Lena Dunham STUNS on the cover of Variety.

Beautiful gowns.

The article

OP, you must explain your definition of "stunning".

[quote]plus weighs the odds of a Girls revival.

Nice use of “plus” and “weighs”, Variety! Especially in an article about not body shaming.

Her face is drowning in fat, she doesn't even look like Lena Dunham anymore. All this circus, when she could have just taken Wegovy or Zepbound like a normal person. She really intends to die on this fatty hill, doesn't she?

Agree, her face isn’t recognizable anymore.

Munter

Edith the Egg Lady - The New Musical

My Gorge Rises Again--When Lens Dunham Appears on the Cover of Variety.

I would have thought that would have to be a foldout cover.

“Rises Again” implies there was a period when she wouldn’t or couldn’t or didn’t rise. Why?

Getting out of bed shouldn’t be a project.

She has a lovely smile and great personality

There's a reason she's standing in front of that bed and not delicately perched upon it.

[quote]“Rises Again” implies there was a period when she wouldn’t or couldn’t or didn’t rise. Why?

It’s because she used to sink in water and now she rises to the top. Fat floats.

I think they did a great job styling her. Kudos to the wardrobe and makeup team. She looks the best she has in a long time, weight aside. The outfits are flattering and good colors for her and she's covered up, it's a wonder, really what they can do. I know she has some health issues; I hope she can work through those and maybe trim down a bit. I like her.

That article headline suggest she's been on some tragic journey through no fault of her own. But she just traded down a boyfriend, got fat, and moved to London. So can we maybe dial back the Maya Angelou verbiage?

Who is she?

Lens the Hutt

Big as a HOUSE ...

I don't know her.

When Lens sits around the house, she sits AROUND the house!

To be so fat and unattractive and to have some kind of histrionic narcissism must be hell

A hell that others must see and appreciate

It’s a good thing she did all that nudity while she still had the body to preserve it for posterity. Now she can’t. Her Sharon Stone Basic Instinct tribute was one for the books.

She's Tracy Turnblad!

Tracy Turnblad was sweet, kind and a force for good. Lens is none of those things.

How do you know she’s none of those things?

Iowa woman wins the lottery and glams up for her photo shoot.

OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG! RIGHT.

It’s kinda like performance art at this point. I was shocked at first. But now I’m kinda digging it. And I’m kinda looking at myself, as any good art should make you do.

I haven’t heard her speak in ages. Just pictures. What does it say about me that I have to rip her to shreds about how obscenely fat she is every time I see her? And I do.

She is a very rich woman with all the means in the world not to be fat. She is a sloppy fat too, so it’s not her build to carry weight. It’s a choice.

She’s forcing us to look at her and confront what we don’t like about ourselves - all the things we wish we could change, but can’t. Because she obviously chooses this at this point. What’s it like to see some not struggle to be their best self - actively chose to be their worst?

It’s so un-American.

How rich is she? She hasn’t worked in years.

She’s a nepo baby but she’s the creator of Girls. She made a ridiculous amount off that

R29 - "She’s forcing us to look at her and confront what we don’t like about ourselves - all the things we wish we could change, but can’t. Because she obviously chooses this at this point."

I believe you mean "all the things we wish we WOULD change, but WON'T," if you're referring to our relating to her choosing to remain at the unhealthy weight?

She can’t afford Ozempic?

Inspired by the scene on “Substance”where she piles herself into the subway.

Girls was nepo baby central and early 2010s white feminism run amok.

No one’s checking for her anymore since the creepy, predatory stuff she put in her book and calling the black woman who accused her friend of sexual assault a liar.

Desperate rebranding 101. What perks did Variety get for this article?

You can practically smell the sweat through the photos. Ewwww.

yes, R32, that is a better way to say it. There area things about my life I wish were different, things that are actually within my power to change, but I just haven't. She makes us feel uncomfortable but she is choosing the side of insecurity. Although in an odd way she comes across as very empowered by her weight. Her liking it doesn't seem to be a lie as it usually is for fat people who just can't seem to get it under control. Because as soon as there was a pill, just about every body positive fat chick began loosing the pounds through "walking and breathing exercises..."

She is worth about 12 million dollars. She could go on Ozempic with a dietician and a personal chef - IF she didn't want to be as big as she is. I think she likes being a big ole in your face fat bitch and watching you squeam.

