By Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Now that HBO's "Girls" has wrapped its six-year run, the women behind the series are focusing on their other female-centered project: turning their digital newsletter, Lenny, into a real-life experience.
Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner are bringing LennyLetter.com to life as a variety show. The co-founders of the digital newsletter announced Tuesday that they'll take the "Lenny: America IRL" tour to six cities, beginning May 31 in St. Louis.
Dunham said she was inspired to create opportunities for women to gather and share ideas after the contentious presidential election.
"We really wanted to try to be a part of, in our own small way, healing the very big divide that exists in our country right now," Dunham said in an interview Monday. "We're trying to look beyond the coastal states and really think about connecting to women, to people, in the middle of the country."
The tour, which will feature music, comedy and spoken word performances, includes stops in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Minnesota; Des Moines, Iowa; and Lexington, Kentucky. Tickets go on sale Friday.
While the event will have liberal-skewing political overtones, Dunham and Konner say everyone is welcome.
"It's political, but we're also trying to bring up issues that you can't really argue with," Dunham said. "For example, a portion of our proceeds are going toward arts education organizations for girls in every city. People have a lot of really split opinions on social politics, but you basically have to be a mustache-twirling villain to have a problem with girls receiving arts education."
Konner said the show's content will be more general than the specific feminist tone of the biweekly Lenny Letter. Performers will include "Saturday Night Live" star Sasheer Zamata, poet Jenny Zhang and comics Charla Lauriston and Morgan Murphy.
She said they want the show to be "a great place for people to come and really enjoy themselves."
Beyond the "America IRL" tour, Konner and Dunham are also broadening Lenny into a documentary series for HBO and a Lenny book imprint launching in August with the first of six slated titles.
"It's all about trying to expand the way that women can have access to information that cracks their brains open," Dunham said. "Jenni's and my entire ethos is really built around relationships between women."
The Lenny expansions are giving the "Girls" alums a new place to put their energies after wrapping the often groundbreaking and controversial series last week.
"It's been a very strange week. I'm not going to lie to you," Konner said. "But it's really nice after all these years of, you know, being pretty divisive, that the general consensus has been pretty positive, and that's made us feel really good."
But neither Konner nor Dunham will engage in discussion of what could be the show's final scrape. Some viewers have found fault with the race of the baby Dunham's character has in the final episode. The baby is dark-skinned; its fictional parents are not.
"I'm going to gracefully bow out of the last controversy hopefully we will ever have about 'Girls,'" Konner said. "I won't even dignify it. Ridiculous."
SMPTE elects board officers, regional governors
SMPTEยฎ,the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has revealed the board officers and regional governors who will serve terms beginning in January 2025.
Three new officers--Richard Welsh as SMPTE president, Eric Gsell as SMPTE executive VP, and Polly Hickling as SMPTE Education VP--have been elected for a two-year term from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2026. One SMPTE officer, Lisa Hobbs, will be continuing her service as SMPTE secretary and treasurer for another two-year term. Additionally, Raymond Yeung will be stepping into the role of standards VP on Jan. 1, 2025.
โSMPTEโs membership has spoken,โ said SMPTE interim executive director Sally-Ann DโAmato. โThese officers have been tasked with an important responsibility, one each of them is prepared to tackle head-on. These next two years are looking bright for SMPTE!โ
In addition to the officers, 10 regional governors were elected by the Society to serve two-year 2025-2026 terms.
These include the following regional governors, re-elected to continue their service:
Asia-Pacific Region Governor
Tony Ngai, Society of Motion Imaging Ltd.
EMEA - Central & South America Region Governor
Fernando Bittencourt, FB Consultant
United Kingdom Region Governor
Chris Johns, Sky UK.
USA - Central Region Governor
William T. Hayes, Consultant
USA - Eastern Region Governor
Dover Jeanne Mundt, Riedel Communications
USA - Western Region Governor
Jeffrey F. Way, Open Drives
Also elected were four newcomers to the SMPTE Board:
Canada Region Governor
Jonathan Jobin, Grass Valley
USA - Hollywood Region Governor
Allan Schollnick, Voxx... Read More