Lena Dunham

Once upon a time not so very long ago I was a young woman living a writerly life of working poverty in New York City, which, for better or worse, engendered certain expectations from HBO's "Girls. " I admired though did not love the first season and felt hopeful about the second - creator Lena Dunham is smart and sharp-eyed, unafraid to wallow in the sticky brine of self-love and self-loathing that marks a certain time of many people's lives. But lately watching "Girls," which has its second-season finale Sunday night, just makes me feel old. And impatient in a vaguely maternal way, like when you see a lovely but irritating wild child running naked around the playground, shouting "vagina" at everyone and peeing in the sandbox.

- Within 30 seconds in her airy, orchid-filled office three floors above Central Park, Betty Halbreich had zeroed in on one of my chief torments as a professional woman. "I know why you have a problem with pants," Halbreich said dryly, patting my hip. Halbreich, an 85-year-old personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, has dressed Joan Rivers, Meryl Streep and Candice Bergen, and helped costume designer Patricia Field adorn the women of "Sex and the City. " She's one of the supporting characters in "Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's," a new documentary, which opens May 3 in New York and Los Angeles, about the aspirational fashion emporium, and she is writing a memoir that HBO recently optioned for Lena Dunham to adapt.

"My life has been nonstop 'Girls' for the last two years," says Lena Dunham, creator, executive producer, star and oft-director of the new HBO series about four young women trying to make it in New York. As if those tasks weren't enough, the 26-year-old has been kept busy addressing a wave of controversy that has arisen since the show premiered. Everything from its cast's lack of diversity to the realistically graphic sex scenes have been debated at length, with Dunham asked to weigh in on it all. (Oh, and her weight's been an issue as well.)

It's not as juicy as Forbes' annual highest-paid celebrities list, but the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people always provides plenty of conversational fodder, especially when it comes to which TV personalities made the list. Though many people maintain that the era of the networks' late-night TV dominance is on the wane, two late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, made the list. Fallon for his impending ascension to the "Tonight Show" throne and Kimmel for his half-hour earlier promotion on ABC. HBO's lightning rod of controversy, Lena Dunham, also made the list for writing and starring in "Girls.

Lena Dunham scored a $3.5 million book deal, the New York Times reported Monday. The writer/director/star of HBO's "Girls" had been said to be shopping around a deal seeking $1 million and up. Random House went up: The publisher signed Dunham for more than $3.5 million, according to reports. The publisher has declined to confirm the exact amount.  Dunham's "Girls" has been a critical hit and pop culture juggernaut for HBO. Can her book do the same for Random House? Slate saw a draft of the circulating book proposal.

Lena Dunham of "Girls" TV show fame will appear in the next issue of V magazine, due out Jan. 10. She was shot by photographer Terry Richardson. [The Cut] Target's holiday collaboration with Neiman Marcus seemed to leave shoppers cold, and Time magazine reports that critics blame prices that were too high for budget-minded Target customers -- consider a Marc Jacobs scarf that started at $69 (it's now slashed to $20) and a Prabul Gurung cape ($79.99, now $23.99) -- along with merchandise that was deemed to be unexciting.

HBO's "Girls" is known for its frank and daring portrayal of four friends struggling in life and love. But Sunday's episode was graphic even for those fans used to seeing creator and star Lena Dunham's no-holds-barred approach to story-telling. The scene in question featured the character of Adam (Adam Driver) having rough sex with his new girlfriend Natalia (Shiri Appleby). It ended with a shot of his bodily fluid on her chest. This was not a first for cable TV, or the movies.

You've heard of “tainting” the vote and “corrupting” the vote. But “sexualizing the voting process”? That's what the spokeswoman for a conservative media watchdog accused President Obama of doing with a video ad that has a young Hollywood star talking about voting for the incumbent as if it were her first time having sex. In the Internet ad, titled “Your First Time,” Lena Dunham speaks to the camera and says: "The first...

NEW YORK--Lena Dunham found her show "Girls" under criticism earlier this year for an absence of minority characters. The controversy only mushroomed after, in an apparent bid to make light of the issue, "Girls" writer Lesley Arfin tweeted sarcastically that she didn't think "Precious" offered a representation of her either. At an event Sunday hosted by the New Yorker and its TV critic Emily Nussbaum, Dunham offered some context on the incident. After saying that Arfin had actually no longer worked on the show at the time she sent the tweet, Dunham elaborated on what was happening on the "Girls" set during the controversy.

Lena Dunham had a few post-Oscar tweets about a few of the night's key players: Anne Hathaway and Seth MacFarlane, two of Oscar Sunday's controversial headline-makers. But she did have love for the diminutive "Beasts of the Southern Wild" lead actress nominee. "If I could have dinner with any five people, living or dead, they would be: Quvenzhane Wallis," Dunham tweeted. Then the Golden Globe and Writers Guild Award-winning  "Girls" writer and star got into her critiques of the show.