And if she really were as clever as she desperately wants to be, she would have had Patti Lupone or Louse Lasser get their ass eaten out on Girls.

Allison Williams was such a pedantic and obvious choice.

R35 Don’t forget this

Whatever personality disorder she has is really bad.

R39 Affluenza?

Heifluenza

They’re my role model!

She's always been a fuckin' pig.

I think "stuns" is the right word.

Lena has been married for several years to Luis Felber. "Traded down a boyfriend?"

[quote]her finger tattoos (they include a green dollar sign that has since faded into a blob

You don't say.

She looks like shit and I'm absolutely stunned.

She couldn't hack the Ozempic side effects. She should try again

More like "Inflates Again".

Lens should be the spokesmodel for Lume or one of the other stinky gunt body sprays.

Does having a show on HBO really make you super rich? I don’t think Julian Torres or that fat chick from Somebody Somewhere are super rich.

The cover is what I picture had Augustus Gloop gone the trans route.

Well now I'm CRAVING pork chops.

she may have made bank on her books, as well. even if they didnt sell well. And she produces.

It’s been brought up before but it’s so true that Camille Paglia summed her up perfectly: she’s the modern day Andrea Dworkin. She presents the naked body in a repulsive way and if you don’t like it you’re a misogynist.

I feel like I've seen her dancing at the Sizzler or something

For some reason I always associate the word "gunt" with this fat bitch. But (I looked it up) she didn't coin it, so maybe she referred to her "gunt" at some point and the association stuck

[quote]Stunning.

Yes it most certainly is stunning.

She had an eating disorder when she was on GIRLS and she’s had a hysterectomy since then. Let her be fat, what do you care

Does she come with a side of hot sauce?

Wet Wipes?? 🤔

[quote] She had an eating disorder when she was on GIRLS and she’s had a hysterectomy since then. Let her be fat, what do you care

Didn't she also have a massive coke problem or am I misremembering? I always thought Girls was so well done and I loved Tiny Furniture. It's a shame she hasn't been able to produce anything as good in years.

[quote]It's a shame she hasn't been able to produce anything as good in years.

Well, she has produced a good deal of girth over the years.

How can someone be so young and look so old?

R61, I may not totally agree with your comment… but I LOVE me some Claudia Lonow. Thank you!

I can smell her nappy pussy….

I know this is a VERY unpopular opinion on DL....but I like how she owns her body/look. Preferable to so many actresses using surgery/drugs, etc., to trying to look like 90-pound 20-year-olds when they're in their 50s. Plus, I think she's super talented.

Are we still supposed to pretend fat is pretty?

At least my fat daughter attempts to groom between cravings.

Ambassadress* silly autotype

R55 You forgot to add Camille also called her a big pile of pudding.

But yeah Camille’s point about Lena was that Lena used feminism and social activism as a coping mechanism to her insecurities and neuroticism.

Lena is a symbol of the 2010s

The 2010s was this major shift where external validation increasingly came not from self-improvement or achievement, but from public alignment with certain social values. In a media ecosystem driven by Twitter, Tumblr, and think-piece culture, victimhood and political righteousness became new currencies of identity and power.

If someone didn’t feel conventionally attractive, talented, or special, the prevailing narrative increasingly said: You don’t need to change—you need to call out the system that makes you feel this way. Instead of personal growth, the energy was redirected into activism, often framed through lenses like body positivity, intersectionality, or mental health destigmatization—but not always with depth or consistency.

This led to what critics like Paglia, Bret Easton Ellis, and even older feminists like Germaine Greer saw as a kind of therapeutic activism—activism centered less on changing the world and more on defending personal wounds. It was deeply emotional, often performative, and sometimes punitive.

Rather than seeking attention through beauty, charisma, or talent, people could now gain social capital by appearing “morally superior” or “oppressed.” That doesn’t mean the activism was all disingenuous—plenty of real issues were discussed—but the incentive structures definitely changed. Suddenly, being seen as harmed or marginalized became its own form of clout.

And that’s exactly what Lena Dunham represented and it’s also probably why she’s faded from obscurity because that trend has started to collapse.

She went from shoving pebbles into her sisters twat to shoveling coco pebbles by the truckload onto that lard bucket mouth of hers.

