Mean-Spirited Celebrity Gossip

[IssieCol]

His dad left Reba McEntire after 25 years for some other lady so cheating is maybe a father son bonding event. And Reba stayed super nice to him so she's basically a saint.

[ophy]

Poor Kelly! I've had Piece By Piece in my head all day since the news broke.

[isadora]

I didn't mean to imply that she is *not* racist, just that she's evil to anyone and uses race as one of her many tools!

I also think this explains how her career is not better than it is? I do think that how you behave in Hollywood is important (I know, I know, Harvey Weinstein ruins my theory), but if you're an actress and not a money guy? People hear you're fucking terrible and you don't get as much work.

Aside from Ryan Murphy, does she get much work? It does seem like she should get more work than she does. I'm guessing her being a huge fucking asshole to other people limits her options! She married some rich executive dude and is pregnant. So she'll probably retreat to private life and just terrorize the people who clean her house.

[dada_teacher]

I just don't get it. She's got a good voice, sure. But so do hundrends of other people in hollywood! Why do you let a person be so awful without repercussions?

[ophy]

Variety rounded up some statements from cast, and Lea sounds like an equal opportunity offender:

Lea Michele Controversy: ‘Glee’ Actors and Other Co-Stars Speak Out

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/lea...re-1234625000/



She is equally hated by both white and black folks she has worked with.

Abigail Breslin, “Scream Queens”

The Oscar-nominated actress co-starred with Michele on Ryan Murphy’s “Scream Queens,” which ran for two seasons on Fox. Breslin liked a tweet that said, “Not everyone agreeing that something felt off about Lea Michele…where have y’all been I’ve been saying this for years??? I thought I was alone.”

Even her former Broadway peeps said she was awful:

Gerard Canonico, “Spring Awakening”

Canonico, who worked as an understudy on the Broadway play “Spring Awakening,” commented on Michele’s Instagram apology, writing that his first comment on her account was deleted.

“Seems to have been deleted. So I’ll try again,” Canonico wrote. “You were nothing but a nightmare to me and fellow understudy cast members. You made us feel like we didn’t belong there. I tried for years to be nice to you to no avail. Maybe actually apologize instead of placing the blame on how others ‘perceive’ you. You’ll probably just delete this though.”

And this story! Lea was a terrifying 12 yr old:













However, so many of her black castmates and former co-workers have accused her of specific micro aggressions and so forth that I'd trust their assessment, tbh. You can be terrible to ERRRYBUDDY and also be a particular brand of racist terrible to black people.

I co-sign on this. Lea Michele is a terrible human and has said terrible things to many different types of people, including racist micoagressions to/about black people.

— Keith Powell (@KeithPowell) June 3, 2020

(that's Toofer from 30Rock!)

Like, I think it's BOTH things going on here. She's awful. And she's also awfully racist.


Amber Riley is ready to move, on though.



ew.com/tv/amber-riley-lea-michele-controversy-people-dying

"The stories I'm reading about how white women are using their privilege and the fact that they are not fireable, something that I was told once on set after having my own complaint," she said. "They know that they are not fireable and they use that privilege to terrorize their counterparts. These networks don't have to give a f---."

"We were even told, we were expendable. The colored girls, the black girls, are expendable," Riley continued. "I'm talking about the culture of Hollywood right now and how they treat black characters, black men, black women. I’m talking about the culture."

Ultimately, Riley said it was the "first and last time" she would address the situation surrounding Michele. She also said she didn't read Michele's apology, and that it had been two years since she talked to her when the actress reached out to her this week.

"I wish Lea Michele well, I hope that she has an amazing pregnancy, I hope that she has grown," Riley said. "That [statement] she put out, I didn’t read it because I told y’all I don't give a s— about it…. She reached out to me, I responded to her and that’s where it ends for me. I ain’t talk to that girl in two years. I have no hatred or ill will on that end."

To me, this is calling out Ryan Murphy, obvs. He LET Lea do this for YEARS. She was known to be his fave, and he even cast her on his next show Scream Queens so she could continue her reign of terror against a whole new group of castmates. This is on him, too.


