Can Lea Michele read?

Thanks to the internet, bizarre rumours can spread like wildfire on social media, with celebrities often at the mercy of it.

Former Glee star Lea Michele has found herself in that exact position after a rumour began circling that she is unable to read.

The rumour began to gain traction after the late Naya Rivera, another former Glee cast member, wrote in her memoir that Michele would refuse to improvise during scenes on the show.

That point was picked up and spoken about on the One More Thing podcast where the hosts Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman joked that Michele must not be able to read since she didn’t rebut Rivera’s comments about her in the press.

Their comment was then seized upon by social media and the rumour began to take hold as another meme on the internet.

In an interview with The New York Times, Michele addressed the rumours and said she believes they are rooted in misogyny.

She said: “I went to Glee every single day; I knew my lines every single day. And then there’s a rumour 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.”

On Twitter, people reacted to the interview with some now made even more suspicious by her response.

One person wrote: “sorry but the way lea michele won't even give a straight answer to the yes or no question ‘can you read’ is sending me.”

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Another joked: “a rumor going around that Lea Michele can't read and her taking it seriously and earnestly responding like ‘if i was a man this wouldn't be happening’ is such a Glee season 5 plot.”

Someone else said: “Lea Michele might be able to read but god can she not read the room.”

Elsewhere in the NYT interview, Michele declined to speak about allegations from other Glee cast members that she was a bully on the set and even threatened to get one of them fired.

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