Julia Louis-Dreyfus covers this week’s issue of Rolling Stone. She’s 53 years old. Can you believe it? I spent my 20s glued to Seinfeld and saw Julia through many hairdos and terrible dances. Now she’s broken the Seinfeld curse with her own successful television show, Veep. I had no idea how raunchy this show was until reading this recap of last week’s episode.

Rolling Stone does its share of topless covers (both male and female), so this cover of a topless Julia isn’t particularly shocking. She’s got part of the US Constitution “tattooed” on her back, and she looks fake-surprised to be pictured. Julia (or one of her underlings) posted the cover on her Facebook page with the following caption: “In my defense, ‘I was in a drunken stupor.’ #crackexcuse.” This is supposed to be a funny explanation, but does it feel a little disturbing? The notion that a woman must be plied with alcohol and be talked into posing topless for a magazine cover — it’s a little skeevy. Here are some interview excerpts:

Succeeding in Hollywood as a female; “There is sexism – I’m not denying its existence. But I’m saying that I will deny its effort against me. I just pay it no nevermind and say, ‘Get out of my way.'”

She curses on Veep and in real life: “Once, when we were trying to come up with the particular perfect, horrible, swear-y thing to say in Veep, I said, ‘You do realize that if we were 12, we would get in big trouble for this conversation.’ That was not part of the curriculum in high school, and the fact that it is now a part of the curriculum of my life is a pleasure, which is the understatement of the universe.”

Veep creator Armando Iannucci on Julia: “Julia’s not just a natural comedic performer — she’s a natural comedic brain. Once we have a script, she likes to go away and have a real think on what her character would do to react to the reality of every situation, if it would be funny to have her twitch, or to be thirsty, or if her mind was on something else.”

She’s not a billionaire: When Rolling Stone asked about her father’s firm, the Louis Dreyfus corporation, which had holdings in energy, soybean-crushing plants and real estate ––and recently donated $1 million to help eradicate voter suppression — she clarified that it’s her father’s business that’s valued in billions. “I’ve been attached to that. It’s unbelievable, because whatever I do, people just assume it’s true. Welcome to the f—in’ Internet.”

[From Rolling Stone]

Those urban/internet legends of Julia’s “billionaire” status run far and wide. They’ve been running for years, so it’s nice to hear Julia clear up her end of the story.

Back to the “drunken stupor.” Jennifer Aniston said something similar about her nude GQ shoot a few years ago. Aniston was clearly joking, and I’m almost certain Julia is at least partially joking. Do we want that kind of joke from female actresses? Maybe I’m reading far to much into this issue. I’d like to hear a female say, “Yeah, I was sober. And I wanted to take it off.” Where’s Miley Cyrus when you need her?

Photos courtesy of Rolling Stone, Fame/Flynet & WENN

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbG1pa4J0e8muo6KZj6G8trXSmJurnambwrSr0aijpaGenKy0wM6nnJibn6uys3s%3D