She plays Hannah, who’s spent the past two years trying to pursue her dreams, and her idea of romance, in the big city. Some people already are calling it Sex and the City for a new generation — but some comparisons go even further back.

In the very first scene of Girls, we meet Hannah as she’s out to dinner with her parents. They’ve come to New York to drop a bombshell on their daughter — a bomb that the father drops reluctantly, the mother almost aggressively. And it’s during this opening scene, when Hannah realizes she’s about to be launched into the next phase of her life, that I fell in love. Not with Hannah, but with this new HBO comedy itself.

All three characters — the verbal, defensive daughter; the conflict-avoiding father; and the had-it-up-to-here mother — are written so completely that no one is given the edge in this very public verbal duel. It’s a sign of scriptwriting maturity that makes it all the more impressive that Dunham is so young. Hannah’s parents, played by Peter Scolari and Becky Ann Baker, are both professors — which explains why all three of them, even when arguing, speak in complete thoughts. Complete — and very funny.

The first episode’s opening scenes remind me as much of Sex and the City as they do other, earlier single-working-woman TV comedies. The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the ’70s, with Mary Richards landing a job at a Minneapolis TV station; and That Girl in the ’60s, where Marlo Thomas played a young woman trying to make it as an actress in New York City.

In Girls, Hannah lives in Brooklyn, not Manhattan. And she not only commutes, she has roommates and friends, who give this series its Carrie-and-company vibe. But these other girls, like Hannah, aren’t glamorous professionals — they’re quirky, still-forming individuals, still looking for their identities as well as their career paths. But as they speak, we hear — as Hannah describes herself, in one drug-induced moment of self-analysis — the voice of her generation.

But the voice Hannah the character, and Girls the series, comes closest to echoing, and emulating, is that of Louis C.K.’s character on the FX series Louie. He, like Hannah, seems to be fighting an uphill battle against life in New York, and questioning what it all means. And looking for love in a lot of the wrong places, and venting his frustrations in ways that sometimes are brilliantly clever, and other times are hilariously, helplessly nonverbal.

As characters, both Hannah and Louie reveal themselves, lots of times, in less than flattering ways — physically as well as emotionally. And as behind the scenes creative types, both Louis C.K. and Lena Dunham are risk-taking, responsibility-taking auteurs. They write. They direct. They act. And they do all three in ways that aren’t showy, but that burrow to the heart of what seems real.

The oldest piece of advice given to young writers is a four-word commandment: “Write what you know.” Some people hear that advice and run from it. Others take it and run with it — which is what Dunham has done with Girls. As a result, the conversations sound like you’ve been eavesdropping. The sex scenes feel like you’re watching voyeuristically — and they’re unsettling for even more reasons than that. And what happens to Hannah, at least in the first few episodes, makes you fear that the poor girl just isn’t going to make it.

But don’t believe it. Hannah, as written and played and directed by Lena Dunham, has a secret weapon: She’s got spunk. And she’s gonna make it after all

Like the Hollywood hit films “The Artist” and “Midnight in Paris” and the hugely popular TV drama “Downton Abbey” that captured an earlier age, designers created sleek, sultry styles with deep-cut fronts and backs with beads, embroidery and pleats reminiscent of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.

For Los Angeles-based, Japanese-born Tadashi Shoji it was 1930s Shanghai that captured his imagination. With graceful silhouettes, column gowns, drop waists, embroidered lace, handkerchief hems and cap sleeves from the Golden Age of Shanghai, when the city was known as the “Paris of the Orient,” was recreated on the catwalk.

“It was a very opulent, mysterious, moody period in Shanghai and I wanted to capture it,” he said after his show.

A flame-colored washed velvet long-sleeve gown featured a beaded lace cowl back, while another hazel digital peony print hammered satin gown had an open back with hand-beaded detail.

Blouson dresses, some in tea length, and floral embroidered tulle and lace were also prominent, as was the color gold.

“Everything is gold, but it is not a flashy gold. We did a very subtle, tarnished gold. I think gold is in this season,” he said.

GLAMOUR, GRANDEUR AND FEMME FATAL

Asian influences were also evident in Zac Posen’s collection with its geisha-look hair and makeup, kimono and origami-like details and figure-hugging gowns in gold, red, green and blue.

Dennis Basso chose “Mystery on the Orient Express” as the theme for his show with its palette of taupe, black, gray, white, navy and cayenne and luxurious furs.