R72 yes, well said. She's definitely an icon of that weird epoch so recently passed that you describe so well

She’s being ripped to shreds in the comments section on Variety’s Instagram page. They’re all tired of her talking like a blank woman.

Jesus FUCKING Christ are we supposed to pretend she isn't a goddamned behemoth?? Holy shit what a WHALE!!

My God. It looks like someone beat her with the ugly stick... and they showed NO MERCY!

The stylist forgot to place a ham sandwich on the bed.

Diabetic Barbie*

All things considered - mainly how big and sloppy she is now - it's not a terrible picture?

Lens Dunham and Megan Stalter are two pretty consistently disliked figures here on the DL.....and for them to be together on the same show is either poetic justice or a new level of hell.

I think her new show will reveal more about her mental/physical/spiritual health than the way she's been styled for the cover of Variety but man she sure does look ridiculous on that cover. (It's the Come hither look that seems absurd - the effect is more like Go thither. She looks better in the pic at R2.)

There's an almost pestilential quality to her because much like James Corden, she exists mostly to annoy us.

Lena may have been swept up in a movement of body positivity and 2010s “wokeness” but I don’t think she herself sees it that way. She has always been about herself. And her callous comments in the past about other “victims” is the opposite impulse of what representatives of a movement try to do, people who pride themselves in their awareness of the slightest marginalized grievance.

I think she is just a straight up exhibitionist who enjoys exposing the ugly, whether in her physicality or personality. You can see this in the way she dressed herself on Girls, and especially that highly unlikely, one-off episode where she got banged all weekend by Patrick Wilson. She enjoys grossing people out and then forcing them to question why they are grossed out.

In a cast of young, thin, conventionally more attractive white girls, why is she the one that gets that primo dick in what seems a fantastical scenario?

She is obviously talented. And it’s not like her father is Steven Spielberg. She did carve her own much larger path apart from her parents in a very difficult industry - especially for a woman that looks like he. But it upsets us because we think how in the world can someone who looks like that have everything she has? It’s upsetting because it leaves no room for excuses as to why we don’t have what we want in our lives. And we need our excuses to shield us from our own personal disappointments. So when someone comes along and says no - you have no excuse, we get angry for being exposed.

R29

"It’s kinda like performance art at this point."

This is such a lazy and stupid red-state comment. Gays and lesbians are the keepers of culture.

R29 worse bitch is UNFRAUEN !

R85 what are you even talking about? I hope you are being ironic.

R3, I believe OP has his tongue firmly planted in cheek.

I like her. Not everyone has to be beautiful

She's brave.

She’s fat.

She's in Chrissy Metz territory. How long before we see a thread titled "Lens Dunham Sad Last Days"?

[Quote]Lena Dunham Rises Again

R71 Paglia was dead on with her assessment.

[quote] I like her. Not everyone has to be beautiful

Not everyone has to fit in to your narrow definition of beautiful.

This girl needs to be careful. In not too long, she'll start to look like my chunky daughter!

In OP's pic, she looks like she's auditioning for a community theater production of "Sorry Wrong Number"

When did this Mrs. Agnes Carpenter character start to be a DL thing?

Sorry, but we don't need this Temu knock-off Mrs. Patsy Ramsey in order to make fat jokes. Read any thread about Dunham and you'll see we're more than capable of doing it on our own.

I fixed it all using FaceTune

R90 well she is good at that

R100 bravo!

Wow, she looks really pretty with a thinner face.

Deana Y ou look incredible !

Albino warthog.

Here I used FaceTune to do only one thing to the original photo: give her a fake smile. Look at the difference.

It was a valiant try, R106.

R51 were their shoes HITS? Girls was a mainstream HIT like SATC, Euphoria, Sopranos and GOT. And the creators of those shows are all very rich.

Girls is hardly even remembered today.

Dunham's PR agent (or Dunham herself) is all over this thread.

R99. And when did you think anyone remotely wanted your opinion? As in life, no one cares what you think.

R109 false. It’s viral on tiktok everyday

Young people (mostly young women) have discovered Girls over the past few months like they have SATC and clips of it are always on TikTok now

And Marnie and Shoshanna get the most love usually

“just finished this show and it changed my life”

These are the same dingbats who walked out that god-awful Barbie movie saying, “I didn’t know I could say no.”

