’s a little fat girl who kinda looks like Jonah Hill and she keeps taking her clothes off and it kind of feels like rape. She seems — it’s like — I don’t want to see that,” he scoffed at the time.

Dunham admitted Wednesday that she first learned of his cruel comments after castmate Jemima Kirke, who is a huge fan of Stern’s show, tipped her off that the radio host was comparing her to the Superbad actor.

“I thought that was a good line, actually,” Stern chuckled, trying to make light of the situation.
Dunham responded gamely, but made sure to still get her point across.

But Stern wouldn’t take back his weight comments. “It’s not about apologizing, although I want to say I’m a fan of yours,”

“I’m not that fat, Howard,” she said. “I don’t mean to take major issue with you about this. I’m not super thin, but I’m thin for, like, Detroit.”

Stern agreed, explaining that he just meant that she often played up the “fat angle” on the show.

“You’re not obese or anything,” he allowed.

“Thank you. Another thing for my gravestone,” Dunham laughed, referring to comments she made on the Late Show last Thursday, Jan. 10. “Howard Stern says, ‘You’re not obese or anything.’”

[From Us Weekly]

That was a decent line from Lena – “I’m not super thin, but I’m thin for, like, Detroit.” Detroit people will probably be mad about that, though. When I think of overweight cities, Chicago and Philadelphia come to mind (all of those pizzas and cheese steaks) so we all over-generalize. But seriously, can you believe that Howard backtracked like this? And that he’s actually a big fan? Ugh. Anyway. I wish people would stop nitpicking this woman so much. You don’t have to love her or anything, but I don’t understand why so many people are obsessed with talking about her…?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Lena Dunham covers the February issue of Interview magazine to promote the second season of “Girls.” After Lena’s awkward yet pretentious turn at the Globes on Sunday, I decided to watch some clips of the show in an effort to dislike her just a little bit less. Boy, did that plan fail, but at least I can’t say that I dislike Lena any more after watching her go jogging, only to sit down in the middle of the street, pull off her Asics, and recline there while her “clever” boyfriend pontificates upon how much ice cream is really just “sweet mucus.” Basically, I am guessing that she really is her own “Girls” character in much more than just a semi-autobiographical way. Mind you, Lena writes much of the material for the show itself, so she must really think she’s something special.

Even though this Interview piece was just released, Lena couldn’t resist posting the cover on her Twitter page last week. The photoshoot features Lena in a series of poses with her mouth hanging open in nearly every shot, but at least it’s much more flattering than that recent awful Terry Richardson shoot with the toothpaste-laden “money shot.” The feature article itself is surprisingly bland, and the interview is conducted by Miranda July, the ultra-twee, independent filmmaker who is apparently a close personal friend of Lena’s (just like Zac Posen). Here are some excerpts:

The weird side of fame: “Well, because of the show, I’ve started to get used to people feeling like they already know me when they meet me. I’ve obviously only experienced it within the past year of my life, but it’s really interesting to have so many people who you’re not familiar with act familiar with you. So you do have to come up with a strategy for how to handle that, and mine has been to try to match that familiarity by being familiar back. I’ve decided that instead of feeling like it’s creepy, I can feel like it’s really kind for people to go out on a limb like that and be familiar with someone they’ve never met. The only flip side to that has been that I’ve had this thing happen where I’ve been really familiar with someone and they will feel like we’ve started a close friendship, and then I’ll feel like I’ve disappointed them in some way by having a boundary in my life. Then it also makes me self-conscious because I’m worried that the close friends that I do have will think, “Oh, we’re not as close as I thought because she’s–”

Why does she create? “I know that in my family–despite the massive amounts of acceptance–it was thought that in order to be a person who is really contributing something to the world, you had to be generating things creatively. So performing was only really interesting to my parents in the context of things that you create. I think if I’d wanted to be like a straight-up actress, then as much as they might love watching movies and respect the work of Cate Blanchett or Meryl Streep, they would have been flummoxed by the decision, because it would not have involved an appropriate amount of, to their minds, control and expression. In fact, it’s only recently that I even realized that performing was a part of the process that I enjoy. I always behaved as though I was acting in my own work out of some sort of strange utility, and once I found an appropriate stand-in, then I would stop. I think I’d aligned the idea of liking it with having a horrible ego or something, and admitting that I liked it or that it was important to me–even to myself–just didn’t feel okay. Then I always had these two things of feeling really respected and connected at home, and going to school and feeling like I just could not get it right. I didn’t feel like the other kids got me, but then I was also sort of bored and annoyed by them, so I knew that a large part of it was my problem. I actually had to switch schools because I didn’t have friends. I remember my parents saying, ‘She is so victimized at her school, so she has to switch.’ But I was like, ‘I’m switching schools because I’m an a-hole.’ So in answer to your question, I did feel seen by my parents, but I sometimes felt overly seen.”

