2017 was an inauspicious year for actress Lena Dunham. In addition to claiming the rape accusations against Girls writer Murray Miller were “misreported,” Dunham sparked criticism for surrendering her rescue dog in favor of two purebred poodles, and even inspired a Twitter account parodying her seemingly daily apologies. And in December, she split from boyfriend Jack Antonoff, E! News reported yesterday.

For the five and a half years of their relationship, Dunham and Antonoff were the Jewish power couple that never was. Antonoff is a talented songwriter, known for his collaborations with Sarah Bareilles, Lorde, and other pop stars, but his tolerance for Dunham’s problematic behavior was endless and concerning. In 2015, for example, she labelled herself a “sexual predator” in jest, then fell into a “rage spiral” when news outlets took her accounts of molesting her sister seriously. She also published an anti-Semitic satire in the New Yorker comparing her Jewish boyfriend (a.k.a Antonoff) to a dog, with the added insult of portraying him as a feeble asthmatic accustomed to being “waited on hand and foot.” It’s surprisingly sexist piece for someone raised by a Jewish mother, stereotyping them as co-dependent and “sucked dry by their children.”

Although Dunham called Antonoff her “life partner” in the past, she was one of the many celebrities to use same-sex marriage as a delaying tactic. (A word to straight couples: that was always a terrible excuse. Skip the “protest” and admit that you weren’t ready to get hitched.) Just before DOMA was repealed, Dunham said she envisioned their wedding party as “our two sisters in tuxedos,” still more eager to be “gay adjacent” than to commit to Antonoff. This fall, she tweeted about mistaking his “talking shit” about her for proposal planning, suggesting that Antonoff may have initiated the breakup. His accomplishments were often overshadowed by his association with Dunham, and as a three-time Grammy Award winner, he deserves better publicity in 2018.

Antonoff has yet to comment on the split, but Dunham recently Instagrammed this quote: “Starting over is the beautiful moment where you choose yourself.”

It’s an ironic statement for the more blatantly narcissistic of the pair, whose insistence on her own perspective has both established and threatened her career.

Better luck next time, Jack.

Images via Wikimedia

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If you, like me, enjoy learning about how Jewish geography extends to cool Jewish lady celebrities, you’ll enjoy the following tidbit: Mayim Bialik, of The Big Bang Theory (and this great video), and Rachel Bloom, better known as Rebecca Bunch on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, are apparently buddies. Watered by some mayim, their friendship began to bloom last April, when Bialik interviewed Bloom for her website. A couple weeks ago, they had a coffee date, but it was interrupted by a fan who seemed more interested in Rachel than in Mayim. Personally, I’d like to tag along with both of them. What a squad.

Speaking of funny, outspoken Jewish feminist actresses, remember how Rachel Bloom used to be roommates with Broad City’s Ilana Glazer? Naturally, they take amazing selfies. Looking at them, I was reminded of the episode from last season of Girls when Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham’s character) gets a visit from a college friend, played amazingly by Jenny Slate. What if the four of them were all friends?!

And in case you forgot, Ilana is (distantly) related to Abbi Jacobson in real life. Which makes the sexual nature of Abbi and Ilana’s friendship (mostly on Ilana’s side) on the show a little awkward.

But most Ashkenazi Jews are basically related to each other anyway (though unlike most Ashkenazi Jews, all six of these ladies competed in Jewcy‘s ongoing “Jewish Celebrity March Madness“). So I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before all these yiddishe mavens of comedy discover that I am their long-lost cousin and want to be best friends with me too.

Image via Instagram.

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Television’s enfant terrible, Lena Dunham, is back.

Hot on the heels of major memoir controversy, the trailer for season 4 of Girls has dropped, and it looks… promising, I think! (In case you’ve been trapped under a heavy sofa the last two weeks: a right-wing pundit argued that seven-year-old Dunham’s behavior toward her little sister was predatory and sexually inappropriate, and a lot of people agreed, while others thought the claims were outrageous.)