R115 that’s irrelevant. The point is you said Girls is forgotten when it’s been gaining a second life thanks to Gen Z and younger discovering it.

A video from May 28.

Lena the Hutt

R116, I didn’t say anything. I’m not that poster.

Hysterical!!!

"Girls was a mainstream HIT like SATC, Euphoria, Sopranos and GOT"

This is total nonsense. Girls was popular for its type and among a certain crowd, but it was nowhere near the mainstream hit the shows you mentioned were. Euphoria is maybe the closest, but the others were absolutely massive compared to Girls.

Every woman (and gay) of a certain age knows all about SATC. And their straight boyfriends and husbands were familiar enough with it to roll their eyes at it. The Sopranos was water cooler level talk for both blue and white collar workers. Everyone knew about it despite it being on HBO. GOT was discussed all over the Internet.

I agree with that person who said her PR person or Lena herself must be on the thread. This is delusional!

They tried to get both of Our Fat Daughters on the photo shoot, but it was literally impossible for both of them to fit on the set. Not to mention that the local McDonalds said they would rather close than even attempt to cater our set. The production team was sad as they had spent a fortune reinforcing the foundation of the set in anticipation of the big day.

Adam didn’t deserve Hannah

Glamour released an article in 2023 about the resurgence of Girls. And it’s only gotten more popular since then.

An article from last September about how the show becoming so popular with Gen Z made this Millennial mom decide to rewatch it.

A NYTimes article about it in 2023

Allison Williams answering why she feels Gen Z loved Marnie.

Girls was more of a media sensation but it never actually became a popular hit. I can believe that some people from Gen Z are discovering the show for the first time, but it's probably a very limited phenomenon that's being picked up by the type of people who work for the New York Times because of the self-selecting quality of modern social media.

Or it’s just taken off with them.

Maybe it’s a bigger hit with Gen Z than with the previous generation

She's eating herself to death. She has a serious addiction and needs an intervention.

Lens could play Venus of Willendorf in the movie adaptation!

All the quirks that make her annoying are likely responsible for her success. It's a shame that her success isn't enough for her. She wants adulation.

Hey, it’s the mom from M3gan.

SOOO-o-oeeyyy

I think her hair looks great. Much better than that frizzy ponytail in Girls

If I ever saw her in real life I'd say "Hey! Fat stuff! Lose weight"

So maybe?

I thought I R85 hit the nail on the head.

Oh, so now Lena Dunham is not supposed to show her vagina to anyone? It’s almost summer.

She is NOT in Chrissy Metz territory. Chrissy Metz is close to 400 lbs (even with her alleged "100 lb weight loss"), and I'd put Lena at around 230 or 240...maybe even 250.

However, she is steadily getting bigger.

I saw an article on the DM yesterday or the day before where she said she used to be a "size 2." I'm not sure I believe that for a minute.

R85 simply spins the automatic thread of strong-woman-hate because people are just so riddled with being JEAL-OUS, which anyone who has been around tween girls has heard.

The question is not about appearances. Fuck appearances.

The question is this person's bottomless trench of needful self-demonstration singularly focused on being as unfunny as lead and as unappealing as sharty panties worn a fourth day.

The answer is, except for some who likely enjoy smelling their unwashed armpits,

[quote]NO, PLEASE. GET IT AWAY FROM ME, PLEASE. BRRRAARRFFFF!!

I was expecting her to be on the cover of Sows and Boars magazine, not Variety.

I’m done mocking women for being fat/not hot. Why does it bother people so much? Really asking that.

She gives me the creeps for other reasons though. Nepo baby, pebbles in sisters pussy, etc.

Girls was a good show.

*sister’s pussy*

Can’t believe we ever considered her fat

[quote] It’s a good thing she did all that nudity while she still had the body to preserve it for posterity.

Huh, R23? She NEVER had a body to preserve for posterity. You must be taking the piss.

[quote]She is NOT in Chrissy Metz territory. Chrissy Metz is close to 400 lbs (even with her alleged "100 lb weight loss"), and I'd put Lena at around 230 or 240...maybe even 250.

Chrissy Metz gets so much hate on here for no reason. Yet by all accounts she is a very sweet girl. And you don't see her going around exposing herself every chance she gets.