She never got decent parts in school plays: “Yeah, like I always wanted to be in the school play, and I was constantly preparing for auditions in a way that was crazy–reading the book that the play was based on, fantasizing, working on things in the bathtub–and then I’d literally get cast as, like, a bouncing ball or a fat man or security guard.”

On her “artistic” upbringing: “That’s an interesting question. Who knows if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but you read about a kid who grew up in the Playboy Mansion or somewhere really wild, and they’re always like, ‘I didn’t know anything else. I just thought this was life.’ But I never felt like that. I always felt like it was really special to have parents who were artists and to live the kind of life that we lived in a big loft–which wasn’t actually that big, but felt big because I was small. But I thought there was a kind of romance to it. So I don’t know if it’s good to be engaged in that way with your own life, but I always sort of was. I’ve seen the other version of it, too, though.”

On criticism of ‘Girls’ as self-obsessed: “Not like I listen to every piece of feedback, but there are definitely people who feel like the characters on ‘Girls’ are intolerably in their own heads and don’t understand the purposeful part of that. I know that when I have moments like that, it occurs to me how much I’ve been viewing a situation through my own convenient lens, which is the most exciting kind of revelation to have–and the most distressing kind of one to have about yourself.”

[From Interview Magazine]

What a bunch of naval gazing, right? Lena didn’t even say anything that was obnoxious or offensive here, but she still comes off as grating because it’s all about her. Sure, she is the one being interviewed, but I just get the feeling that she’s been rehearsing answers to such questions in the mirror since she was a preteen. It must be nice to have the luxury to be so self involved in life.

Photos courtesy of Interview Magazine

Last night when Jason Bateman was grimacing alongside Aziz Ansari (who was pretending to be really baked) while presenting the Best Actress, Comedy or Musical Series award, I was actually chanting, “Anyone but Lena Dunham! Anyone but Lena Dunham! Oh … crap.” Because she won. Lena Dunham actually won, and now we can officially blame Judd Apatow for the further deterioration of Western civilization. Lena’s brainchild, HBO’s “Girls,” also won Best Comedy or Musical Series, so I guess she’s here to stay for at least a few more television seasons before the show’s gimmick wears thin. Here are her acceptance speeches for both awards, and Lena claims that she was nominated to speak on behalf of the entire “Girls” cast and crew. I guess we’ll take her word for it.

On the red carpet, Lena wore Zac Posen and claimed “[he’s] an old friend of mine so it’s very exciting to be wearing him in this context.” Of course Zac is an old friend. Why wouldn’t he be? The gown was not good though. The color — puce — clashed garishly with Lena’s skin tone (nothing against pale girls because I’m pale too and would never wear that color), and she looked so incredibly awkward. What’s even worse is that Lena couldn’t walk in whatever high heels she had on under that dress, so she simply tottered up to the stage while accepting both awards. With a dress that length, Lena really should have gone with flats instead of tight, uncomfortable heels in which she couldn’t even bother to learn to walk. No one would have even noticed flats.

Lena’s hair and makeup were basically the same as her every day street look. She could have at least worn a cute, matchy-matchy headband, right? She grates so much.

Here’s Lena with Allison Williams and Zosia Mamet. I always think of Zosia as the charismatic lesbian from “Mad Men.” She was pretty great in that guest spot.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN

If I ever become famous, there are a few fine points upon which I’d absolutely insist in every business transaction. Oh, don’t laugh at the idea — you obviously haven’t read my amazing Twilight fanfictions that replace Edward and Bella with … lions and robots. Nevermind. Back to those demands, which aren’t huge or anything, but they are very necessary: (1) No Marchesa dresses on the red carpet or otherwise (suck it, Harvey); (2) No Scientologists allowed on or near the premises; and (3) Absolutely no photoshoots with the revolting Terry Richardson.