“When you just say that line it sets a tone in everybody’s head — a touch of glamour and grandeur from a bygone era. I’ve taken a lot of those evening looks and translated them for the modern woman,” he said.

Cocktail dresses and evening gowns were adorned with hand-beaded Swarovski crystal and small beads. He matched a black lavishly embroidered silk tulle dress with a black quilted Russian ermine and sable jacket and a sapphire and silver embroidered, trailing gown with a sapphire Finn raccoon vest.

“I think of that period in the late 30s of women getting dressed for dinner on the Orient Express, crossing the Atlantic or going to the Colony Club restaurant in New York or the Stork Club and bringing it forward, making it modern, making it sexy, making it today — using the vintage aspect as a touch of inspiration, not necessarily, which is important, creating a vintage look,” Basso explained.

Jenny Packman, a favorite of the Duchess of Cornwall, was drawn to the femme fatal look with a collection based on film noir with edgy, sultry creations in red, silver, blue, cream and black.

Marchesa’s Georgina Chapman noted that 20s and 30s styles were “in the air” but the designer whose creations feature prominently on the red carpet at Hollywood award shows said she was inspired by a painting.

Her collection, in black, white, reds and blues, is based on the 1878 work “A Soul Brought to Heaven,” by William Bouguereau, which depicts two angels carrying a young woman through dark clouds.

“We are looking at the idea of death and angels, religious aspects of iconography and religious art,” Chapman explained in an interview ahead of her show on Wednesday.

“You’ll see a lot of tulle. You are going to see a lot of embroidery and leading to a religious aspect of embroidery, silk, pleating, some re-embroidered brocades and leather.”

Like other designers showing at New York Fashion Week, Chapman said the economy has sharpened the focus of her creations.

“It’s been interesting with the economy, and it has made me and a lot of designers focus very much on what they are doing,” she said. “You really have to give a consumer a reason to part with their money … to give them something they can’t find elsewhere.”

Rather than making quick, impulse purchase of something that may only be worn only, Basso said today’s women are making wiser choices and building their wardrobe on well-made clothes that can be worn again and again.

“Women will always want to look beautiful and I think that their partners enjoy that too,” said Chapman.

As I was eating in Tanko on Bell Blvd. last weekend, hands down the best Chinese place in Bayside, Queens, my son and his two hoops teammates needed a hometown winner to root for after a tough loss. The waitresses overheard them raving over Lin and also wanted to talk — make that gush — about him.

“I rarely watch basketball,” said Mandy, the usually expressionless waitress who was now beaming. “Except now when Jeremy Lin is playing!”

“I love Jeremy Lin, too,” said Kathy, the hostess. “He makes me so proud. I used to root for Yao Ming but he disappointed me because he was always hurt. But Jeremy, he’s just amazing!”

The two women whispered to each other in Chinese but I didn’t need an interpreter to understand as they fanned themselves and broke up laughing like adoring bobby soxers.

“Jeremy’s so cute,” said Kathy, patting her heart. “And he went to Harvard. And he’s Taiwanese. Go Knicks!”

When I bought my usual coffee the next morning in Wan Wan Grocery, which Bayside locals call Charlie’s, co-owner Kevin said, “All everybody — Asian, white, black, Spanish — talks about is Jeremy Lin. Everybody reads the Daily News backwards this week.”

“He sleeps on his brother’s couch like the rest of us when we come to New York,” said Kevin’s brother-in-law, Tony. “He won’t be sleeping there for long.”

Over in Brooklyn, Linmania has spread like a fastbreak since the bench-warmer replaced an injured Carmelo Anthony just as the understudy did in “A Star Is Born.” Lin astounded the press and the fans, humbly leading the faltering Knicks to five straight victories.

“Growing up Chinese-American in predominantly Irish-Italian Windsor Terrace in the 1970s-’80s, racial insults were as routine as having lunch,” says Cathy Lau-Hunt, a graphic designer, lead singer of a rock band called Full Disclosure, and a teacher at the Museum of Chinese in America.

“I didn’t have a Jeremy Lin to elevate me above the cruel comments. Back then, Chinese people were viewed as many things, mostly unfavorable, and athlete was not one of them. So I am proud to be a Jeremy Lin fan. What’s not to love about this kid? I am a youth coach and a parent, and he is everything you could ask for: a Harvard graduate and a basketball player who seems to be transforming the Knicks into a team to watch again. And he’s Chinese!”

