For years, there’s been a prevalent rumor alleging that Lea Michele can’t read. While she’s addressed this rumor in the past, her latest acknowledgment may just be the funniest. Yahoo reported that Michele addressed the rumor with a TikTok in which she poked fun at the theory.
In the clip, Michele holds up her phone to call her friend, Jonathan Groff. She lip syncs to audio from Keeping Up With the Kardashians in which Kim Kardashian says, “It’s amazing but wait, can you talk for a sec?” The Glee actor wrote in her caption, “Calling Jonathan to read me the comments on my first TikTok,” with the implication being that she had to call Groff so that he could read them to her.
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The whole theory behind the rumor originated years ago thanks to the One More Thing podcast. As Pride reported, the two co-hosts of the podcast presented a wide array of “evidence” that purported that Michele couldn’t read. They cited Naya Rivera’s claim that Michele did not want to improvise when Tim Conway guest starred on the how and alleged that the actor primarily works with Ryan Murphy because he helps her with her lines. The video has since been removed from the internet, but the theory still persists thanks to TikTok and Twitter.
PEOPLE reported that Michele addressed the theory back in March 2018. A fan wrote on Twitter that the Scream Queens star must have been “laughing her head off right now.” Michele replied, “Loved READING this tweet and wanted to WRITE you back.” She continued, “Literally laughing out loud at all this. Love you!!!” Since the rumor has persisted years later, the actor addressed it once again during a recent interview with the New York Times.
During her chat about taking over the role of Fanny Brice in Broadway’s Funny Girl, Michele acknowledged the rumor that she can’t read. According to the star, she believes that there is some sexism tied to the theory. She told the outlet, “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. I think often if I were a man, a lot of this wouldn’t be the case.”