With that said, Lena Dunham (writer and star of HBO’s “Girls”) appears in the spring issue of V magazine (the one with grubby Kristen Stewart on the cover), and the spread was shot by creepy Terry himself. Now I know that Lena has a pretty big attitude and is generally insufferable regarding her as yet unwritten $3.5 million autobiography, but she totally doesn’t deserve this, right? The sad part is that Lena doesn’t get it. Terry has shot her with the same pr0ny lighting and style as he’s done for every wannabe model who has had the misfortune to walk into his studio. Above, Lena is wearing a Calvin Klein bodysuit and Manolo Blahnik shoes, and she clearly works overtime to project an anti-establishment vibe with her image, but it all falls apart in this interview. Basically, she’s a fangirl too, and irony is for losers:

She love designer freebies: “I cannot deny it, and I cannot get over it. And they actually send them in my size. No one’s being an asshole and sending them to me in a 4. They’re sending me clothes, they fit, and what people should know is that I always wear them. Somehow even if I wouldn’t have bought it, the fact that it was free and my grandma’s depression-era mentality make me think it is the most beautiful thing I ever owned, and I wear it for several days straight.”

She’s friends with Taylor Swift: “We have D.M.’ed. I’m a really big fan. She started following me, and here’s how you find out Taylor Swift is following you. You start hearing from all the insane Taylor Swift fans that are like ‘If Taylor Swift loves you I love you.’ So I sent her a message. I was like, ‘I just want to let you know that your albums have gotten me through a lot of very hard times.’ When I tweeted that her new album was amazing, every one of my Twitter followers was like, ‘I so hope that you’re joking.’ But I have no interest in liking anything ironically. If I wanted to be ironic, I’d grow a mustache.”

She’s not much for travel: “I hated India. I know you’re not allowed to hate India. But I did. I wasn’t happy. And I felt crazy. I’m a hypochondriac. I saw too many puppies that I thought needed me. So my mom and I got in a big fight and I left India. Early.”

Growing up rich was still isolating: “It’s so trite, but I think so much of my worldview was formed by feeling isolated. If you go to school in New York, if you go to Saint Ann’s or Dalton, because there aren’t kids being shoved into lockers in the same way, you’re expected not to have that isolating adolescence. But from kindergarten onward, I was like, I don’t know what to do with people. First I was a tiny little kid and I didn’t have friends, and then I was a chubby teenager and I didn’t have friends. It was just this sensation that I didn’t know how to connect.”

She likes not being pretty: “Meeting actresses who such a big part of their job is about what they look like, I feel so lucky to be freed from that prison. I ate cake for breakfast on the day of the Emmys, I ate cake for dinner, my workout didn’t require Spanx, and I still feel like I looked better than people expected me to. It was amazing. I could feel the envy of every woman in the Sunset Tower. I think we can all agree with the idea that beautiful girls that get all the boys get written about. They usually don’t write.”

[From V magazine]

I know that Lena is supposed to be a rather irreverent and major talent in today’s industry, but I just don’t see what’s so remarkable about her thoughts as expressed in this interview. She likes Taylor Swift and would only be ironic if she grew a mustache? It’s like she’s trying so hard to be unironic because irony has been killed by the hipsters that came before her. Like, she’s cooler than cool because she eats cake for breakfast and dinner. I don’t know. Lena truly doesn’t seem like a terrible person, but she does grate.

If you’re curious about Lena’s forthcoming book, Gawker has published excerpts of her book proposal, which is pretty unimpressive from a literary standpoint, and Lena promptly directed her lawyers to issue a cease and desist letter, but Gawker has refused to remove what is essentially “12 one-sentence quotes lifted from the 66-page proposal.” So far, Lena’s lawyers have not made good on their threats, but I think it would be hard to convince a court to award damages for copyright infringement concerning a proposal for a book that doesn’t even exist.

Oh, and this toothpaste picture is really gross. Terry should be ashamed of himself.

Photos courtesy of V magazine

I’ll be perfectly honest here in that I don’t know too terribly much about Lena Dunham. She’s one of those ironic hipsters who not only pens but also annoyingly acts within HBO’s “Girls” series, and she recently scored a $3.5 million payday for her very first (as yet unwritten) book. She is also now part of Judd Apatow’s crew because she published an essay for This is 40, and she is described by the Hollywood Reporter as Apatow’s new “prized pupil.” Once you’re part of Apatow’s club, you are seldom thrown to the wayside (just ask Paul Rudd or Apatow’s own wife, Leslie Mann) unless (like Katherine Heigl) you dare to speak against the master. So Lena Dunham had best be careful how she operates in the future and stay on Apatow’s good side, but she’s making an odd start in this essay by turning her nose up to writers who dare to get paid for their services. She’s not really trying to make friends outside her little group, is she?

