'Girls,' renewed for fourth season, sparks naked debate

After two seasons of discussing the nudity on her hit show "Girls," Lena Dunham has apparently reached a breaking point.

It's not a secret that the actress/showrunner doesn't shy away from nude scenes on the series - she does it so much, in fact, that she made our list of stars who seem to just love being naked. But at Thursday night's "Girls" panel at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour, the 27-year-old award-winner seemed to bristle when asked about her focus on the unclothed form.

According to The Wrap's Tim Molloy, he asked Dunham why her "Girls" character, Hannah Horvath, "is naked so much?"

Well, that's the short version. In full, Molloy pointed out to Dunham that he didn't "get the purpose of all the nudity on the show. By you particularly. I feel like I’m walking into a trap where you say 'no one complains about the nudity on "Game of Thrones,"' but I get why they’re doing it. They’re doing it to be salacious. To titillate people. And your character is often naked at random times for no reason.”

Dunham did give Molloy a response - she explained that it's "because it's a realistic expression of what it's like to be alive, I think, and I totally get it. If you are not into me, that's your problem" - but the confrontation didn't end there. Dunham's co-producers, Judd Apatow and Jenni Konner, were incensed by Molloy's question, with Apatow calling it "sexist and offensive ... misogynistic."

Konnor was so upset that she couldn't focus afterward, interjecting during Dunham's response to another query to say that she was was "spacing out because I’m in such a rage spiral about (Molloy). ... This idea that you would talk to a woman like that and accuse a woman of showing her body too much. The idea it just makes me sort of sick.”

When the conversation continued after the panel, Apatow - who's renowned for his own films, such as "Knocked Up" or the recent "This Is 40" - tried to explain to Molloy why Dunham in particular does most of the nude work on the show.

“I have people naked when they’re willing to do it," Dunham said. "Lena is confident enough to do it so we have the opportunity to talk about other issues because she is braver than other people. If Paul Rudd said to me, 'I’m willing to be completely naked in the movie,' I would use it ... because it’s more honest.”

At least that commitment to honesty is paying off with HBO. Although the third season of "Girls" won't premiere on the network, which shares a parent company with CNN, until January 12, it's already been renewed for a fourth season.