Premiere of the New Season of Girls

On Monday evening, the American Museum of Natural History served as the nucleus of New York City’s unofficial back-to-school night. Celebrating the fourth season of Girls, HBO converted the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life better known as the Room of the Blue Whale into a Brooklyn beer garden, replete with rope lights and pitchers of IPA. The show’s stars and numerous guest stars, led by creator Lena Dunham in a short-cropped bob and a Creatures of the Wind look, came out in force, with most still sun-kissed from their holiday travels.

Early on, during an introduction to a screening of the season’s first two episodes which focus on Hannah Horvath’s matriculation to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Dunham and her fellow show-runner Jenni Konner started describing their favorite game to play:

Real Friends vs. Fake Friends. Evidently, all of the show’s HBO collaborators and guest stars are real friends. “We’re looking at you, Quinto,” Dunham said, referring to the Star Trek actor who will make an appearance later this season. “Not all of you are real friends, though” Dunham said, addressing the large audience. “No way!”

The screening room was brimming with a cross-section of New Yorkers who are definitely real Dunham fans: comedy aficionados like Jon Hamm, Kathy Griffin, and SNL members both current (Cecily Strong) and former (Rachel Dratch); art-world friends of the family like Marilyn Minter, Dunham’s godfather Jerry Saltz, Richard Phillips, and Will Cotton; fashion friends Karlie Kloss, Jenna Lyons (who appeared on season three), and Vogue’s Sally Singer. Laughter heard throughout the screening was evidence that Girls continues to hit the mark. (Also, a look at the rise of Allison Williams, who, in this week’s season premiere, we’ll see in her raunchiest sex scene yet.) With that in mind, HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo announced the show would return for a fifth season next year. “We already wrote the first two episodes,” Dunham later revealed, nodding to Konner. “I’m glad all our work isn’t for naught.” Not in the least, Lena.