Hannah has left Brooklyn to pursue an MFA at the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Shoshanna is unemployed, Jessa’s getting arrested, and Marnie is knitting and hating on Iowa. I’m lukewarm about this MFA plot development considering the fact that we never knew Hannah was applying until she got in and we never see her write fiction, but OK! I’ll go with it! Who doesn’t love a good writing workshop parody? Perhaps the change of scene will do the show some good; I found season 3 was a lackluster (with some moments of brilliance).

Major questions prompted by the trailer: Will Hannah and Adam survive the distance? Will Shosh get a job? Will the friends’ hackneyed observations about the difficulties of adult life ever cease? Who knows. These things are certain, however: there will be group dancing, jelly wrestling, and healthy snacks. January 11, lovers and haterz.

http://youtu.be/kB8y4Zp9UNc

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Sukkot is probably my favorite Jewish holiday because we get to build a temporary structure, a sukkah, to live in—and decorate!—for a week. (More about why we do that here.) Traditionally, Jews adorn their Sukkot with posters of the ushpizin, the seven biblical “guests” who we invite to join us on each night of the festival. Not surprisingly, the ushpizin are all men: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David; the most revered dudes in the Torah. No ladies—until now.

Rather than invite seven biblical men to my sukkah, I decided I’d invite the Jewish female comedians and characters I’ve been most into this year, and throw together some posters to honor them.

I think the temporary/pop-up nature of Sukkot lends itself to a pop-culture influence, where the guests you welcome one year might not be the same ones you welcome the next. Last year I honored the cast of Girls. This year I’ve been pretty obsessed with Broad City, and continued to cultivate my enduring love for Lena Dunham, Sarah Silverman and others.

So without further ado, here are my ‘Ushpizienne: Class of 5775’: Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, Abbi Jacobson, Jenny Slate, Ilana Glazer, Sarah Silverman, and Yael Stone.

Don’t forget to ‘hack into booth city’:

And—why not—the cast of Girls, from last Sukkot:

Download large versions of all images for your sukkah (or permanent four-walled residence) here.

Ari Perlow is an antipodean Jewess who is obsessed with vegan analogues and digital media. She co-hosts the podcast Yeah Nah But and tweets at @ari_perlow.

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Over at Vulture, there’s a revealing, intimate profile of fun. guitarist and songwriter-to-the-pop-stars Jack Antonoff—AKA Mr. Lena Dunham—that’s well worth your time.

Antonoff—who rose to fame in 2012 on the back of fun.’s sweeping, exuberant pop hit “We Are Young“—talks openly about the death of his 13-year-old sister when he was 18, right before 9/11, and how the two tragedies shaped his psyche, his creative life, his germ-phobia (he wipes down airplane seats with anti-bacterial wipes before traveling), and his songwriting ethos. What emerges is a frank portrait of a sensitive, neurotic, likable thirty-going-on-sixty-year-old with a penchant for crazy socks and sweaters. Writes Jada Yuan:

Sarah lost her lifelong battle with brain cancer when she was 13 and Antonoff was a senior in high school, but his adolescence might have been marked even more profoundly by his family’s struggle than her dying, by those memories of hospitals and growing up in constant fear. “It’s not groundbreaking psychological stuff,” says Antonoff of his “germ issues.” “It’s coming from a very obvious place. You know, the scarring on the lung is not a big fucking deal. It’s just that in the context of my life, it just stresses me out. My real sickness is how I deal with it psychologically.” He’s seeing a psychopharmacologist and really needs to find a new therapist, but he gets stressed out thinking about starting over—not because he has a problem bringing up painful things but because of “the boredom of catching someone up.” He laughs. “Anyway, long answer to your question about why I drink tea. You realize that’s how this started, right?” We’ve been talking for only ten minutes.

