Former “Girls” star Lena Dunham issued a statement apologizing after she defended a former “Girls” writer who was accused of sexual assault.
Actress Aurora Perrineau filed a police report Friday with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in which she accuses Murray Miller, a writer and executive producer on “Girls”, of sexually assaulting her in 2012. Perrineau says she was out with friends when the then-35-year-old Miller started flirting with her despite her telling him multiple times she was only 17. She says she and her friends gave him a ride to his house, and “at some point, I woke up in Murray’s bed naked. He was on top of me having sexual intercourse with me. At no time did I consent to any sexual contact."
Dunham and Girls co-creator Jenni Konner issued a statement Friday saying they are "confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3% of assault cases that are misreported every year”.
The statement concluded: "We stand by Murray and this is all we’ll be saying about this issue.”
But Dunham continued online, tweeting: “The first tenet of my politics is to hold up the people who have held me up.” That didn't sit will after Dunham had been actively speaking out against other accused men.
A day later, Dunham apologized, writing: “I never thought I would issue a statement publicly supporting someone accused of sexual assault, but I naively believed it was important to share my perspective on my friend’s situation as it has transpired behind the scenes over the last few months.
“I now understand that it was absolutely the wrong time to come forward with such a statement, and I am so sorry.” Dunham said that every woman who has spoken out about their experiences with sexual harassment and assault “deserves to be heard, fully and completely,” and said her relationship to the writer “should not be part of the calculation anyone makes when” examining those allegations.
“We apologize to any women who have been disappointed."
Source: The Wrap, People