What’s Worth Watching: Lena Dunham Guest Stars on ‘Scandal’

Scandal, “It’s Good to Be Kink” (Thursday, March 19, 9/8c)

In a pop-culture collision you might not have seen coming, Girls‘ bohemian standard-bearer Lena Dunham gets her guilty pleasure on with a guest-star turn on TV’s glossiest roller-coaster ride of outlandish sexual-political shenanigans. Once again, she’s playing a writer—and her Girls persona of Hannah Horvath would swoon if anything she published could set off the fireworks generated by the Washington, D.C. sex-posé that has Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and associates in a frenzy. (If Dunham’s character had an inkling of even a fraction of what we’ve seen transpire on this show over four lurid seasons, the book would rival Gone With the Wind in length.)

Wonder if she’s tapped in to one of Scandal‘s wildest recent subplots—and that’s saying something—which involves first lady Mellie (the fabulous Bellamy Young) deviously laying the groundwork for a presidential run once her husband Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) leaves the Oval Office. Unlikely, yes, but oh so Mellie. In the latest twist, RNC chair Elizabeth North (Portia de Rossi) warns Mellie that her sister (who in a future episode will be played by True Blood‘s Lauren Bowles) could be an obstacle to her ambitions. Poor sis. As we’ve learned watching Scandal, being related to any of these high-powered people can be dangerous to one’s health.