We also learn that Antonoff can pull off “vaguely Nazi looks,” like a shaved head, because his face is “so Jewish.” His mom still buys him lunch, even though he’s a platinum-selling artist. And at his parents’ place in New Jersey he has a walk-in closet filled with Star Wars tchotchkes, which spill “out of three full bookcases and guarded by life-size cardboard cutouts of a Storm Trooper and Obi-Wan Kenobi.” His bar mitzvah, not surprisingly, was Star Wars-themed. It’s a credit to Antonoff that this detail is neither tragically nerdy nor annoyingly twee—it’s just endearing, like he is.

Image: Mat Hayward / Shutterstock.com

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Season 4 of Girls is in full production and filming throughout the streets of New York City. By the picture up top we see that Adam and Hannah are still going strong, despite her imminent trip to Iowa for her creative writing degree. All the while, the paparazzi have done their job of following the cast around their shoots, most recently capturing Dunham rockin’ her short shorts, and Queen Jemima being beautiful in her adorable outfit; worn lace boots, a floral dress and a cardigan…she’s just too cool.

To entertain season 4 rumors, it’s been speculated that Lena is in talks with her “bestie” Taylor Swift to not only play a character in the show, but also to write music. Maybe Taylor will play Marnie’s BFF. I could see that, could you? It’s also speculated that killer-eyebrows-girl/model Cara Delevingne will also cameo. Maybe a Bushwick model/junkie? Who knows. We shall see!

(Image: Getty)

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Drawing a blank right now? Here’s a visual aid to jog your memory:

Happy Purim, everyone. Be safe. And remember: NOTHING SMALLER THAN AN ELBOW.

Related: A hundred-year-old Hamantaschen Recipe

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Lena Dunham is hosting Saturday Night Live this week. Here’s the official promo with cast member and fellow young feminist, Kate McKinnon. For your convenience, we have included a transcript of the most aspirational and inspirational part of the video! (But there’s a good shirtless bit too, so keep watching you lecherous bastards.)

Lena Dunham‘s Goals For The Week:

1. Be on time,
2. Wear comfortable shoes,
3. Don’t ask too many questions,
4. Be present at all times,
5. Take deep breaths,
6. Have some sort of vegetable serving every day,
7. Focus on what I like about myself rather than what I don’t like about myself,
8. Stretch every morning,
9. Have two cups of coffee max per day,
10. Relax,
11. And have fun.

Kate McKinnon‘s Goal For The Week:

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The rise and rise of Lena Dunham continues. Variety reports that the creator and star of HBO’s Girls will be hosting Saturday Night Live on March 8. Indie rock band The National will be special musical guests. (Fun Jewy fact: guitarist and songwriter Aaron Dessner studied Jewish history at Columbia and worked in Yale’s Holocaust archive.)

We are very excited, but probably not as excited as Ms. Dunham:

Thank you for the SNL love. Dream come true. Can’t wait to debut my character “girl who googled serial killers all night & has lots to say”!

— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) February 25, 2014

(Photo credit: Robyn Beck/Getty Images)

Also on the topic of SNL: See Fred Armisen’s Un-aired SNL Impersonation of Ira Glass

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Here is your mid-afternoon pop-culture pick-me-up, in two parts:

Part I: Lena Dunham’s book has a cover and a release date (October 7, 2014)! And there are no heels, lipsticks, or martini glasses on the cover. Well played, Random House, well played.

Now, say what you will about the show (I mostly love it and find 83% of the criticism to have an undercurrent of repressed if not completely overt sexism, but hey, knock yourselves out in the comments), but Dunham’s writing is brilliant. Beautifully paced, funny, poignant, candid. She’s never afraid to be a little bit pathetic, you know? To wit, have you read this piece about her gay ex-boyfriend in the New Yorker? I was laughing so hard reading it on the subway that the woman sitting next to me started talking to me about it and now we are real life friends. True story!

 It’s official. Coming 10/7/14. http://t.co/KnYwHHsKxC

— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) February 10, 2014

Part II: Karen O has released a duet of her Oscar-nominated song from Her (“The Moon Song”) with Ezra Koenig. It was lovely before, it’s even better with Koenig’s vocals.

And here is the ethereal score for the film, by Arcade Fire. This is a nice one to fall asleep to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijCcRWNwieg

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