Even setting aside multiple accusations of being racist, (which shouldn't be set aside! obvs!) I'm not sure how a career comes back from this, tbh. I mean, once Variety has done a whole spread on how much you suck and how much people hated working with you, you are dunzo.










I don't even think Ryan Murphy's Netflix contract can save Lea now!

[IssieCol]

Seems like she's maybe racist-plus?

I'm also stuck here. Like, if someone is just a straight up Cunty McCunterson to ERRBODY, I don't know that they're racist on top of that? Like maybe she doesn't like POC, but also possible she just doesn't like anybody who can't advance her career.

Heather Morris (who also seems uh, problematic in different ways) kind of agrees, I think.

Heather said, “Let me be very clear, Hate is a disease in America that we are trying to cure, so I would never wish for hate to be spread to anyone else. With that said, was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so; for Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she SHOULD be called out.”

“And yet, it’s also on us because to allow it to go on for so long without speaking out is something else we’re learning along with the rest of society,” Heather continued. “But, at the current moment its implied that she is a racist and although I cannot comment on her beliefs, I think we’re assuming, and you know what happens when we all assume…”

[isadora]

Delicious! Seems like she's maybe racist-plus? Not to downplay the racist elements, but it seems she's uses whatever she can -- race, sex, gender, body size, class, etc., literally whatever she can pull out of her bag of tricks -- to be terrible to everyone. She's always had a tremendous talent but also an odd charisma gap that was hard to make sense of.

It seems like she's kind of evil for lack of a better phrase. I've always thought she was playing a version of herself as Rachel. The overlap between the casting and the cast on that show was a dot for the most part. So it makes sense to me that Lea was Rachel but famous. That would automatically make her a shitshow of epic proportions since Rachel was a raging narcissist on her best day.

Wow, what a doomed cast of kids, overall. Crazy to think about it!

[IssieCol]

I haven't seen a single former co-worker stand up for Lea yet, not even her soulmate bestie Jonathon Groff, sooooooo. She's verified trash. Lainey wrote that she has strong Dolores Umbridge energy and that is true, but she's also like actually aggressive in overt ways unlike Umbridge. I mean, telling people that you want to shit in someone's wig is NOT subtle.

[ophy]

Welp, Lea already lost her HelloFresh contract. Former castmates like Keke Palmer and Ariana Grande have unfollowed her.

HelloFresh has announced that they are officially ending their partnership with Lea Michele, following the revelations about her past racist behavior. pic.twitter.com/58MGS6xVAi

— The AHS News ✊ (@theahsnews) June 2, 2020

And here is her exceedingly half-assed non-apology!



tvline.com/2020/06/03/lea-michele-controversy-samantha-ware-glee-statement/

One of the most important lessons of the last few weeks is that we need to take the time to listen and learn about other people’s perspectives and any role we have played or anything we can do to help address the injustices that they face. When I tweeted the other day, it was meant to be a show of support for our friends and neighbors and communities of color during this really difficult time, but the responses I received to what I posted have made me also focus specifically on how my own behavior towards fellow cast members was perceived by them.

While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that’s not really the point. What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people. Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused. We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect my own shortcomings.

I am a couple of months from becoming a mother and I know I need to keep working to better myself and take responsibility for my actions, so that I can be a real role model for my child and so I can pass along my lessons and mistakes, so that they can learn from me. I listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.

None of my past racism counts are 'real' racism and here are the reasons why:

I was young so it totally doesn't count! no wait I never actually did it and if I did it, I don't remember doing it so it totally doesn't count! Well actually, you only PERCEIVED it and I can't control how YOU might PERCEIVE something, so it totally doesn't count! I have a kid so it totally doesn't count and if you insist that it does you are being MEAN to my unborn CHILD!


It's a hot mess, wow.


And honestly, YNB actually worked with Lea on The Mayor set, which was uh . . . just two years ago and she obvs concurred with the righteous dragging so . . . the whole "I was young and immature" excuse is uh . . .

[IssieCol]

Ugh, the Glee dramz is exactly what I need for petty distraction.

[vanessa]

I didn’t watch Glee so I don’t know Lea, but Nikki being friends with the problematic is on-brand.