This nepo baby wouldn't be where she is were it not for her connections. Take away the exhibitionism and there's nothing of value to say. She's also racist.

Stuns? more like smothers.

This beached whale's need to expose herself is not an indictment of my failings but kudos to Andrew Runnells and whatever interns are trying to sell that.

Not interested in her work but not denying its value. Just not my thing.

She looks like a drunken bridesmaid with guys lined-up at the bedroom door (including the groom).

Shot with a wide-angle lens

Why is everyone saying she’s fat. She’s only 13 pounds overweight and it’s completely destroyed her life!

R152 Hacka hacka!

R85

Lena Dunham didn’t break through in spite of the cultural moment—she embodied it. She wasn’t some outsider pushing through impossible odds; she was perfectly positioned within the early 2010s zeitgeist of neurotic millennial feminism, body positivity as disruption, privilege disguised as radical transparency, and hyper-online self-mythologizing

She wasn’t just aligned with the Twitter/Tumblr wave—she helped define it. Her success wasn’t a middle finger to convention as much as it was a symptom of a new, niche convention being born. She became the acceptable face of messiness, insecurity, and “realness” for a very specific class: white, educated, urban millennials with access to media and a hunger for self-examination as performance.

So yeah, she wasn’t conventionally hot or cool—but she didn’t need to be. She offered something more valuable at that time: cultural relevance and political alignment. That opened doors. The timing helped. So did being plugged into the right circles (indie film, NYC lit scene, Judd Apatow, etc.).

Yeah she's fat. And incredibly annoying.

But I started rewatching Girls on Netflix. That first season is fucking hysterical. She created a damn good show. I'm a half generation older than Lena, but man it hit home harder than I remember in the moment.

I think one reason Chrissy gets so much shit here is that she's a very pretty woman - so all of us average lookers have a subconscious "how dare you fuck that huge gift / advantage up" reaction. Lens is just average looking.

"In a cast of young, thin, conventionally more attractive white girls, why is she the one that gets that primo dick in what seems a fantastical scenario?"

In all fairness, in the Patrick Wilson episode, it wasn't like he was out among all sorts of women and picked Hannah. She went to his house to apologize for Ray and they got to talking and then fucking I could believe that a guy, marriage on the fritz, would fuck Hannah if she was readily available, as she was. I think it was less about him thinking she was super attractive than having an easy conquest. And while Hannah was poorly shaped and chunky, she wasn't crazily obese by any means.

She looks amazing

She was thin for a bit before Girls. When she was in full eating disorder mode. There are pictures. After girls, she did once again lose some weight and had a pretty face.

Hot. Mama.

Were all obese girls touched by an uncle growing up?

What

The

Actual

Fuck??

They must have put those heels on her after she sat down. There is no way in hell she could balance herself on those. Even a skilled high heel walker has trouble in that particular style of heel.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall listening to the photographer bark out instructions. “Think seduction Lena! Push it in, give more chin. MORE CHINS!”

R162 is chatgpt request of a wholesale potato sack with a stylist and agent.

R132 the Venus of Willendorf in your pic looks like it's made from Cheetos and grahm crackers, Lens would be wearing crumbs if Venus came anywhere near her.

Textbook example that you never really can outrun your demons. Wherever you move to, there you are, demons and all. She's exactly the same as she was in NYC and no Variety puff piece about a supposed rebirth can change that fact.

She looks like she ate the other three "Girls."

R160 Her eyes have disappeared into her face now.

Her new show is being absolutely and universally panned by critics.

Review from the New Yorker

NPR review

It’s too bad she wasn’t able to capture the brilliance of Girls again. I guess lightning only strikes once.

I wonder why she hired THIS actress?

Bread is the last thing she should be focusing on. 🥖🍞🥯

That’s the new spokesperson for Panera Bread?

Lens got all the hot guys in bed because she wrote the fucking show. I would guess they had to pay the guys overtime or danger pay to get in bed with her.

Her husband's ex girlfriend Emma Chitty.

It is interesting that Lena is now involving him in all her projects, directing his videos etc....

Upgrade or downgrade for the husband?

I tried watching her new series because I actually liked “Girls.” But I bailed after a few episodes. Doesn’t help that I’m not a fan of Megan Stalter and her brand of comic hysteria.

Emma Chitty Bang Bang?