BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Lena Dunham, the creator of HBO's hit series "Girls," apologized for an offensive tweet she posted earlier in the week stating that she wanted to dress up like a victim of notorious Canadian serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka for Halloween.
Her tweet caused outrage among Canadians.
One Twitter user responded, "your tweet about the murders committed by Homolka and Bernardo is disgusting. I knew one of the victims and you're way offside."
But soon after Dunham sent the tweet, she left for a bus tour of Europe, missing the storm of criticism left in her wake.
Thursday morning Dunham, who vowed not to tweet while on vacation, was moved to respond.
The Emmy-nominated actress apologized for her tweet stating, "I don't mind creating debate with thoroughly considered artistic expressions but I don't want to offend with a tweet. Sorry Charlies."
Dunham went on to explain, "The boundaries of comedy are complicated and I'm learning twitter isn't the place to explain or even test them," she tweeted. "Obviously didn't understand what a painful part of the Canadian identity the Bernardo/Homolka case was."
Bernardo and Homolka are a Canadian husband and wife duo that were convicted in 1995 of the rapes and murders of two teenage girls. Bernardo was accused of more than 15 rapes.
A tweet showed the seriousness with which some Canadians take those murders, "@lenadunham was the equivalent for some of us to a Canadian making a joke about dressing as 9/11 terrorist for Halloween."
The Toronto Star reported on the offensive tweets, interviewing the Canadian lawyer Tim Danson, who represented victims’ families in the trial of Bernardo and Homolka.
“I think the families would be extremely hurt and disturbed by this action,” he said. “There are certain circumstances that you don’t make light of. That’s when the magnitude of the crime is so horrific. And she just crossed that line.”
Some Dunham fans showed their support with tweets like, "@lenadunham TwitWit its own genre. We all learn this one character (flaw) at a time.."
Dunham ended her string of apology tweets saying, "Part of the reason I was so concerned is that I've always dreamed of retiring to Canada #Canadaphile."
And then promptly returned to a Twitterless European vacation.
