After staring at photos of blonde Lena Dunham for too long, I can’t even tell you what sweet relief it is to see a photo of Lena with brunette hair. Lena sat down with O Magazine’s October issue (on stands on September 16th) for a short profile, likely to promote her new book. Thankfully, these quotes aren’t half as annoying as her New York Times piece yesterday. Lena does reveal that she reads celebrity gossip sites, so… hey, gurl. Please go back to brunette and stop letting Duchess Kate do your eye makeup.
Best Guilty Pleasure: “Celebrity gossip sites. I know that by reading them I’m supporting an industry that hurts people who are making art and putting themselves on the line. Still, all I want to know is who is breaking up with whom and who might be pregnant.”
Best Quirk: “I can fall asleep anytime, anyplace. I’ve taken satisfying naps in a chair on set and on a park bench. I’m notorious in my family for having slept through a fire at our house when I was 5. The fire department came, and I missed it all.”
Best Career Advice: “Jane Rosenthal from Tribeca Films once told me, “Let them say whatever they want about you, but don’t let them say you didn’t answer their phone call.” She inspired me to decide that I’m never going to be the person who lets emails and voice mails sit for weeks – I’m going to be the person who responds, even if the answer is no.”
Best Tattoo: “The word staunch on my right wrist. Little Edie of Grey Gardens calls herself a ‘staunch character.’ It’s a reminder to hold my ground like a tough old lady.”
[From O Magazine]
I wish I could fall asleep anywhere, anytime, like a cat. I wish I could just curl up and be knocked out. Alas, I’ve always had sleep problems (another reason why I prefer my alone-time). As for the celeb gossip site stuff… I’m assuming she doesn’t read Celebitchy. She probably reads Jezebel and Zooey Deschanel’s site, Hello Giggles.
As for that NYT interview I covered yesterday, here’s Lena’s cover for the NYT Magazine. It goes along with the interview. It’s… um.
Photos courtesy of O Magazine and the NYT.
“Making art”? then she shouldn’t be harmed at all.
LOL
yeah, people who say that they MAKE ART are usually the ones who 1) don’t; and 2) should stfu.
Absolutely right. You got it perfect Ag.
I hope she’s never alone in a room with Kanye, because they would just suffocate together from all that ART.
The real artists in the film industry rarely get covered by tabloid media.
+1
Artists like Kim kardashian I assume…
I wish I could sleep like a cat too, Kaiser.
This interview made me chuckle a bit.
“Hurt people who are making art” reminded me of the pretentious aholes I went to art school with who had “fake” majors like Studio Interrelated Media.
Still, I found her rather likable here. Between that and my sudden lust for Theroux, I can only assume that the Apocalypse in nigh.
those are the first two horsemen of the apocalypse. the last one is a sudden liking for sarah palin.
Maybe you’re having an early life crisis?
TOK
Just watch out for Blieber- if he minces up to join your list, you are DOOMED!
Well if the Pale Horse is on the horizon, then I’m going down in a haze of vodka and blackberry kush. Cheers, ladies.
cheers!
i’m about to go to the liquor store downstairs to get some gin for gin and tonics later at home.
You have great taste.
Wait, did we go to art school together? We seem to know the same people. Did you hang with this guy who specialized in electronic noise and whined about how illegal downloads were hurting people like him? I mean despite lack of evidence that his stuff had ever been downloaded, illegally or otherwise?
She should immediately hire whoever styled her in the top pic. That’s one of the most flattering looks I’ve ever seen on her.
I know! She can look good and the mod A-line 60s look really suits her & her body type. And I so much prefer the brown hair. But I agree with Kaiser that she needs to lighten up on the eyeliner.
Actually, I think the eyeliner is incredibly flattering on her. I’d love to see her on the red carpet with some heavy eyeliner to see what it looks like without photoshop.
The stylist is called Photoshop, and I want him to style me all the time too.
Not all the way. The right makeup and her not trying to look like her tongue doesn’t fit in her mouth/glazed over eyes she’s cute. I see the photoshopped touchups, but she can look miles better than that horrid pink, blonde bobbed nightmare on the red carpet.
INeedANap
Is the article refering to her eyeliner lately? Or in this specific photo spread? Because it looks great here, but in her everyday/daytime look she’s applying it horribly.
OMG. That was hilarious…like the worst Marie from Everybody Love’s Raymond put down/compliment.
That is a great photo – very cute and flattering styling for her.
