Lena Dunham covers the February issue of Elle Magazine (US). The photoshoot was done when Lena was still a “blonde” although her roots in these photos could take over the world. Honestly though… I think this ashy-blonde with dark-roots look is much better than her weird platinum blonde bowl cut look from September. I hope she never goes back to that. Anyway, this is Elle’s “TV Issue” and I wish they had put someone like Viola Davis on the cover to better represent TV these days. You can see Lena’s Elle profile here (including lots of ass-kissing quotes from Elle’s editor-in-chief), and here is the one quote that Elle released – Lena talking about how she views her celebrity:
“I realized early on that I was not going to be able to have a comfortable relationship with celebrity if I didn’t feel like I was using it to talk about things that were important to me. It was always going to make me feel gross, for lack of a better word. I was like, ‘Oh, this attention is something I’m going to figure out how to use in a way that feels productive, healthy, and smart. And not just like as an excuse to collect handbags. Although… I love handbags.”
Sigh… the thing about it is that I’ve realized, over the course of the past year, is just how thirsty Lena Dunham is. I no longer buy this idea that Lena is a reluctant celebrity or that she shies away from talking about her personal life in any way. Nope. She’s thirsty. She loves the attention, any attention. The fact that she talks about some issues that I believe in as well (a woman’s right to choose, women becoming more involved in the political process) doesn’t change the fact that Lena is all about Lena. Yes, she uses her celebrity for good every now and then, but mostly Lena is just about The Lena Show.
Photos courtesy of Paola Kudacki for ELLE.
And we feel groos looking at your career too.
I mean..what chances would she have had if it wasn’t for her family’s connection?
I don’t think she is talented or smart and her show sucks balls big time.
This^^^
Exactly. Your fame makes us feel gross, too, Lena.
Oh Lena, you make us feel gross about your career, your icky book, your lack of style, and your general slovenliness. That’s right, you have shared the gross. Now please just shut up, pack away your gross and go away.
100% agree!
You feel gross, Lena, because you are gross.
All the above comments are perfectly stated.
I would also like to add that this woman is as hypocritical as LeAnn Rimes, and that is saying a lot.
The only thing I support Lena in is to be just as crappy as other guys who write/direct/produce their own crappy projects WITH SUCCESS. Other than that, girl, please.
I just can’t with her.
Also, is it just me, or has good old photoshop slimmed her down a lot?
Same, I have tried to watch girls and cannot get past the apathetic tone and constant internal conflict about nothing. While this show does reflect a segment of the population, it isn’t something deep/counterculture to hold a mirror up to, nor is it art.
On a petty note she reminds me of one long sigh; the kind children make when they get the wrong toy at Christmas. I always want to shake her into posture and tuck her shirt in. Fuck her for turning me into my mom.
OMG you just hit the nail on the head for me. Every time I see her a want to push her shoulders back and tap her on the chin so she’ll close her mouth. My grandmother would be so proud.
“On a petty note she reminds me of one long sigh; the kind children make when they get the wrong toy at Christmas.” Um, this comment is giving me life today.
I am a woman, millenial, and a feminist yet I can’t like Lena. I tried but it doesn’t happen.
Oh, knock it off, Lena! It’s like when Katy Perry said that fame was “a disgusting by-product” of what she was doing. I grant you that becoming famous wasn’t the main motivation for you, but don’t treat us as if we’re stupid and can’t see that you’re clearly enjoying that attention. Nothing wrong with that, by the way.
She just tries. So. Hard. I imagine that she thinks she’s above all of the empty-headed hollywood starlets that only care about handbags, but yet she’s more than happy to do the sexy-pose magazine spreads. You’re no different than the people you’re too cool for.
” You’re no different than the people you’re too cool for.”
Very well put indeed, atrain!
Yes! The irony of making these type of comments whilst doing the open-mouth pout and posing for photos in Elle! Really…
Something nice I love her outfit with the red skirt (just the outfit not her). Has she ever done anything other than Girls?
She wen’t to college and after that she began writing – I think she wrote and directed some short films before Girls. Oh and I think she has a small role in This is 40!
…all of which arose from her family’s connections to Judd Apatow and others in the art/entertainment world. I finally settled on why she bothers me so effing much: she completely lacks depth. There is not an ounce of self-awareness in her public persona or her work. Narcissism and compulsive attention-seeking are very different from thoughtfulness and self-reflection. She proves this over and over, with from her gleeful stories about violating her little sister’s bodily autonomy, to her total unwillingness to seriously examine whiteness and class privilege in her work. I just can’t believe that so many people I admire also admire her. She’s just vapid.
