More Doubt Cast on Lena Dunham’s Rape Story
Book publisher to alter text in memoir, pay legal fees of the accused.
As we reported over the weekend, Lena Dunham’s account of being sexually assaulted by a Republican student at Oberlin is the other collapsing campus rape story.
New details are emerging which cast a longer shadow of doubt over Dunham’s claims.
According to a new report from Paul Bond of the Hollywood Reporter, Dunham’s publisher is going to alter the language in her book:
Publisher to Alter Lena Dunham Book After Rape Story Questioned, Attorney Says
The publisher of Lena Dunham‘s book, Not That Kind of Girl, will tweak a passage where the star and creator of the Girls TV show describes how she was raped in college by a Republican named “Barry,” an attorney for the man told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday.
Attorney Aaron Minc said he has been in contact with Dunham’s lawyers at Ziffren Brittenham in Los Angeles who assure him that future printings of the book, subtitled “A young woman tells you what she’s ‘learned,’ ” will come with a disclaimer that “Barry” is not the real name of the man who raped Dunham when the two were students at Oberlin College a decade ago.
In an even more explosive development, Random House has offered to pay the legal fees for the accused man known only as “Barry One.”
Random House Goes for Quick Payoff, Clears ‘Barry One’
After two months of requests made through his attorney, the man Breitbart News identified as “Barry One” in an investigative report published last week has, at least, been exonerated by Lena Dunham’s publisher, Random House. The publishing giant didn’t apologize. Nor did Lena Dunham. Regrets were expressed over “the confusion.”
In a statement released Monday to The Wrap that raises many more questions than it answers, Random House finally admits: “The name ‘Barry’ referenced in the book is a pseudonym. Random House, on our own behalf and on behalf of our author, regrets the confusion.”
“As indicated on the copyright page of Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, some names and identifying details in the book have been changed. The name ‘Barry’ referenced in the book is a pseudonym,” the publisher told TheWrap exclusively. “Random House, on our own behalf and on behalf of our author, regrets the confusion that has led attorney Aaron Minc to post on GoFundMe on behalf of his client, whose first name is Barry.”
“We are offering to pay the fees Mr. Minc has billed his client to date,” the company continued. “Our offer will allow Mr. Minc and his client to donate all of the crowd-funding raised to not-for-profit organizations assisting survivors of rape and sexual assault.”
Eugene Volokh of the Washington Post notes that this is a legal nightmare of Dunham’s own making:
Lena Dunham’s publisher says her alleged rapist “Barry” wasn’t actually named Barry
TheWrap now reports that Random House has put out a statement exonerating this Identifiable Conservative Barry, and saying that the alleged rapist wasn’t really named Barry at all:
As indicated on the copyright page of Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, some names and identifying details in the book have been changed. The name ‘Barry’ referenced in the book is a pseudonym. Random House, on our own behalf and on behalf of our author, regrets the confusion that has led attorney Aaron Minc to post on GoFundMe on behalf of his client, whose first name is Barry.
We are offering to pay the fees Mr. Minc has billed his client to date. Our offer will allow Mr. Minc and his client to donate all of the crowd-funding raised to not-for-profit organizations assisting survivors of rape and sexual assault.
Appalling. The book wasn’t a novel; it was a memoir, offered to readers as such. The copyright page, which I suspect few people read, does say that “Some names and identifying details have been changed,” but it certainly doesn’t tell people which ones.
Twitchy has compiled a series of tweets from John Nolte which reinforce the new questions being raised:
Things just got messier –> Random House Says ‘Barry One’ Not Lena Dunham’s Rapist; Many Questions Unanswered http://t.co/qgk42YTW79 via
— John Nolte (@NolteNC) December 8, 2014
Random House Offers to Pay ‘Barry One's’ Legal Fees – http://t.co/qgk42YTW79 via @BreitbartNews
— John Nolte (@NolteNC) December 8, 2014
Random House Admits 'details' and 'names' in Lena Dunham rape story 'have been changed' – http://t.co/qgk42YTW79
— John Nolte (@NolteNC) December 8, 2014
One thing is sure… This story is far from over.
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Comments
I think it safe to say that Random House may soon sue Lena for screwing them.
Why not? She’s screwed half the Country, apparently.
Lena still has her blossoming career as a fitness model, so she has that going for her.
Did Eric Ebenezer Holder include gender profiling in his babbling unctuous screed?
Not enough. He’s going to spend a couple of years pushing to have public statements made exonerating him. Random House should call back all unsold copies and reprint with the correction made.
