The social media sites of Lena Dunham have not been updated since the actress-writer apologized on them to Odell Beckham Jr. for making “narcissistic assumptions” about how the NFL star acted when seated next to her at a dinner.
Dunham, the creator and star of the HBO series “Girls,” issued the apology Saturday night on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for her posts about the Met Ball in New York several months ago.
“I owe Odell Beckham Jr an apology,” she wrote. “Despite my moments of bravado, I struggle at industry events (and in life) with the sense that I don’t rep a certain standard of beauty and so when I show up to the Met Ball surrounded by models and swan-like actresses it’s hard not to feel like a sack of flaming garbage. This felt especially intense with a handsome athlete as my dinner companion and a bunch of women I was sure he’d rather be seated with. But I went ahead and projected these insecurities and made totally narcissistic assumptions about what he was thinking, then presented those assumptions as facts.”
She was responding to criticism of an interview with Amy Schumer published Friday on her lifestyle newsletter, The Lenny Letter, in which Dunham complained that Beckham, a Pro Bowl wide receiver for the New York Giants, spent his time at the Met Ball glued to his cellphone.
Dunham, who wore a tuxedo to the event, wrote: “I was sitting next to Odell Beckham Jr., and it was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards. He was like, “That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.” It wasn’t mean — he just seemed confused.
“The vibe was very much like, ‘Do I want to f**k it? Is it wearing a … yep, it’s wearing a tuxedo. I’m going to go back to my cell phone.’ It was like we were forced to be together, and he literally was scrolling Instagram rather than have to look at a woman in a bow tie. I was like, ‘This should be called the Metropolitan Museum of Getting Rejected by Athletes.'”
Dunham also said in her apology that Beckham had “every right” to be on his cellphone.
“I feel terrible about it. Because after listening to lots of valid criticism, I see how unfair it is to ascribe misogynistic thoughts to someone I don’t know AT ALL. Like, we have never met, I have no idea the kind of day he’s having or what his truth is,” she added.
Beckham has not responded to Dunham’s original comments or her apology.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.