Writer, director, producer, and star of HBO's much-dissected comedy series Girls Lena Dunham recently issued a formal rebuttal to critics who pick on the show for featuring a main cast composed entirely of celebrity offspring.

"The whole nepotism storyline, I get it more with [Brian Williams' daughter] Allison and [David Mamet's daughter] Zosia who have dads who are kind of active in the entertainment industry," Dunham conceded to Bill Simmons (no relation) during a recent B.S. Report interview.

But I really did want to challenge all the people crying nepotism to actually tell me who either of my parents were, because it's the contemporary art world! Okay, I'm Laurie Simmons' daughter. In one sentence, give me the concentrated version of her Wikipedia entry. You cannot! She's had a lovely career, but she's a feminist photographer from downtown New York.

She went on to dispute the suggestion that Allison Williams was picked to play Marnie solely on the basis of her dad's credentials.

"In my house, growing up, we only watched Charlie Rose and weird PBS forms of news," Dunham said. "I'm a Brian Williams fan, but I really didn't know who he was. Until I met him, I was picturing who I believed to be Peter Jennings ... my knowledge of newscasters and picking them out of a lineup [is poor]."

[photo via AP]