Hollywood star Lena Dunham has apologised for a publishing regrettable statements about NFL player Odell Beckham Jr following a social media outcry.
The Girls creator fantasised about what the New York Giants wide receiver was thinking about her in a transcript of a chat with comedian Amy Schumer.
Her comments were criticised as arrogant and self-absorbed, and she was slammed for sexualising black men and perpetuating racial stereotypes - not for the first time, either.
Recounting seeing Beckham Jr at the prestigious Met Gala, Dunham conjured up a string of thoughts she perceived him to have about her, despite not actually talking to him.
"It was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards. He was like, 'That's a marshmallow. That's a child. That's a dog.' It wasn't mean; he just seemed confused," wrote Dunham.
"The vibe was very much like, 'Do I want to f**k it? Is it wearing a ... yep, it's wearing a tuxedo. I'm going to go back to my cellphone.' It was like we were forced to be together, and he literally was scrolling Instagram rather than have to look at a woman in a bowtie."
She also mentioned trying to "grind [her] ass on Michael B Jordan" at the same event.
The Twitterverse was not impressed.
"Dunham's deployment of two black men here as both object [Jordan] and misogynist [Beckham Jr] is telling, and deeply infuriating, particularly in her projection of an idea about black male athletes and their sexual prowess, all done to overemphasise how much she does not fit into a certain beauty or fashion ideal," read an entry on Jezebel.com.
Although she also discredited the criticisms as "the outrage machine", Dunham has taken to social media to apologise for her unfortunate message.
"I owe Odell Beckham Jr an apology," she wrote in an Instagram post.
"I would never intentionally contribute to a long and often violent history of the over-sexualisation of black male bodies - as well as false accusations by white women towards black men. I'm so sorry, particularly to OBJ, who has every right to be on his cellphone. The fact is I don't know about his state of mind (I don't know a lot of things) and I shouldn't have acted like I did."
Beckham Jr doesn't appear to have commented on Dunham's original comments, or her apology.
The first season of Girls, which aired in 2012, was criticised for having an all-white cast despite its racially diverse setting of New York.
In trying to make up for the lack of diversity with the second season, Dunham cast black actor Danny Glover in a romantic role; but this also failed in representing non-white characters well, according to some critics.
NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote: "[The second] season that white ghetto was breached by a black character who is introduced as some jungle fever lover, with just enough screen time to have sex and mutter a couple of lines about wanting more of a relationship. A black dildo would have sufficed and cost less."
The sixth and final season of Girls is set for broadcast in 2017.
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