Time magazine has released its 10th annual list of the Time 100 most influential people of the year, and not surprisingly, a number of celebrities have been bestowed the honor. The magazine doesn't rank its picks but divvies up the 100 into five categories: titans, icons, pioneers, leaders and artists. Time includes President Obama, the newly ordained Pope Francis and North Korea's Kim Jong Un but also pays tribute to people like 29-year-old Instagram creator Kevin Systrom (who gets a shout out from Ryan Seacrest)

Fiction writers don't often get credit for their influence on the world -- it is often invisible and unheralded. But among those on Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, released Thursday, were two surprising names: short story maven George Saunders and novelist Hilary Mantel.  They keep company with "Leaders," (President Obama, Wayne LaPierre, Kim Jong Un), "Titans" (Jay-Z, LeBron James, Elon Musk) and "Icons" (Malala Yousafzai, Lena Dunham, Gabrielle Giffords)

NEW YORK - Until last year, Café Grumpy in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, was mostly known as a destination for the serious coffee drinker, the type of place where each modestly sized cup is individually brewed and goes for $4 a pop. Now, thanks to "Girls," the polarizing HBO series in which Lena Dunham stars as Hannah Horvath, a self-involved writer and reluctant Café Grumpy barista, and Alex Karpovsky as Ray, her angsty, thirtysomething boss, the shop...

There are two ways to look at the ratings for the season finale of HBO's "Girls. " The old way would be to see that 632,000 people tuned in on Sunday night at 9 p.m. to watch "Girls," which is a decline of almost 40% from last season. But that won't really tell you how many people ultimately saw the show. PHOTOS: Scenes from 'Girls' Season 2 For a more accurate reading, one has to include the two other times HBO ran "Girls" on Sunday night. Do that, and the number grows to 1.1 million.

After a 911 call, a disastrous haircut, an alcoholic relapse, two Q-Tip-related emergencies and countless stalker-y emails and text messages, Adam and Hannah, the oddball couple at the center of “Girls,” are finally back together.   Yay, I guess? On Sunday night a season of “Girls” that had increasingly begun to feel like a premium-cable version of   “My Strange Addiction” suddenly -- and not altogether convincingly -- morphed into a romantic comedy, complete with a sentimental and semi-absurd reunion that found Adam, bare-chested as usual, racing down the street to rescue his house-bound and unhinged ex. (In a sure sign of their compatability, Hannah eschews pants nearly as emphatically as Adam rejects shirts; together they make a whole outfit.)

As "Girls" heads into its season 2 finale Sunday night, water coolers everywhere are bracing for dull conversations devoid of tips on cotton swab usage and talk of bodily fluids. The modestly rated HBO show, which follows a group of twentysomething friends navigating career and relationship troubles, has been a generator of critical reaction since its debut last spring.  That talk hasn't muffled in its sophomore season -- including in this newsroom: Exhibit A and Exhibit B . And Lena Dunham, the wunderkind behind the show, is sure to keep the conversation going with whatever she has in store for the season 2 swan song.

Lena Dunham is sitting at a Larchmont Boulevard cafe in a pale yellow dress and a blazer, rummaging around her bag for a bottle of green juice. She's drinking it to stave off illness caused by frequent plane travel - one of the hazards of being an in-demand wunderkind. Her upcoming HBO series, "Girls," was filmed in New York, where she sleeps in her parents' basement while she waits for her new place to be ready. But Dunham just spent half a year in L.A. so she could edit and consult with the show's producers, Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 6-12, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     CBS This Morning (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today A preview of the Golden Globes; Gracie Gold; Charlie Palmer; Marlon Wayans. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America Ryan Gosling; model Iman; chef Bobby Flay. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly and Michael Ginnifer Goodwin; Nas performs. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Gilles Marini; Laura Dern; Jason Clarke.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of March 17 - 23, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SUNDAY The route remains roughly the same - from Dodger Stadium to Downtown, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, West Los Angeles and Santa Monica - at the annual running of "The L.A. Marathon....

Once upon a time not so very long ago I was a young woman living a writerly life of working poverty in New York City, which, for better or worse, engendered certain expectations from HBO's "Girls. " I admired though did not love the first season and felt hopeful about the second - creator Lena Dunham is smart and sharp-eyed, unafraid to wallow in the sticky brine of self-love and self-loathing that marks a certain time of many people's lives. But lately watching "Girls," which has its second-season finale Sunday night, just makes me feel old. And impatient in a vaguely maternal way, like when you see a lovely but irritating wild child running naked around the playground, shouting "vagina" at everyone and peeing in the sandbox.