Lena Dunham Doesn’t Write For Money And Doesn’t Think You Should Either

This statement comes at the beginning of an essay she penned for the published screenplay for Judd Apatow’s This is 40, where Dunham ponders the “many reasons” people write which include “glory” and the ability to use the keyboard to “figure things out.”

As for filthy lucre? That’s deemed “a weird plan.”

On one hand, this statement makes complete sense. Most writers barely make a dime from writing, something a cursory look at the Who Pays Tumblr can demonstrate. Going into the field to make a few shekels is about an effective a strategy as moving to Casablanca for the waters, despite the fact that, once upon a time, Charles Dickens not only wrote for money, he was pilloried by critics for doing just that.

On the other hand, people do need to pay the rent, and it isn’t exactly nice to discover that someone who is earning $3.5 million for her musings is so clueless about the things the rest of the world often needs to take on to get by like, say, corporate writing gigs or staff positions on television programs on that can kindly be described as less profound than “Girls.” It gives ammunition to all of those critics, formerly thought of as humorless, who pointed out the absurdity of presenting Dunham’s Girls as a generational statement as if all Millennials come from a privileged, artistic background. They just need space, time and an understanding boss so they can find their way in the world after their well-off parents pull the financial plug.

Let me be clear: Dunham’s Hannah, the autobiographical character she created for “Girls,” does not suffer from a permanent shortage of funds. She could be better described as having a cash-flow problem, which is not the same thing at all. This is the sort of situation that gives one the freedom to say writing for money is “weird.”

Here’s hoping the next season of “Girls” takes this issue on.

[From Forbes]

I speak from the perspective of someone who has never watched “Girls,” but CB has watched the show and confirmed that Lena’s character does have a “a cash-flow problem“; and even though she comes from an upper-middle-class family, her parents have cut her off, so she’s very “cash poor” and subsists by the good grace of her friends and crappy jobs. I honestly don’t see why Lena’s zeroing in on people who write for money, and if Lena’s character is truly autobiographical, it makes even less sense that she’d pick on a profession that’s very hard to break into and even harder to make a living while doing. Unless, that is, Lena’s trying to convince the world that her own unexpected financial success (seriously, $3.5 mill in a time when many publishers are struggling to hold their doors open?) was an unintended side effect of her hipster cred. Like hipster karma or something.

Incidentally, Lena has also just also posed for Entertainment Weekly in a new Twiggy-inspired pictorial. Accordingly, she was ironically observed to have been “obsessed with her final transformation” and was spotted taking photos of herself in the mirror after the shoot. Naturally.

Photos courtesy of EW.com and WENN

Believe it or not, I really liked Nicole Kidman’s dress when I first saw it on the red carpet. But now that I’m looking at it in photos, I’m not so sure. I think some of the magic, some of the detailing of the gown might be lost in photos. The gown was by Antonio Berardi, which is surprising to me because Nicole usually chooses more “classic designers” for the major red carpets, like Dior or Valentino, etc. It’s nice that she’s mixing it up. As for Nicole’s loss for Hemingway & Gellhorn… I was thrilled that she lost to Julianne Moore (Moore won for Game Change). I had a feeling that was going to happen, and I wonder if Nicole was pissed about it. Nicole and Julianne know each other, they worked together on The Hours, etc. I think Nicole is a professional, and she probably wasn’t too pissed off.

Should we talk about Nicole’s face? Seriously, you guys, it’s WORSE THAN EVER. You know why? Nicole said why during her interview with Ryan Seacrest – she’ll be in France playing Grace Kelly. A 45-year-old playing the 33-year-old Princess Grace. Buy stock in Botox!

And here’s Lena Dunham in Prada. I don’t watch Girls, which I hope isn’t an anti-woman admission. I just don’t have HBO, and so I don’t really understand why Lena is a big deal. So I’m only judging her on fashion and styling, both of which are not great. I will say that her dress looks a lot prettier when you can see all of it – when the camera cut her off at the hip, it was awful. I basically think she looks like a little girl who is wearing her first “big girl” dress and everything just seems uncomfortable. There’s too much lace – everything seems stiff and bridesmaid-y.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Major spoilers for “Girls” season finale follow
Did you guys watch “Girls” this season and did you like it? I’m asking at the start of this story because I don’t have a lot of nice things to say about it and I’m trying to stall a little. Plus I’m open to other opinions. I wanted to like it, and I did for a few episodes. I get that it’s somewhat groundbreaking, and somewhat “real” (for a certain demographic of privileged hipsters with too much time on their hands.) It felt awfully self indulgent to me without being that entertaining. It’s only a half hour show but every week it felt longer. I found the characters whiny, hard to relate to and unlikable. They did things that made me cringe, especially the lead character Hannah, the show’s writer/creator Leah Dunham. The only character I cared about was Shoshannah, but she’s not enough to get me to watch another season of this mess. (And it has been renewed for another season.)

