As we discussed over the weekend, Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer are cut from the same douche-cloth. While Lena got most of the attention from her interview with Schumer, it’s worth noting that Lena was supposed to be interviewing Amy Schumer about Amy’s book. Like, that was the whole reason they were being a—holes together. Amy was shilling for her book and Lena wouldn’t stop talking about herself and how she makes up fantasies about being sexualized and objectified by black men and presents those fantasies as real life. Amy has been doing promotional work for her book, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, for weeks now. And while the book is selling okay in its first few weeks, I guess everyone expected the sales to be through the roof?

Amy Schumer’s book, “The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo” — despite being No. 1 on the best-seller list for two weeks — is a disappointment, sources say. Although it sold 36,000 hardcover copies in its first week, Simon & Schuster paid $9 million for the funny memoir.

“The publishers are hugely disappointed. They are going to lose a ton of money,” an industry insider told me.

While critics liked the book, Internet trolls flooded Amazon with one-star reviews, which angered Schumer so much that she canceled some promotional appearances.

“How thin-skinned she is to get upset over reviews by haters who probably didn’t even read the book,” the insider said. “For $9 million, she should do whatever [the publishers] ask her.”

“Amy’s book has sold [more than] 170,000 copies across formats in the first two weeks,” a Simon & Schuster spokeswoman told me. “We are beyond thrilled.” The rep also noted that Schumer had to cancel two promotional appearances due to illness.

A source at a rival imprint said, “It’s not a disaster, but it’s not a huge success. Simon & Schuster has a long way to go to recoup their investment.”

As for the rival publishers who underbid for the book? “They are happy they lost the bidding war,” the source said. “They are breathing a sigh of relief that it isn’t theirs.”

[From Page Six]

There are several lessons here. One, publishers should not spend $9 million on an Amy Schumer book/memoir. That’s completely asinine. Two, the whole idea that dude-bros and/or haters are flooding the reviews reminds me a lot of what happened with the Ghostbusters remake and those reviews. Even though I loathe Schumer, here’s a fundamental point that I hope we can all get behind: WOMEN ARE ALLOWED TO MAKE ART. They can write, act, direct, paint, sculpt and create and they should be able to do all of those things without butthurt men getting their panties in a twist because women dare to use their voices. Is Amy a thin-skinned hypocrite? Sure. Do I have any interest in reading her book? I do not. But I’m not offended by the fact that she’s a woman and an artist. People need some perspective, for the love of God.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.