WATCH: We don’t know what happened here… cc: @lenadunham @mariashriver pic.twitter.com/g11yup4Yqk
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 10, 2017
Watch your mouth, young lady! Lena Dunham flustered the Today show’s guest host Maria Shriver on Friday, February 10, after she asked the veteran TV journalist a rather racy question on the morning talk show. Watch the hilarious exchange in the video above!
The pair was happily chatting about the sixth and final season of Dunham’s acclaimed HBO show, Girls, when Shriver, 61, tried to wrap up the conversation with a compliment about the hit series.
“Thank you so much for stopping by,” Shriver told Dunham, 30, with a smile. “I had a chance to look at three episodes for this new season, and it looks terrific.”
“You saw a penis, right?” Dunham asked, deadpan, at which point Shriver turned bright red and began to laugh nervously. “Yeah. Well, I saw more than that!” she said. “You caught me there for a second. I am not sure if you are allowed to say that on television — but you did!”
Dunham jokingly threw her hands up in surrender. “I won’t be coming back!” she exclaimed as Shriver continued to chuckle. The actress then tried to downplay the moment, apologizing while also joking that Shriver had likely said the word “penis” on-air before.
“That’s OK, that’s OK, that’s the difference between generations,” Shriver said while still smiling. “I wasn’t brought up talking like that.” Dunham, clearly unsure what to do, tried to get up from her seat, but Shriver, realizing that they were still on air, quickly told her to sit down, prolonging the awkward moment.
“Matt, help!” Shriver said, turning to Matt Lauer, who stood off to the side laughing. “She threw me off!”
Earlier in the interview, the duo talked about women in their twenties today as opposed to those who are Dunham’s age.
“What I’m amazed by is the deeply political and ideological strength that so many women in their twenties are showing right now,” the Girls star said. “I only came into my own as someone who’s interested in politics, to be totally frank, when I got famous and I started getting insane tweets from the alt-right every day and I started thinking, ‘Well, I guess there are people who don’t agree with me.’”