AMEN! She looks downright cute and adorable in ways I never expected her to pull…and smiling instead of that “Omg im
Surprised you caught me mid poop in the bathroom” look she does
I don’t like the raccoon eye makeup myself but she is very attractive when she smiles like that. It’s the nicest photo I think I’ve ever seen of her. I intensely dislike the mouth hanging open pose she usually adopts.
I lose any and all respect I have for that woman every time she shows up on a cover looking airbrushed to oblivion.
It’s not always their choice. Not every person on a cover of a magazine is Ariana Grande demanding to look this way or scrap the whole spread.
And many speak out against it. Or are upset over the heavy handed editting.
Lena walks a fine line of damning and praising photoshop.
Art & artists are subject to criticism ( and worse sometimes) so sorry if that is painful. It’s just part of the deal. I will say that first pic of her is one of the nicest I’ve seen. That statue thing…just scary. Like, The Thing Under The Bed scary.
EXACTLY THIS.
The whole point of art is to inspire reaction. Guess what Lena, the reactions arents always going to be positive!! She, once again, needs to STFU.
Yes and Yes!!!
1st thought was to many great and long gone artists that were criticized until their deaths for their art. They were literally starving! Not 1 kind word came to them about their art until after they died.
So yea. Lena, STFU.
Perhaps the funky bust is new decor for the Disneyland Haunted Mansion: to go with the other singing and talking and staring busts they have on that ride?
Lena also reads most of her critics online. I heard that when she met this blogger Chesca Leigh at an event in NYC and she confronted her about her criticism of Girls (that the show isn’t diverse enough and has negative stereotypes) and told her how all the criticism when it comes to lack of diversity really hurt her and she takes it into consideration what everyone’s saying. But she hasn’t really done anything since then to change a thing about her show. I think Chesca’s blog post she wrote about the whole encounter is still up.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Lena read this site, it seems like an “addiction” of hers to read what everyone thinks about her constantly.
She is a precious little snowflake, if you don’t like her work and worship her genius you just don’t get it. She is delusional.
I can fall asleep anywhere. It’s wonderful and horrible at the same time. Wonderful on an airplane; horrible in class/meeting/church.
Risky in church, what?!! In case of inadvertent cries of
“Oh yes!!!…,Justin/Jon/Ryan/Benedict/vicar!”
🙂
Of course she slept through the fire. Her mother gave her Ambien! Pants on fire.
That IS excellent advice.
I couldn’t help but laugh at all of this ridiculousness. Her NYT cover had me chuckling as I lie on my couch. Just ridiculous and absurd…I don’t really know what else to say beyond that. Also, the majority of the famewhores regularly covered by gossip sites are not artists. Real artists tend to focus on their craft and avoid antics that land themselves on gossip sites. And I really hope she’s checked out Dlisted.
Upon seeing white bust pic: “Wow, she could sub for Edith on Downton Abbey…”
Funny, I thought the same thing, something in the old fashioned styling and the photo shopping definitely echoes Lady Edith in that bust.
I’ve a great talent, in that I *resist* sleep in spite of knackeredness, bed-comfort, desperation. (Tis the great curse of my life)
Anyhoo……what a ginormous improvement that dark haircut is, after the snowy puddingbowl cut. Astounding.
Bla, bla, bla… This is what I hear when she opens her mouth. Nice cover photo though. That do and colour really suits her.
Good thing she doesn’t make art.
lol
Sometimes the gossip is an artform in and of itself. Kaiser, and others at CB, MK at d-listed and and a previous incarnation of Richard Lawson, all have made brilliantly hilarious pieces out of nothing but celebrity ridiculousness.
Further, so much about celebrities has nil to do with art, even if you consider some of their projects as art. The sunning vag, the state of someone’s pubes, whether you hate flip-flops, how much sleep you catch (a theme she carried over from yesterday and the Ambien orange bit), who you’re dating and declaring undying love to in a video, IS NOT MAKING ART. fwiw. Unless you’re Shia and then I guess the entire world is performance art. /s
….I think I saw “The State of Someone’s Pubes” hanging in the Decorative Arts wing of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts…..
You might be right. That, or moobzillif has been secretly throwing Franc-O shots at you this morning. 🙂
She never does it secretly.
Just yesterday she hit me with a super-soaker full of vodka Kool-Aid. She’s a good friend.
I love moobzillif, but shhh, don’t tell her, it will break up the ongoing feud.
Kiddo
Stonking good observation about gossip as an artform.
