On Tuesday, Lena Dunham celebrated her 40th birthday a day early with a star-studded dinner at Via Carota in the West Village. To celebrate the big day, America's favorite memoirist convened a truly fabulous group to dine with her at the celebrity hot spot, one that included Emily Ratajkowski, Andrew Rannells, and Taylor Swift.
Also on the guest list? Dunham's husband, Luis Felber; Swift's best friend, Ashley Avignone; and Ratajkowski's boyfriend, director Romain Gavras.
On his Instagram Story, Rannells posted a selfie Dunham took and captioned it, "Thank you for taking this picture so I can seem cool for the kids." The several Swift fan accounts that reposted the image (sadly) cropped out his statement of gratitude. What we do see is the evening's seating chart, which had Rannells next to the birthday girl (brag) and Swift sitting in between him and Ratajkowski.
Side note: Swift wearing an all-white outfit to an Italian restaurant? I must salute her bravery.
By the time dinner wrapped up, word had clearly spread that Swift was at the restaurant; the gang exited to a swarm of screaming Swift fans. The Swifties were treated not just to a glimpse of the singer, but of Dunham exiting wearing a "Happy Birthday" tiara and carrying a pink lava lamp. Who do we think got that for her? My guess is EmRata.
Overall, this seems like a really fabulous dinner with a bunch of people who are down to have a couple cocktails and really start gabbing. I hope, as a gift to Dunham, they all went around the table and said what their favorite part of her memoir Famesick was. (I bet Swift was moved by Dunham's relationship with Nora Ephron.)