By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) --The nudity that's a part of HBO's "The Girls" has raised eyebrows. A question about it raised the ire of the show's producers.
At a Thursday session with the Television Critics Association to promote the comedy's new season, a reporter asked Lena Dunham, the show's creator, executive producer and star, why her character was so often naked and for no apparent reason.
"It's because it's a realistic expression of what it's like to be alive, I think, and I totally get it," Dunham replied. "If you are not into me, that's your problem, and you are going to have to kind of work that out."
Filmmaker Judd Apatow (the "Anchorman" movies, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"), who's an executive producer of the show about 20-something friends, jumped in, asking the reporter if he had a girlfriend and suggesting she wouldn't appreciate his question.
At another point in the session, producer Jenni Konner said she was in a "rage spiral" over what she characterized as an inappropriate accusation that a woman was "showing her body too much."
The responses were less heated when the producers fielded questions about the show's lack of a regular minority character despite its setting in diverse New York City.
"I don't think that there's any reason why any show should feel an obligation to do that," Apatow replied.
"In the history of television, you could look at every show on TV and say, 'How come there's not an American Indian on this show?' 'How come there's not an Asian person on this show?'" he said. "It really has to come from the story and the stories that we are trying to tell."
Konner said producers are trying to address some of the criticism that they agreed with, and Dunham called the conversation one "that needs to happen in the world."
"We need to talk about diversifying the world of television, and we are trying to continue to do it in ways that are genuine, natural, intelligent. But we heard all of that and hadn't really felt it deeply," she said.
"Girls," which also stars Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, and Allison Williams, returns Sunday for its third season. HBO said Thursday it has ordered a fourth season.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More