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Lena Dunham's legal representative asks that leaked book proposal be taken down

Lena Dunham's proposal for her advice book, 'Not That Kind of Girl,' leaked online and was posted in full on the website Gawker.

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JoJo Whilden/HBO/AP
Lena Dunham stars on the HBO series 'Girls.'
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

“Girls” star Lena Dunham was not happy that the website Gawker published the entire proposal for her upcoming advice book online.

Dunham, who is the creator, writer, producer, director and star of HBO’s “Girls,” is planning to release an advice book titled “Not That Kind of Girl,” with the date of publication currently unannounced. She submitted a 66-page proposal to Random House and received $3.7 million for the rights to the book.

After Gawker posted the full proposal online, Dunham’s legal representative, Charles Harder, asked that it be taken down, and the website complied. However, Gawker had also selected 12 quotes from the book and used them within their article about the proposal, and Harder asked that those be removed as well.

Instead, under each update, Gawker writer John Cook added new text under each quote, which all open with “Lena Dunham's personal litigation counsel Charles Harder has contacted Gawker to relay a demand from his client, Lena Dunham, that we remove the above quote from our web site. In order to clarify our intent in quoting the above matter from Dunham's proposal, we have decided to append the following commentary.” Cook then added a comment on each excerpt, such as his remark about Dunham’s statement that she went to her first Women’s Action Coalition meeting when she was three years old.

“The quoted sentence is indicative of a nauseating and cloying posture of precociousness that permeates the entire proposal,” Cook wrote.

According to Salon, Dunham’s publisher, Random House, is not involved in the wrangle.

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