The Real Marnie.

TV It's all a bit Harmony Cousins, but the NYT has a profile of Audrey Gelman, politics wonk and real life inspiration for Marnie in Lena Dunham's Girls. Most of the actual politics might be incomprehensible for those of us outside the loop, but there's some nice sketchwork:

"On the night of the primary on Sept. 10, pundits regarded the Democratic race for comptroller as winner-take-all, since no Republican had held that office since the 1940s (John L. Burnett, a Wall Street veteran, is running on that ticket in the Nov. 5 general election).

"Mr. Stringer’s primary night headquarters — Slate, a restaurant and lounge in Chelsea — was humming with nervous anticipation. As union representatives in T-shirts crowded in among young campaign volunteers dressed for a night on the town, and the play-by-play commentary from NY1 boomed from speakers overhead, Ms. Gelman slumped against a far wall, behind a bank of television cameras, nervously thumbing her iPhone."

"Cleary exhausted after weeks of round-the-clock campaigning, she kicked off her Jimmy Choo spike heels and, for a moment, looked like a shell-shock victim ready for the first medevac chopper."

For balance, here are Dunham and Gelman asking each other some questions in The L.