In the theater news of the week, Lea Michele has been announced to take over the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on Broadway this September. Lord, help that cast and crew.
From Glee to Spring Awakening to The Mayor to Scream Queens, the actress has seemingly made enemies in nearly every production she’s ever been a part of.
We all remember when her Glee co-star Samantha Ware aired the star’s awful behavior to the world in 2020 — including her threatening to “sh*t in [Samantha’s] wig” — and how name after name subsequently came out to share their own horror stories with Michele.
Apparently, the casting team over at Funny Girl didn’t remember quite as well.
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As Michele’s curtain open draws nearer, here are five celebs who definitely won’t be seeing her Funny Girl debut:
Samantha Ware
Ware shared the story that finally broke the dam on the open secret of her co-star’s Diva-dom. She quote-tweeted a trite “#BlackLivesMatter” tweet from Michele, saying “Lmao, remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?!” as well as recounting “other traumatic microaggressions that made [her] question a career in Hollywood.”
Several Glee stars including Alex Newell, Amber Riley, Heather Morris and Kevin McHale posted, shared, and/or liked tweets in support of Ware’s allegations. Michele issued an apology, but the cat was way out of the bag.
Willam
Willam appeared on Glee in season four alongside fellow Rupaul’s Drag Race alum Shangela as part of a Thanksgiving mash-up performance of “Let’s Have A Kiki” and “Turkey Lurkey Time”. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she was apparently treated “subhuman” by the show’s lead. When the queen approached Michele in introduction, the star reportedly just ruffed her breath, rolled her eyes, and returned to her phone without so much as an acknowledgment.
Sarah Paulson
In a spot on Watch What Happens! Live in 2020, Paulson was asked directly about her thoughts on the Michele call-out scandal (seeing as both actresses are Ryan Murphy standards). The American Horror Story plastered on a coy smile before joking “I’m having a weird connection, I can’t really hear you,” through crystal clear audio.
Her fellow guest chimed in, saying “I think that’s called ‘pleading the fifth’ on this show?” It seems Paulson was raised under the old adage of what to do when you have nothing nice to say.
Keith Powell
It’s unclear what association Michele and the 30 Rock star have even had, but whatever it was apparently left a bad taste in Powell’s mouth. During the aforementioned reckoning, Powell chimed in on Twitter, writing “I co-sign on this. Lea Michele is a terrible human and has said terrible things to many different types of people, including racist microagressions to/about black people.”
Abigail Breslin
The Scream Queens cast mostly stayed silent on the entire 2020 call-out, with scene partners like Keke Palmer and Emma Roberts keeping mum. Breslin, however, liked a few tweets strongly in support of Michele’s dragging, including one that read, “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.”
As quiet as the rest of the cast stayed about their co-star, they certainly didn’t say anything in support of her.
There are countless more, from understudy Gerard Canonico calling her a “nightmare” in Spring Awakening to Jeante Godlock claiming she regularly called Glee extras “cockroaches” to her childhood Ragtime understudy claiming she was already threatening to have crew members fired at age 12.
Will Michele’s unfortunately awaited Funny Girl debut fill seats? Undoubtedly. Will she do well? Probably! Should she be receiving lead roles after decades worth of allegations of harassment, bullying, and subtle racism? Well, best of luck to all involved.
bigwoof
Wow you sound like such a bitch. Way more than many of us think this vocal goddess could ever be. Can’t wait for her to get on the stage again and this role was made for her!
Bromancer7
Oh, look at you defending a shit person. Your parents must be so proud.
jackscott
I have no interest in Lea. It’s a shame when people let a little talent go to their heads. Be kind to people, it is an easy thing to do.
ScottOnEarth
Interesting that people of all races, genders and orientations have seemingly been treated terribly by Lea but somehow she’s racist, too? She seems like an equal opportunity nightmare.
kish
She may be an equal opportunity @sshole, but when her aggression towards POC is based on their skin color/culture, then yeah her racism shines.
bachy
I don’t keep up with these social media resentments and complaints, so I can’t say I know much about Lea’s backstage personality. But onstage or in front of the camera, the woman is a massive talent.
Dick Mayhem
I remember a Christmas themed music video she made a few years ago. She starts out in a giant snow globe. She had zero charisma (and, unfortunately, the song sucked big time.)
Winsocki
Lea M sings good enough and ‘living her dream role as Fanny”… That Bernie Beanie Baby whats her name… cannot even imagine her as Fanny Brice. We see these bio pics of stars and so many are mean and nasty so maybe that is what expected. Even Opera Singers are ‘demanding’ … Shows how insecure these celebs/stars are about their place in the world. I still do not consider Lea a big star.
Ronbo
How can Lea Michelle dare to work when Queerty and Friends (trademark FOX News) have cancelled her from top to bottom and side to side? Get with the mean girl hate-fest people. s/
Nasty people and mean girl, Charley Grey, want you to know that they are still in power over the gay community. And… they want us to hate, Hate, HATE on command.
All their hate parties seems to be hurting our community. A community that, only a few decades back was built upon a solid foundation of acceptance and inclusion.
Mario
There’s a term for this: homofascism.
cuteguy
Maybe they should change the name to Funny Mean Girl. It’s a proven fact that she is a major c unt and they are still hiring her? Whatever happened to cancelled culture? Does that not apply to privileged white girls?
Bromancer7
Oh, her comeuppance will happen. Her Funny Girl run is going to be an epic trainwreck. I can’t wait for the first scathing review and I so wanna be a fly on the wall when she has an catastrophic meltdown over it.
Bromancer7
When did she start looking like a Kardashiwhore?
Jbaltes
I had NO desire to see this production with Beanie. Now I have even less!
DBMC
You know, we don’t have to defend Lea Michelle’s behavior. It’s true that some “stars” have always behaved terribly but that doesn’t make it okay.
LumpyPillows
Like most of the internet-driven gossip and me-too attention seeking, I believe that most of this is made up or exaggerated. I’ve not really heard anything that is really both credible and egregious about Lea’s behavior. Do I believe she exhibited diva behavior? Yes. Do I believe she is a monster who needs to never work again? No.