Since this is billed as a memoir, not fiction, it is clear than Random House editors do no fact-checking and did not have the text vetted by a lawyer. Sloppy and dangerous practices. Self-published books might go out unedited, but this is Random House.
That’s right, it isn’t enough. Nothing less than a public apology by Dunham herself will do. She should have to pay for it to be printed in both the New York Times and Rolling Stone. It must state unequivocally that “Barry One” is NOT the person to whom she was referring in her book. And none of that “I’m sorry if anyone was confused” bullshit. It must be a real apology accepting 100% responsibility for his trouble.
Barry One will get more than a public apology and these legal fees paid. I doubt he or his lawyer are through with this.
Remember “Unfit for Command”? That book was a critique of John F’n Kerry’s alleged memoir. It was written by an alleged historian, who admitted on C-Spann such facts as to lead to the conclusion that he had written a hagiography, complete with whole-cloth fabrications, and he knew it.
So many stories that are too good to check.
Fascinating. You get this impression of a poor, sick, twisted and really quite toxic person.
And then she confirms that impression by her conduct. With special sauce.
Anti-rape zealots are gonna need a new set of victims….
Unfortunately, being a feminist means NEVER having to say you are sorry. The Narrative is always right and any particular situation if shown to be not quite accurate is immaterial to the larger “truth”.
It’s only when PowerLine put certain details in one place that my eyes really bugged out. Prominent Republican, large mustache, radio show… and purple cowboy boots? Well, I’m assuming (based on how it was written) that the purple part really is in the book. However, the whole thing just reeks of what a hard left feminist views as a cartoon mustached villain.
It’s deeply dismaying that this woman has made a mockery of the subject.
Indeed, but not especially surprising given the fact that she makes a mockery of herself every time she opens her vile skank mouth.
Whoever believed anything she wrote to begin with?
Here’s the part I don’t understand, these people accuse we on the right of being soft on rape. I’m anything but. I’m insistent on due process, evidence and proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but once you have that I say the hang the bastards.
I can’t help but think they are after a no-proof required system that any woman can use as a bludgeon against any man.
“I can’t help but think they are after a no-proof required system that any woman can use as a bludgeon against any man.”
^ this.
“I can’t help but think they are after a no-proof required system that any woman can use as a bludgeon against any man.”
And Obama and holder are after a similar thing, only not on behalf of women.
The sad part is that the Rolling Stone story and Lena Dunham’s story will actually make it harder to investigate and prosecute real rapes. Because of these “true-life” stories which turned out to be false, real victims will be less likely to come forward for fear of the scrutiny they’ll be under.
And they will be under more intense scrutiny. Consciously or unconsciously, investigators and advocates will be that much less likely to believe a potential victim’s accusation.
Just like the Ferguson protesters, Lena Dunham and the Rolling Stone writer/editors are not helping when they become what they’re railing against.
I agree with a lot of your comment.
I am LESS worried about OFFICIAL LEO investigations of rape claims, however.
The pros have already seen it all…including patently false rape claims. They will continue to go about investigating reported rapes with objective, careful, professionalism for the vast majority of cases.
You get a real, hard-eyed view of human nature when you deal with horrific claims, like any attorney who deals with family law can tell you.
“The sad part is that the Rolling Stone story and Lena Dunham’s story will actually make it harder to investigate and prosecute real rapes. Because of these “true-life” stories which turned out to be false, real victims will be less likely to come forward for fear of the scrutiny they’ll be under.”
I’m beginning to think that’s a bit of a canard. There was NO scrutiny in this case. The truth fought its way in because this woman is such a trashy twit. In most cases there is evidence.
I view this as merely the fulcrum of the scales of justice seeking equilibrium again, not a tilt lowering the equity of true victims.
Anyone else scratching their heads that in the same book Dunham confesses to molesting her younger sister then makes rape accusations that while false, do implicate an identifiable individual….. and Random House hasn’t hauled her into court and fired her editor? And she’s still on HBO?
Welcome to the whacky world of the Liberal mind!
“Not That Kind of Girl” should be…
“THAT Kind Of Nut”.
She’s dropped to full “victim” mode, now claiming she’s just a survivor doing the best she can.
http://twitchy.com/2014/12/09/lena-dunham-and-buzzfeed-team-up-to-present-another-steaming-load-of-faux-victim-bullcrap/
Poor, sick, twisted, lying millionaire.
Let me get this straight: Lena Dunham wrote a book full of pseudo facts about a pseudo rape that was perpetrated by a pseudo guy with a pseudo-nym name. And Random House published it as Non-Fiction.
I am pseudo impressed.