Lena Dunham Defends Former Girls Producer After Sexual Assault Allegations

2 minute read
By Jamie Ducharme

Lena Dunham is publicly defending her former Girls writer and producer Murray Miller after an actress accused him of sexual assault.

Actress Aurora Perrineau on Friday filed a report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, alleging that Miller assaulted her in 2012 when she was 17, Deadline reports. Miller “categorically and vehemently denies Ms. Perrineau’s outrageous claims,” his attorney said in a statement.

Dunham, as well as Girls co-showrunner Jenni Konner, also went on record denying the allegations. In a statement given to Deadline, they said:

During the windfall of deeply necessary accusations over the last few months in Hollywood, we have been thrilled to see so many women’s voices heard and dark experiences in this industry justified. It’s a hugely important time of change and, like every feminist in Hollywood and beyond, we celebrate. But during every time of change there are also incidences of the culture, in its enthusiasm and zeal, taking down the wrong targets. We believe, having worked closely with him for more than half a decade, that this is the case with Murray Miller. While our first instinct is to listen to every woman’s story, our insider knowledge of Murray’s situation makes us confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3% of assault cases that are misreported every year. It is a true shame to add to that number, as outside of Hollywood women still struggle to be believed. We stand by Murray and this is all we’ll be saying about this issue.

Dunham, celebrated by many as a feminist icon, had her own brush with sexual assault allegations after the release of her 2014 memoir Not That Kind of Girl. In the book, Dunham wrote about encounters with her younger sister — including bribing her for kisses, and examining her baby sister’s vagina as a 7-year-old — that some said amounted to molestation. After the controversy, Dunham wrote in TIME that she does not “condone any kind of abuse under any circumstance.”

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Write to Jamie Ducharme at jamie.ducharme@time.com