And ‘+ elebenty’ re the rest of yr post……everyone’s a ruddy ‘artist’ now, (though I must say freezing garrets and guttering candles are no longer so popular among ‘creative’ persons)
She looks adorable in the top picture.. that means we’ll probably see some questionable clothes and hair colors from her again relatively soon. I don’t watch Girls but I find Lena to be more interesting and substantive than most of her contemporaries. I could care less about all the bland, overly-produced fashion girls with their “stylist collaborations” and perfectly staged photo opportunities…
I’m probably in the minority, but I love the NY Times cover… it feels very provocative and smart and interesting and different. Isn’t that exactly what Lena wants to be?
I like Lena, myself, but I’ve never watched her show.
Ok I thought she slept (as in bed) with her mum ( or as you say mom) till she was 12 and her sister for years. I really thought it was because she had sleep issues. And now she is like, I be sleeping on any old park bench any day….?
that’s Lena, she is constantly contradicting herself.
Aww she looks great in the top pic, maybe the best I’ve ever seen her. I hope she wasn’t referring to Girls, Girls is not art. The NYT pic is absolutely f$&@in hilarious!!
Yes, her brunette pixie hair is a lot cuter than her blonde dorothy hamill look.
I’m getting Girl with a pearl earring vibes from the NYT cover.
wow yes she looks stunning in the top pic!
They all read TMZ. How could they not?
Dlisted is popular with comedians.
To be fair, if you’re in the biz, you have to know what Harvey Levin is reporting on you. Even if you don’t follow it yourself, one of your flacks should.
*licks fingertip, sticks it into the breeze*
Nope, I still can’t with this one. But the top pic does look really nice.
hahahaha! hilarious!
This woman talks way too much, says very very little. She is shoved down our throats and I find her insufferable and useless.
Sorry for being this negative. I don’t see anything to admire or appreciate w/ this one.
So, there’s a fire in her home, the fire dept is called, and no one bothers to wake up the five year old to get her out of the house? Right…
Exactly
I don’t think it’s healthy to read every last bit of criticism out there, or if you’re famous, to read coverage about celebrities. Most of the long term successful actors and such don’t. But she’s young and it’s everywhere, so maybe she can’t help herself.
Most celebrity gossip is about the people who manage to make themselves famous with little to no art or talent, or those who do have talent but draw the attention to themselves instead of their work.
Oh geez, not another self-styled “artiste”. Gag.
The styling for this shoot is beyond fantastic – the stylist has great talent. The red dress and blue and white shoe combo looks like it should be not together, yet somehow Works and looks great – and the hair cut and color and makeup is done to perfection. This cut colour and make up style suit LD the best yet.
Making art, yeah, whatever. Here’s the trick if you make ANYTHING and you put it out for public consumption you are inviting criticism. It is part of making art that other people see/read/hear/eat/ dance to. If you don’t want your little feelings hurt write all that crap down in your Hello Kitty diary and keep it to yourself.
Don’t want some blogger to take a crap all over that cupcake you made? Don’t write about it on your blog and post pics. Don’t want people to talk about the quality and importance of your TV show that you get paid to create, don’t release it. Keep in in the Hello Kitty Diary.
Want to become a better artist/writer/actor/cupcake maker? Be willing to listen to what people have to say about whatever it is you make. You can’t make everyone happy and as an artist is isn’t your job to make people happy. Your job as an artist is to make people think. Doesn’t it make sense that if you made people think that you would want to hear what they think? Can’t have your cake and it eat too, little poppet. Unviewed art is uncriticized art, all view art is criticized. Or learn nothing about how other people view you and just keep doing whatever it is you are doing and don;t get better and don;t grow.
Ugh with this one. Though I do have to give her props for teaching Taylor Swift that being a feminist is a good thing.
Art is subjective and those who have made it for public consumption have always and forever will be subjected to “feedback”.
So, she realizes that the gossip sites hurt people making art (god, that sounds so pretentious) but it’s okay to read them to find out about break ups and possible pregnancies, even though at least half of the art makers don’t intentionally release that private information. Doesn’t getting hounded for your personal life hurt more than your work being critiqued?
I get it, she’s a young(ish) woman, somewhat sheltered from most people’s daily realities, prone to exaggeration (I hope… because sleeping through a fire isn’t a badge of honor, it’s a shame no one thought to wake you) but all of that helps make her the artist she is today but we can’t call her on it because it hurts? Maybe I don’t get it, it’s just how I see her.