The Crush: Audrey Gelman

Crush really wants to be friends — maybe more — with Audrey Gelman.

Here’s why: she is BFFs with Lena Dunham and the inspiration for Marnie in Girls. Dunham even gave her a cameo role in the smash-hit show as Marnie’s ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend. Totally Meta. Totally cool. Plus, anyone who can facilitate us drinking whiskey sours out of jam jars in a Brooklyn speakeasy with The Voice of a Generation is a person we are keen to connect with.

Gelman worked as a press aide on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and she’s now press secretary to Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer. We’ve watched House of Cards, so we know US politics is a shady business, and are desperately impressed by how clever and ruthless she must be. It has also not gone unnoticed that Gelman is extremely attractive. Imagine Rachel Bilson with a degree in political science... OK, now stop — you get the idea.

There’s just one little niggle standing in the way of our dream life in NYC as Gelman’s plus one. She has a boyfriend. And it’s Terry Richardson — the man accused of turning Miley Cyrus into a sex-crazed wrecking ball by photographing her in the buff and generally being a sleazemeister. ‘He’s a lot like me — neurotic, kind and into speed metal,’ says Gelman. But if and when this alpha hipster finally ditches terrible Tel, Crush is, honestly, great rebound material.