National Review calls out Lena Dunham, she calls back

WHEREVER Tattle weighs in on the latest Lena Dunham imbroglio, we're sure to anger somebody.

Lena went into a "rage spiral" on Twitter over the weekend after Kevin D. Williamson wrote in the National Review that Lena's behavior with her younger sister, when both were children, was "very disturbing" and possibly sex abuse.

More disturbing is that Williamson didn't pull the notion out of thin air - he pulled it out of Lena's new best-seller, "Not That Kind of Girl."

In the book, Lena writes of bribing her sister Grace with "three pieces of candy if I could kiss her on the lips for five seconds . . . anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl I was trying."

Lena even writes of prying open her sister's vagina, when her sister was a 1-year-old, because her curiosity got the best of her. She ascribes her behavior to being a "weird" 7-year-old girl and challenged her critics to acknowledge that such experiences were common. She called Williamson's allegations "upsetting" and "disgusting."

In one of her angry responses, she wrote, "I bet you have some [stories] too, old men, that I'd rather not hear."

It's stuff like this that occasionally makes the culture wars so difficult to navigate. Lena is a beloved young heroine of female empowerment, a multi-hyphenate TV star, writer, producer, author, zeitgeist formulator, bestie of Taylor Swift, etc., and the National Review is a stodgy, conservative publication that hates everything about "Girls" and its creator.

Except that it was Lena who compared herself to a sexual predator and went into detail about what she did in bed with her kid sister.

If an adult admitted to such acts, he/she'd be in jail.

But Lena wasn't an adult - she was 7! - and now as an adult she's become a chatty spokesperson for the TMI generation, admitting to picking, probing and dissecting every pimple of her personality until it bursts.

Tattle spoke to our old pal Bob Zivian, a former prosecutor of child-sex cases, and he said he doubted that a child of that age would ever be charged for such activity, adding that, at worst, it would be a red flag to see if any type of worse behavior developed or if it was perhaps a signal of behavior being perpetrated by an adult on Lena. Otherwise, he said that the National Review should just calm down (and he's a National Review-reading Republican). "If she was 10 or 11 you might be looking at a serious charge, he said, "but not at seven."

(Originally, Lena's age at the time of the incident was listed as 17, but that was later retracted as a typo. As there's a 6-year age difference between Lena and Grace, it would not be possible for Grace to be a toddler when Lena was 17. If Lena was 17 when this occurred and Grace was 11, that is an entirely different, far more troubling, story.)

The ubiquitous Taylor Swift, making the rounds of virtually every talk show in the world to promote her new album "1989," announced "The 1989 World Tour" on "Good Morning America" yesterday.

It kicks off on May 20, 2015, in Louisiana and will eventually hit eight countries on four continents.

(Gosh, remember the good old days when tours took place when the album was actually hot.)

Australian singer-songwriter, and possibly Taylor's next romantic link, Vance Joy, and singer, songwriter and viral sensation and possibly Taylor's next romantic link, Shawn Mendes, will support various dates on the tour.

The first tickets for the North American leg go on sale to the general public Nov. 14. Check out TaylorSwift.com.

The Philadelphia date is a stadium show - June 13 at Lincoln Financial Field.

* In other Swift news, her music is no longer available on Spotify.

The music-streaming service is no longer offering Taylor's songs at her request, setting up a battle between the industry's most popular artist and the streaming leader.

This means that people who want to hear Taylor's new album, "1989," will have to buy it.

OMG! Imagine wanting to be paid for the content you created.

Spotify said that "we hope she'll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone."

Yeah, for everyone. Many musicians have complained that the rise of Spotify and other streaming services have made a big dent in their sales.

* Daredevil Nik Wallenda wowed the world Sunday with two hair-raising skyscraper crossings on Chicago high wires without a safety net or a harness.

Thousands of cheering fans packed the streets around the city's Marina City towers to watch the 35-year-old heir to the Flying Wallendas' family business complete the back-to-back walks, including one wearing a blindfold.

The spectacle was telecast on the Discovery Channel and 6.7 million viewers tuned in.

The walk was shown almost-live so producers could cut away before Wallenda was almost-dead.

* The Hollywood Reporter says Christian Bale has left the Steve Jobs biopic that is being directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin.

Leonardo DiCaprio had previously passed on the role.

It's a tough Jobs market.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

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On Twitter: @DNTattle