In the heart of Flushing, Queens, Joey Chiang, 40, a Taiwanese builder of several high-rise luxury condos, said, “Lin is the man! I was at the Garden after Kobe Bryant said he never heard of Jeremy Lin. Well, 38 amazing points later Kobe’ll never forget Jeremy Lin. I sponsor and coach a Chinese hoops team of teenagers named Super Core — after two of my companies — in the local Chinese Community Basketball Association League. On the Knicks, Lin’s a point guard, making plays happen. In the community, I can’t tell you how much Lin will inspire the young guys I coach. Me, I’m going back to the Garden to see Lin again on Wednesday.”

Lau-Hunt in Brooklyn sees Lin as the “underdog of all heroes: not drafted by the NBA out of high school, his talents overlooked, perhaps due to his ethnicity. . . . I don’t do much ethnic flag-waving, but these days I’m walking around Windsor Terrace saying, ‘Yeah, Jeremy Lin, he’s one of my peeps.’ Feeling young again, getting back at all of those kids in grade school that made fun of me. Right now, it is a great time to be a Chinese-American in the streets of Brooklyn. Thanks, Jeremy!”

Snow will start falling in New York overnight and it will arrive in Chicago in a few hours, according to weather service forecasts. At least 280 flights at O’Hare International Airport have been canceled proactively, according to FlightAware, a Houston-based airline tracking company.

“During the heaviest portion of the storm snowfall, rates of an inch per hour are possible,” Kevin Burke, a weather service meteorologist in Romeoville, Illinois, said in a multimedia briefing. “This will make both air travel and ground travel severely impaired across the area this afternoon and into the evening.”

Winter weather advisories and storm warnings and watches stretch from eastern South Dakota to Long Island, according to the weather service. A weak storm passed through the eastern U.S. earlier today leaving a snow coating in its wake in some areas.

An ice storm that struck the Pacific Northwest yesterday led to the cancellation of at least 192 outbound flights from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to FlightAware.

Heavy snow across northern Oregon, Washington and Montana is causing 24- to 36-hour delays on BNSF Railway Co. freight trains, according to a service advisory.

Heavy Snow

An area of heavy snow as much as 60 miles (97 kilometers) wide will pass through Chicago later today. That area will drop as much as 8 inches of snow, so the track it takes is important, Burke said.

“The temperatures are well below freezing so it won’t take any time for snow to accumulate on roads and make them quite slick,” he said.

As of 7 a.m. Chicago time, the temperature was 8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-13 Celsius), according to the weather service.

Snow will start in New York late tonight, said Tim Morrin, a weather service meteorologist in Upton, New York.

“We’re anticipating enough snow to prompt a winter weather advisory for New York City,” Morrin said by telephone. “We are expecting a swath of snow to develop after midnight and continue through midday.”

The storm is also expected to have an impact elsewhere along the East Coast.

Boston is forecast to receive 2 to 4 inches of snow tomorrow, according to the weather service. Philadelphia may receive 1 to 3 inches by tomorrow, Washington and Baltimore may receive an inch of ice, and Cleveland may get 3 to 5 inches of snow.

In New York, Morrin said temperatures will rise into the 40s later this weekend, which may melt most of the snow off roads.

Craig and Lucy Johnson, from Lichfield, were in the city as they had planned to be married at the top of the Rockefeller Center.

The couple, who fell in love with the city ten years ago, vowed to return and decided to have their wedding there.

However, they were identified as the 50 millionth in Times Square and received a “Golden Ticket” from the mayor.

Five and half years ago, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg set a goal to reach 50 million visitors by 2015, but in 2008 changed it to be the end of 2012. This meant that they were a year ahead of schedule.

Michel Hazanavicius won best director for “The Artist,” a black-and-white film about Hollywood’s transition from silent films to talkies in the late 1920s and the toll it takes on one actor’s life. In the romantic drama, a couple played by Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo find themselves on opposite sides of a career arc — his descending as her star begins to shine.

The film began to generate buzz at festivals earlier this year and received strong reviews. With Tuesday’s important, early win from the New York film critics, “The Artist” positions itself as a key competitor in the race for this year’s Academy Awards, the film world’s highest honors which are handed out in February.

