Lena Dunham would like to put this month’s most unexpected feud to rest.
She’d like to apologize to New York Giants star Odell Beckham Jr.
The Girls actress and creator stirred up a bit of controversy this week after making comments to Amy Schumer in an interview for the Lenny Letter website.
Dunham thought back to this spring’s MET Gala in New York City and her awkward experience there, talking to Schumer about what it was like to sit next to Beckham Jr.
“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,” Dunham explained.
She went on to make some big assumptions about what the wide receiver was thinking.
Although the main crux of her point was how she did not fit in such at this sort of fashionable event.
“He was like, ‘That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.’ It wasn’t mean – he just seemed confused,” Lena continued.
“The vibe was very much like, ‘Do I want to f-ck it? Is it wearing a … yep, it’s wearing a tuxedo. I’m going to go back to my cell phone."”
Critics came out in force after Dunham made these comments because they were based solely on conjecture and they didn’t pain Beckham Jr. in a great light.
Dunham concluded at the time:
“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."”
After reading the backlash, Dunham Tweeted that Beckham was “super awesome” and she was simply being self-deprecating.
Her comments were all about her and not about him at all.
But now she’s issued a more formal apology.
“I owe Odell Beckham Jr an apology,” Dunham wrote on Instagram yesterday.
She added:
“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.”
She continued:
“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.
“I feel terrible about it.”
For the record, Beckham Jr. is one of the most exciting players in the NFL and may have dated Khloe Kardashian this summer.
He has not commented on the flap.
With accusations of white privilege and reverse sexism floating around the Internet, Dunham concluded as follows:
“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.
“But most importantly, I would never intentionally contribute to a long and often violent history of the over-sexualization of black male bodies- as well as false accusations by white women towards black men.
“I’m so sorry, particularly to OBJ, who has every right to be on his cell phone.
“The fact is I don’t know about his state of mind (I don’t know a lot of things) and I shouldn’t have acted like I did.”
Seems like a pretty in-depth apology to us.
Case closed? Case closed.
