Breaking News: Lea Michele Can Read — and she’s ready to fight anyone who says otherwise with a monologue and a laminated bookmark.
Okay, let’s get into it. For years, a completely unhinged yet somehow persistent internet conspiracy has claimed that Lea Michele — yes, Broadway’s very own Glee queen — does not, in fact, know how to read. And not just like “forgets the words to ‘Happy Birthday'” kind of not-read — like full-on, “never learned the alphabet” levels of slander. Wild, right?
Well, Lea recently appeared on the “Therapuss with Jake Shane” podcast (which, by the way, sounds like a therapy session hosted by a gossiping cat), and she decided it was time to clap back — not with words, but with a live reading. That’s right. She grabbed Jake’s notes like Hermione Granger on a deadline and said, “Hand ’em over. I’m doing this. Jonathan Groff isn’t here to read this to me like it’s story time, so I got this.”
Then she did it. She read. Out loud. In English. With eye contact. Honestly, Meryl Streep could never.
Jake, naturally, asked if these rumors bother her, and Lea gave a refreshingly honest answer: “Depends on the day.” Some days, she finds it hilarious that people have so little going on in their lives that they’ve chosen her as their illiterate queen. Other days? Not so funny.
Lea got real, sharing that she’s one of the few women in her family who got into college, and that her parents hustled to get her out of the Bronx and into a better education system. Her grandma? Beyond proud. Her family? Doing victory laps around the coffee table. So yeah, when trolls reduce that whole journey to “haha she probably thinks books are just decorative rectangles,” it stings.
But ultimately, she’s taking it like a champ. A literate champ. A champ who reads her own cue cards, thank you very much.
So the next time someone claims Lea Michele can’t read? Just remember: she read the haters, she read the cue cards, and she just might read *you* next.