Streep won the New York critics’ best actress award for her portrayal of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” while Pitt was cited for his performances in two films, sports drama “Moneyball” and drama “The Tree of Life.”

It was Streep’s fourth best actress win from the critics’ group and Pitt’s first.

Jessica Chastain was named best supporting actress for her performances in three films, “The Tree of Life,” “The Help” and “Take Shelter.”

Veteran actor Albert Brooks won best supporting actor for his turn as a small-time mobster in thriller, “Drive.”

The best screenplay award went to “Moneyball”‘s Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.

“It’s a nice lineup with some surprises,” the group’s chairman, critic John Anderson, said of the winners.

He noted that while most categories required many ballots, there was also no rancor. He called the group “hardly a unified mass,” but told Reuters the choice of “The Artist” made sense.

“It’s a film about film, so it would appeal to the critical sensibility. It’s a movie that celebrates movies.”

“But it’s also well done,” Anderson added. “And it’s upbeat, joyful, and just hard to resist.”

The group shunned some presumed Oscar contenders such as “The Descendants” and “Beginners,” though Anderson noted the former film had some strong support.

The New York based film critics organization was founded in 1935 and comprises members from daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, magazines and some online general-interest publications.

Awards from critics groups and other industry panels often influence which films, performers and movie makers will compete for Oscars, which are given out by the Beverly Hills-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Washington Post-ABC News national survey found that voters are divided 50-46 on whether the new law is a positive or negative development.

Among those under 30, supporters outnumber those who view the law unfavorably by a 2-1 margin. But among seniors, 6 in 10 say the law is bad news.

When broken down along religious lines, Friday’s poll presents a more complicated picture of Americans’ feelings on same-sex marriage.

Within the white Protestant community there exists a strong divide between the evangelical and non-evangelical branches of the religion. While evangelicals view the law new negatively by a 75-21 margin, non-evangelicals support the measure by a 63-24 margin.

Catholics are broadly supportive of the measure, with nearly 60 percent saying they view the new law favorably, although support drops off among those who attend church less frequently.

Information about Jews’ attitudes wasn’t included in the poll.

According to Friday’s poll, there is also a strong partisan divide regarding the measure. Nearly three quarters of liberal Democrats view the new law positively, while conservative Republicans see gay marriage in New York negatively by a 71-26 margin.

Moderates and independents back the law by a 54-41 margin.

Within the Republican party, opinions on the new law are split between those who identify with the Tea Party and more moderate Republicans. While 7 in 10 Tea Partiers say they oppose New York’s gay marriage law, less than half of non-Tea Party Republicans, 45 percent, say they view it in a negative light.

Support for same-sex marriage has generally been growing over the past decade. According to the Pew Research Center, 57 percent of Americans opposed same-sex marriage in 2001. A decade later, Pew reported that Americans were closely split on the issue, 46-45 percent, between those who oppose and support.

The approval of same-sex marriage in New York was seen by gay rights activists as a historic victory and made the state the sixth and largest to allow gays and lesbians to marry.

New York is the sixth state (plus Washington) to offer marriage equality for same-sex couples. To me, after two decades of consulting with business leaders, this moment truly feels personal. It not only arrives packed with emotion, it is a real game-changer for the American work force.

New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and city leaders must be cheering the economic shot in the arm as hotels, restaurants, caterers, florists and legions of vendors welcome the wedding and honeymoon brigades. Some estimate nearly $400 million in revenues for the state over the next three years.

These rewards are also the result of changing tides among American corporations and employers over recent decades. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s same-sex marriage legislation was endorsed not only by major corporations like Xerox and Google but by scores of smaller business owners across the state.

New York City’s Fashion’s Night Out is getting one night longer with a large runway show for the public ahead of the main event.

Organizers expect 1,500 guests for the Sept. 7 show at Lincoln Center before the evening of parties at dozens of stores on Sept. 10. More than 200 top models will walk the runway in Fall 2010 trends picked by Vogue editors in what the hosts said Thursday will be the city’s largest public fashion show.

Fashion’s Night Out is a collaboration between American Vogue, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the city of New York and NYC & Company, its marketing arm. The runway show will be produced by American Vogue and SPEC Entertainment.

The study by Dr. David Prezant, with the Office of Medical Affairs at the New York City Fire Department, is the first to chronicle how the long-term health of firefighters and emergency medical service (EMS) workers has been impacted since the World Trade Center attacks in New York City.