Despite running a hit HBO show and landing a staggering $3.7M advance for her book Not That Kind of Girl, Lena Dunham apparently doesn’t have enough cash to pay the warm-up acts featured on her book tour. According to The New York Times, around 600 people responded to Dunham’s open call for fans with “singular talents†to perform as opening acts at several stops on her Not That Kind of Tour, and by “Not That Kind of Tour†Dunham means not the kind of tour that pays its performers. From NYT:
Last month, the writer, actor and producer Lena Dunham started an ambitious project. Nearly 600 people responded to an open call for video auditions on her website, including a sand artist, a ukulele player, a cappella singers, gymnasts, performance artists and stand-up comics, even some exceptionally charismatic babies.The seven who made the final cut won’t be making cameos in Girls, Ms. Dunham’s HBO show about Brooklyn 20-somethings. Instead, they’ll be the warm-up acts —performing free of charge — on an elaborately produced, 11-city tour to promote Ms. Dunham’s new book, Not That Kind of Girl.
Dunham has yet to respond to this news, but yesterday she did tweet “I’m not a businesswoman. I’m a business, woman. So let me do my business, k?â€
UPDATE: Dunham has responded to this news on Twitter and says she has decided to compensate the performers set to open for her on tour: