The latest celebrity feud pits a red-hot star against the tried-and-true King of All Media, a true battle between “Girls” and boys that hinges on issues of weight, public expectations of beauty, and how much shock a shock jock really needs to inject into the national conversation. But before you get too excited, this brouhaha may be over before it began.
The feud started during Stern’s SiriusXM Radio show, when he called Dunham, “a little fat chick who sort of looks like Jonah Hill and keeps taking her clothes off.” His wife Beth had introduced Stern to the hit HBO series. Stern went on to criticize Dunham for being a “camera hog” that rarely lets her co-stars shine.
The backlash came fast and furious, but it took a week before Stern issued an on-air apology. During his January 14th show Stern stated, “I felt bad, because I really do love the show ‘Girls’ and enjoy it, and I admire the girl who writes it.” He even called himself a “Girls” super-fan and declared, “I guess I just wanted to tell you I love you and I think you’re terrific.” Stern said his change of heart came after watching more of the show, and admitted he almost attended the second season premiere last week.
Dunham, for her part, wasn’t fazed by the attention from Stern. During a recent appearance on “Late Night With David Letterman,” Dunham admitted she loved the insults, and called herself a huge fan of Stern’s work. She even joked she’d put the slams on her gravestone, stating, “It put me in the best mood! I just want to be like, my gravestone says, ‘She was a little fat chick and she got it going.” So apparently, no hard feelings here!
To further prove her feelings about the comments, Dunham called into Stern’s show yesterday to officially bury the hatchet. After saying she was a fan of his brand of free speech, Dunham went on to call herself not that fat. She joked, “I’m not super-thin, but I’m thin for, like, Detroit!” Dunham went on to say she appreciated Stern’s effort to rectify the situation and that she remains a Stern enthusiast.
The short-lived feud was a minor blip in Dunham’s otherwise stellar week. On Sunday night “Girls” won the Golden Globe for Best TV Series Comedy and she won for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. A public apology from Howard Stern and two major awards? Dunham has definitely had a decent month for herself.