Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow, and Jenni Konner went on the defense during a panel at yesterday’s Television Critics Association press tour when asked about the show’s use of nudity. This came after the Wrap reporter Tim Molloy asked (or, rather, commented, because this isn’t a question): “I don’t get the purpose of all the nudity on the show. By you particularly. I feel like I’m walking into a trap where you say no one complains about the nudity on Game of Thrones, but I get why they’re doing it. They’re doing it to be salacious. To titillate people. And your character is often naked at random times for no reason.” To which Dunham responded: “It’s because it’s a realistic expression of what it’s like to be alive, I think, and I totally get it. If you are not into me, that’s your problem.”
Which is good and fine. Over and done with! Just like the show’s first season, when everyone already asked this same exact question. But the conversation continued, with executive producer Apatow asking, “Do you have a girlfriend? Does she like you? Let’s see how she likes you when you quote that with your question and just write the whole question … and tell me how it goes tonight.” Even after a few different exchanges with other reporters, executive producer Konner returned to the nudity thing, saying: “I literally was spacing out because I’m in such a rage spiral about that guy. I was just looking at him and going into this rage [over] this idea that you would talk to a woman like that and accuse a woman of showing her body too much. The idea, it just makes me sort of sick, and so I apologize to everyone. I’m going to try to focus now, but if I space out, it will be because of that guy. And I’m really interested in what publication you are from.” Later, Judd Apatow tweeted, “So three years into Girls a guy asks about nudity like it is episode one. That is like waiting three years to ask M[att] Weiner about advertising.”