Oh, I had no idea she had those types of connections. But, it all makes sense now, because I couldn’t understand for the life of me, how she has managed to garner all this success. Ahh, the ole nepotism strikes again and again and again and again, etc…
BTW, Katenotkatie your description of Lena also describes her character of Hannah Horvath on “Girls” to a T. Art imitating life (minus the connections), perhaps?
Those not seeking fame will stick to working behind the camera, or will act but not make their actual persona a media thing – avoid magazine covers, don’t write memoirs, don’t show up to every event in a ridiculous outfit. She is so very desperate for attention.
Also, Viola would have been a much better choice – her show (while IMO not great) has been a big success, and is brand new with a huge audience. Lena’s show is probably almost done it’s run, and has a teeny tiny audience (probably half of which are hate watching). If they want someone who is more involved in the creation of shows, how about Shonda Rhimes? Or Mindy Kaling?
I liked what you wrote in the Links the other day- “I hope 2015 will be the year we stop talking about Lena.”
Give up the money and attention that comes with being a celebrity like yourself and then maybe I would care.
At least she practices unwitting transparency.
Sick. Of. Her.
Maybe if we all ignore her, she’ll go away???
I think she consciously knew what she was doing when she began; I don’t buy that she never intended to become famous. I think it was one of her main motivations because, after reading some of her book, she seems entirely self involved and the bellybutton gazing type whose always trying to “figure her self out, man” for lack of a better term.
I think the backlash and critics have made her cynical–she’s realized a lot of people dislike her–but she’s too proud to admit that to herself.
(I’m an arm chair psychologist.)
I have to agree with Lena, her fame makes me feel gross too.
I’m so bothered by her. I’m bothered that she’s somehow the face of “modern feminism”, how she fabricated her rape story and the media isn’t eating her alive for it (which they should, because rape isn’t something she -ANYONE- should use to further her own agenda. It’s a scarring experience, not a charming little anecdote in her ‘thrilling’ memoir) and I’m just generally really bothered by her existence. Don’t even mention the sister thing, I might puke.
But mostly I’m REALLY bothered by the fact that people are still paying attention to her, watching her awful show and supporting her. Like, what has she done except Girls? I wish she’d go away. I’m all for women being successful and independent but this… She’s a mess. NEXT.
She’s just the ultimate troll, isn’t she? Between these comments and Kaley Cuoco’s I’m almost starting to feel a fondness for Gwyneth and her deluded notions of being a bluebood icon who made it all on her own…
STFUUUUUUUUUUUUU.
I can’t tell if she just has no self awareness, or if she is just trolling.
I’m a privileged white woman born to wealthy, overindulgent parents, who has been buffeted by the harsh winds of fortune into to pursuing and fulfilling all of my creative hopes and dreams before the age of 30, while simultaneously making even more money than I already had and winning the adulation of nationwide media as the new face of feminism! It’s such a gross fate! it’s so awful what has happened! Pity me!
Lol. I was thinking the same thing, but you said it better than I could. And I wish these celebs would stop it with the glassy eyed, open mouth/ hand pics. It’s hella creepy!
Spot. On. Thank you!
Ha! Awesome.
That last picture, UGH! The twee I-have-to-pee-pee-Mommy pose! I know she does that on red carpets, why did she have to do it here?
From minute one when she and that piece of crap show of hers was being shoved down our throats I could not stand her. I was pressed to watch this show with some friends, and I lasted about 10 minutes.If I had known a girl like this in real life, I would have avoided her like the plague. Camels beware-so thirsty she may steal your humps.
I like the show Girls. When it came out, the tagline was “almost getting it kind of together.” These girls are meant to be portrayed as clueless, sheltered and lacking real world perspective and experience; the show is clearly making fun of this world and its inhabitants. I relate to it, b/c I was definitely that clueless, sheltered and naive about absolutely everything.
That said, I prefer LD in the writer/director role rather than as a celebrity.
Is she deliberately trying to look like the singer from 80s band Missing Persons?
There are girls/women similar to Lena who just irritate you in a good way. They keep you interested and intrigued even if you are not particularly fond of them.
Lena isn’t one of them. She just irritates the … out of me in the most boring “there she comes again” kind of way.
What offends me most about her, is that she uses unattractiveness as a schtick. I gave her props in the beginning for not buying into the Hollywood BS of having to look inhumanly perfect, but I soon realized that she was working an angle. She’s dressing better as of late, but she’s mostly been very purposeful with her hideous clothing and hair choices. If she had better style she would be considered normal looking, but that wouldn’t get her attention so she chooses to bring the ugly more often than not. Maybe she’s a marketing genius for pulling it off, but I see it as fake and calculated, and I can’t stand it.