Emma Roberts is joining in on the collective jokes that her Scream Queens costar and real-life friend Lea Michele possibly can’t read. Earlier this week, the actor made an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen where she was asked about the controversial Glee alum and gave an eyebrow-raising answer.
Roberts was asked by a WWHL guest about Michele’s performance in Broadway’s Funny Girl. When the caller asked about the biggest misconception people have about Michele, Roberts gushed about seeing her onstage, saying, “I was crying at the end. I literally – She looked at me and I said to my friend, ‘I think she saw me,’ and my friend was was like, ‘Emma, she didn’t see you, shut up.’”
Roberts said that she was proven right when she visited Michele backstage and the Broadway star told her, “I saw you!”
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“I’m just so happy for her. She’s so down to earth and so talented, and she just deserves everything she’s getting with all the Funny Girl praise,” Roberts said, adding that she “couldn’t be happier.”
However, the answer got less sweet when Cohen chimed in with, “The biggest misconception is that she can’t read.” Roberts shrugged in response, saying, “We’ve not been in a book club together.” Clearly, Michele is not part of Roberts’ Belletrist book project.
Julie Bowen, who was also on the talk show, added to the shade. She exclaimed, “Why is reading so important? Let her not read if that’s what she wants.”
There you have it: Not even Michele’s close friend will dismiss the rumors that the Broadway performer can’t read. These unfortunate rumors began in 2017 after Glee star Naya Rivera revealed that Michele refused to improvise a scene with quest star Tim Conway, causing a ruckus on set. The incident was dissected on the podcast, One More Thing, hosted by Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman – who couldn’t find answers.
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Ackerman later speculated that Michele hasn’t engaged with the allegations because “maybe she can’t read so she can’t read the book.” Per I-D, this conversation inspired the since-deleted 40-minute-long video titled “Lea Michele Is Illiterate,” which speculated that the actor didn’t improvise because she couldn’t read and needed show co-creator Ryan Murphy to feed her lines.
This talk followed Michele for years and most recently resurfaced when she was hired to star in Funny Girl. The Glee actor responded to the allegations with a comedic TikTok video in which she joked about calling her co-star and friend, Jonathan Groff, to help her read the comments on her social media.
Michele’s been the talk of late night this week from WWHL and beyond. The actor recently appeared on The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where she was accused of pushing Stranger Things actor Sadie Sink to get to center stage. During this segment, the two played a game of charades with Fallon and Tariq Trotter.
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At one point, Michele picked up the prompt for the movie I Wanna Dance With Somebody and after being confused for a moment, exclaimed, “This is a movie?” Twitter picked up the behavior and alleged that it was more evidence to support the claims of illiteracy. (But, in her defense, the movie was a flop.)
Watch Roberts’ Watch What Happens Live appearance in the video above.
