Lena Dunham, Knight celebrate 'Eloise'

NEW YORK – When Hilary Knight, illustrator of the classic Eloise books, heard that Girls star Lena Dunham had an Eloise tattoo, he knew he had to meet her.

Despite their 60-year age difference, the pair became fast pals, and Monday at the Plaza Hotel – Eloise's famed hangout – they screened their HBO documentary, It's Me, Hilary (March 23 at 9 p.m. ET).

Dunham is an executive producer, and she appears in the documentary as well (and yes, she flashes the Eloise tattoo on her lower back).

"He's seen it many a time," Dunham says of her Eloise body art, which she got when she was 17.

Dunham says she first "read" Eloise before she could even read, when she was 2 or 3, and the impish character's "intelligence, the feminist bent of the book, and her independence" is why "she's been so meaningful to me."

Six-year-old Eloise, of course, has the run of the Plaza, which to this day serves tea in Eloise-adorned teacups. She has delighted little girls since the first Eloise book was published in 1955, written by Kay Thompson with Knight's amusing illustrations. Their collaboration ended in bitterness, a subject explored in the documentary, which also celebrates Knight's whimsical personality.

Now 88, Knight seems pleased with the renewed attention and amazed to think a 60th anniversary of the first Eloise book will be published by Simon & Schuster in October.

A Girls fan, Knight calls Dunham an "extraordinary person" and says the flamboyant "Kay would have loved her." He recently showed Dunham his own tattoo, a butterfly he got in the Navy in 1944. Now that they've shared tattoo viewings, the pair tells USA TODAY they'd love to collaborate on a book, too.

Dunham, whose 2014 book of essays Not That Kind of Girl was a best seller, will guest star Thursday on ABC's Scandal (9 p.m. ET) as a tell-all writer who threatens Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington).

"I can't tell any spoilers or secrets because I will be murdered, truly, but it was an amazing experience to be on the set," she says. "I'm a crazy Shonda (Rhimes) fan. I love the whole cast and Kerry's a good friend of mine, so just to get to enter their world for a moment was thrilling."

Dunham's own show, HBO's Girls, is about to wrap for the season. In this past Sunday's episode, her character Hannah, now a substitute teacher, is told to go home for the day after inappropriate oversharing with a student.

"It's really emotional," Dunham says of the final episode which airs March 22. "I think we see some sort of maturity and poise from Hannah that we may not be used to."

And as for Hannah and Adam (Adam Driver), who's just been dumped by his new girlfriend but passed up an opportunity to see Hannah at the end of Sunday's episode?

"Adam and Hannah, you know it's a complicated one, but I think the season finale will give you some sense of closure," Dunham says.

Stay tuned, fans.