There were some great lines in this final episode though, I have to admit. I was baffled at the big wedding to cap off the season. Jessa probably married that guy just to get her green card, but I tell you I just don’t care. If I never find out another thing about these characters, I’ll be glad. I’m going to quote Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly here, because he likes the show and I want to provide a counter viewpoint. I don’t want to just complain, like Hannah. Maybe I just don’t “get it.” Here’s more:

The arc of the first season of Girls was an undulating one. The Lena Dunham comedy-drama-mixology-experiment commenced, in its first two episodes, as an indie film in half-hour chunks, then ventured further into sitcom territory without dropping its thoughtfulness, and in its finale managed to balance the funny, the serious, the absurd, and the poignant in a strikingly surprising, effective conclusion.

The episode, titled “She Did,” continued to increase the importance of one character — the delightfully grumpy Ray — who managed to make a love connection with Shohanna and also deliver the night’s wisest punchline. The latter was delivered to his employee, Hannah, who decided to spend a bit of down-time at her job at Ray’s coffee shop by reading a book. Chastised about this by the boss, Hannah began her excuse by saying “I just thought — ” only to be cut off by Ray: “Don’t ‘just think’ — that’s an extremely unattractive trait of your generation.” Once again, Dunham demonstrated the way she can dramatize the way some people look at “her generation,” criticize it, and still end up embodying its best aspects. As Hannah, Dunham is frequently adorable; for proof, I offer the moment when she approached her girlfriends, all dolled up and sing-songing, “Mah shoes match mah dress — kind of!”

The surprise wedding of Jessa to that jerk Thomas was, to me at least, truly startling. But everyone on-screen rolled with it, especially Shoshanna, who lost her virginity to Ray over the course of events. Indeed, Dunham structured the “mystery party” like a Robert Altman film, with lots of overlapping dialogue and simultaneous subplots including Elijah confessing to Hannah that “I did give you HPV” primarily so that the scene could peak with Hannah delivering the line, “Let’s consider it water under my vagina.” (Or maybe the true shocker was Marnie smooching with Bobby Moynihan??)

Hannah and Adam seemed on the verge of a breakthrough in their relationship (“I’m very moved,” he said, witnessing Jessa’s marriage, and he wasn’t kidding; neither was he when he told Hannah she was pretty, a good writer, and a good friend), but once again, were on different wavelengths, or not quite in emotional synch. Just as Adam was willing to commit, Hannah was feeling most frightened of him — the ferocity of his general life-force, which is a polite way of saying his raging mood-swings combined with his flatteringly intense interest in her. Adam Driver really sold the speeches Dunham wrote for him here, the way he had become so livid that Hannah didn’t appreciate herself, and didn’t comprehend his feelings toward her — couldn’t believe that someone could like her as much as he does. Who’d have thought, at the beginning of the season, that Girls would become a kinda-great love story about two people who aren’t sure when the other one is feeling the love?
“Anything could happen,” said Adam at the start of the episode. No kidding: BAM! I almost saw that truck coming, didn’t you? Adam’s injury, and his ability to remain furious with Hannah even while writhing in pain, capped off the season in just the sort of open-ended manner Girls excels at maintaining. Eating wedding cake on the beach in the final seconds, I wanted Jon Hamm’s Don Draper to teleport next to her and give her some buck-up-kiddo advice.

[From EW]

So Hannah’s boyfriend got hit by a car, just like the author she called “lucky” last week for earning such a great personal story after her boyfriend committed suicide. How anyone can find a character like that “adorable” is beyond me. Some of you may like this show and find it refreshing. It’s certainly unlike any other show on television. I have a hard time watching people complain, whine and fight about petty things. Maybe Dunham thinks it’s clever to poke fun at herself as a younger, presumably less thoughtful person. I just couldn’t get on board and am relieved that the season is over. Prior to “Girls” I never knew what “mumblecore” meant. I wish I remained ignorant.