Entertainment

Lena's Cat Keychain Gets Her In Big Trouble

by Lia Beck

If you're boarding a flight soon, listen up because you could learn from Lena Dunham's mistakes. On Thursday's episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, Lena Dunham explained how she was detained by the TSA for carrying a self-defense keychain shaped like a cat (perhaps like this one). The keychain, which was a gift from a coworker, was found when Dunhan was boarding a flight from Los Angeles to Ohio and caused her to be detained in the airport for 45 minutes.

Dunham started by telling Meyers, "The only thing that got me out of it sane was thinking this might be an okay talk show story." And it was! Smart lady! Dunham explained that the keychain is shaped like a cat head that you put your knuckles through "but i guess the two ears could gut someone." Dunham says she cried while two TSA officers spoke to her and waited for the situation to be assessed by law enforcement. The officers involved didn't recognize Dunham, but she kind of wished they did. "I felt so much guilt about just hoping someone might pass by and go, 'Love the show!'" so that the officers would realize she wasn't a criminal.

Eventually, Dunham was let go, but wasn't allowed to keep the keychain. Not like she would really want to at that point. The first thing she did was call her mom who was more concerned about fans spotting Dunham than whether her daughter was okay. She said, "Oh my god. Do you think anybody saw and tweeted about it?"

Check out Dunham's full interview below.