Lea Michele Slams ‘Sad’ Rumor That She Can’t Read
Lea Michele is finally addressing the rumor that she supposedly can't read or write.
Mere days before she is set to appear in Broadway's Funny Girl, the former Glee actress put the pesky speculation to rest in an interview with the New York Times.
"I went to Glee every single day; I knew my lines every single day. And then there's a rumor online that I can't read or write? It's sad. It really is," Michele shared.
She added that she believes "if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn't be the case."
These days, however, she isn't concerned with rumors. In fact, she doesn't care what her critics have to say at all.
"You might think that's the biggest piece of bull that I'm going to say to you all day. But I really don't care about that at this point. It's just about being able to play this part," Michele told the publication.
'Lea Michele Can't Read' Rumor, Explained
According to i-D, the rumor that Lea Michele can't read can be traced back to 2017, when One More Thing podcasters Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman did a deep dive into Naya Rivera's book Sorry Not Sorry.
During the podcast, the pair fixated on a section of the book in which Rivera claims that, during the filming of Glee, Michele refused to improvise with guest star Tim Conway.
When they searched for a response to Rivera's claim that Michele also made Conway's granddaughter cry during his time on set, they couldn't find any sort of public statement from the actress. This made them question if Michele had truly engaged with Rivera's memoir, so they speculated that "maybe [Michele] can’t read so she can’t read the book."
That single sentence inspired a video on Facebook that titled "Lea Michele Is Illiterate." The video has since been taken down, but not before the rumor spread across social media like wildfire.