Overview

Lena Dunham Kissing Brad Pitt refers to a photo of actress Lena Dunham attempting to kiss Once Upon a Time in Hollywood costar Brad Pitt on the red carpet at the London premiere of the film. The moment was mocked by the press for being awkward, and it was also criticized by commenters for being akin to a sexual assault, with people noting that if the roles were reversed, Pitt's career and reputation would be tarnished.

Background

On July 30th, 2019, the Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood premiered in London. At the red carpet, Lena Dunham attempted to kiss costar Brad Pitt on the mouth.^[1]

Developments

Initial coverage of the kiss in gossip magazines painted the moment in a light-hearted manner,^[3] making it appear more charming than scandalous. People Magazine^[2] wrote "Lena Dunham has a lot of love for her costar Brad Pitt… While working the carpet at the London premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood on Wednesday, the actress and writer approached Pitt and planted a kiss on his cheek." However, the narrative quickly shifted to a debate on consent and sexual misconduct, as people observed that Dunham appeared to be going for Pitt's mouth and that Pitt was not consenting to being kissed. Twitter user @LawverSays^[4] tweeted that the narrative around the incident was "gross," saying "If any man did this to a woman on a red carpet, they’d be publicly pilloried and likely lose their job" (shown below, left). Twitter user @WritingLeeman^[5] shared a similar sentiment, writing "we can all agree that if the roles were reversed, Brad Pitt would be losing his career and people would be screaming #metoo, correct?" After Twitter backlash to the moment and gossip magazine coverage, other publications began focusing on the backlash, including Uproxx,^[1] Complex,^[6] NME,^[7] and others.

Search Interest

External References