[ophy]

From what I can tell both JH and her husband came out as bi and felt they needed to explore that side of their sexuality more (he may be more into guys from what I understood.) I confess I got this by skimming the articles I saw mentioned in twitter form people I follow so I may be way off.

I think this is accurate! I mostly noted it because it has made the Errybody = Gay folks on tumblr even more convinced that JH and Nina are in a downlow relationship, even though Nina is quarantining with Mr. Olympic Half Pipe.


The Jamie King stuff is hella messy! If the drug allegations are true, that would mos def clear up the mystery of why she and Taylor stopped hanging out, and why she keeps posting throwbacks of them that Taylor has been ignoring. Taylor's zero tolerance for the hard stuff policy has been long rumored.


Did y'all see that Lea Michele was exposed for being a racist bitca?

did somebody say cockroaches? because that’s what she used to refer to the background as on the set of glee. but we grow up and we don’t stay background forever sooooo...

— Jeanté Godlock (@jeantegodlock) June 2, 2020

Alex and Amber were obvs castmembers of Glee, but I'm not sure where YNB worked with Lea.

Melissa Benoist liked a buuuunch of those tweets, so we have confirmation from her as well that Lea was a shitshow behind scenes.



This was just some of the ones Mel liked:











And others in the know are NOT surprised:

The Lea Michele reckoning that is happening right now has been a long time coming tbh...the stories! https://t.co/HMq6cWAAMX

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) June 2, 2020

Lea Michele snarled at me outside the Spring Awakening stage door in 2006 because my outfit (a shirt and jeans) was distracting to her performance and I had been sitting in one of the onstage seats. None of these tweets surprise me but her cancellation does delight me! Bye to Lea

— Caroline Moss (@CarolineMoss) June 2, 2020

LEA MICHELE HAD PRODUCERS FORCE NAYA RIVERA TO SING AN ARIANA GRANDE SONG ON THE SHOW, AFTER NAYA WALKED IN ON HER BOYFRIEND CHEATING ON HER WITH ARIANA. LEA IS A MONSTER

— Clayd Yila (@ClaydYila) June 2, 2020

So between Cory's addiction troubles, that other dude being a pedophile, Naya's constant drama, Blake Jenner's rage issues/abusiveness, Lea being a racist nightmare . . . must have been one of the WORST places to work in all of Hollywood.







From Kevin McHale . . .













. . . I love the way he's basically like ". . . but all the rest is true tho."






Great job assembling such a cast of winners, Ryan Murphy!
















(And I'm not trying to start nothing, BUT Lea Michele and Nikki Reed have been good friends for years and were at each other's weddings etc, just saying.)

[dada_teacher]

From what I can tell both JH and her husband came out as bi and felt they needed to explore that side of their sexuality more (he may be more into guys from what I understood.) I confess I got this by skimming the articles I saw mentioned in twitter form people I follow so I may be way off.

[IssieCol]

Related to both the Taylor and Plec threads, but divorces are upcoming for Jamie King and Julianne Hough. I follow Jamie and have been wondering for a few months when they were going to announce. She stopped mentioning him on her insta around Thanksgiving last year even though I think they spent the holiday together. Her kids have been quarantining across the country from her with their dad and she hasn't been there at all from what I can tell. Also, holy YIKES, that story is already hella ugly and will likely only get worse. She got a restraining order against him and now claims that he's been abusive for years and that he's keeping the kids from her. He says she's been using for the better part of the last decade and that he has proof he staged an intervention with a DOZEN of their friends and family and that she was the one who insisted he take the kids during the quarantine because she didn't feel like she could take care of them. He also got statements from their nannies and others that corroborate his drug abuse claims (like that she would drive high with the kids in the car). Both of course can be telling the truth, but since I only follow Jamie, I will say that she hasn't looked well for the past year. She's extremely skinny/sickly and just looks like hell a lot of the time. Also, it is really strange that she hasn't seen those kids since March, like not even for Mother's Day?

I'm more surprised by how quickly JH's marriage fell apart. They seemed happy for a couple years and then just were like, over it? Anyway, Derek is still friendly with her ex and JH is still friends with Brooks' bestie girlfriend so maybe it's all amicable and they're just better off as buds.

[isadora]

That is aspirational levels of burn.