It was just one month ago when Samantha Marie Ware called out Lea Michele for being a toxic jackass when they worked together on Glee. Ware’s story was that Lea bullied her, demeaned her and threatened to sh-t in Ware’s wig. Ware’s story became the jumping off point for all of Lea’s former costars and coworkers to tell their stories – and apparently Lea even has a horrible reputation in the beauty industry – and basically everything we ever assumed about Lea was dead-on: she’s a total pill, a Mean Girl, a bully and a horrible person. It’s also worth noting that her “apology” was one of the worst things I’ve ever read, and that the reaction to that “apology” was so bad, her team then had to explain that perhaps Lea had some kind of “behavioral issues.” Perhaps. Anyway, yet another former costar has spoken up and he’s really letting loose:
Another one of Lea Michele‘s former co-stars is coming forward with a story about his experience with her. Craig Ramsay, who you may know from Bravo‘s Newlyweds The First Year, was on Broadway with Lea Michele during Fiddler on the Roof in the early 2000s.
“I just didn’t want to hear Lea Michele’s name in this interview,” Craig said during an appearance on the Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast. “At all! I think she’s a despicable, horrible human being. I think she has lost touch with reality. We were in Fiddler together. Rosie [O’Donnell] is awesome. I still talk – she is a huge mentor and I respect her – how she has been able to survive and thrive with all the nonsense that was tossed at her. As far as Lea Michele is concerned, I think she is one of the most entitled people I have ever come across in this business!”
“I was there when she got the call of, ‘I got Glee,’ and I think the entitlement just came over her body. She was possessed with this and from that moment on — cause she moved to L.A. the same moment I did from New York — and I cared for her greatly, but the amount of entitlement… I have never seen the likes of it, especially Broadways. You can’t mess with Broadway. You can get a reputation very quick if you don’t respect where you come from,” Craig continued. He added, “And she is talented, don’t get me wrong. She is more talented than the gigs she did the last ten years, but that doesn’t matter if no one wants to work with you.”
“She is more talented than the gigs she did the last ten years…” SHADY! He’s saying she’s a better actress/singer than Ryan Murphy’s stupid shows would allow. But he’s also suggesting that at this point, Lea can only get hired by Ryan Murphy because she’s alienated everyone else with her entitlement and terrible behavior. Speaking of Murphy, he still hasn’t said anything about Lea or the toxic environment he created on his sets, an environment which allowed Lea to behave like this (unchecked) for years.
(Incidentally, I’m starting to get Katherine Heigl vibes from all of this, only Katherine’s behavior was called out a lot earlier. And before people are like “justice 4 Heigl” – no. Katherine was A LOT like this.)
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN and Getty.
She must truly be the devil if she didn’t get good parts despite her talent, because she does have an incredible voice.
Since she seems to be Murphy’s favorite, is he going to cast her again once this has died down a bit? She’ll probably milk her baby for reputation damage control. “Becoming a mother has really changed me…”
She’s not nearly talented enough to require others to have to tolerate her behavior, though. There are literally thousands of women who can sing just as well and act even better, but are s t r u g g l i n g to break into show business. LA and NYC are filled with women who would fill her shoes just fine without all the toxic drama.
I’ve disliked her ever since I read an early interview in which she raved on “iIm so proud of myself for not getting a nose job!” Either do it or don’t, nobody cares, but this is hardly a reason to brag about being proud of yourself.
She also milked public sympathy from Cory Monteith’s death as if she were a grieving fiancee or widow, even though she & Cory had ended whatever personal relationship they had quite some time earlier.
She also was instrumental in getting a couple of her Glee co-stars either written out of the show or their roles downsized. She’s heinous. I know nothing about her spouse but question what decent person would want her in his life?
I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment on her character and personality except I will say that she did not milk Cory’s death at all. She made like what, very few interviews, just now a google search showed me 3 videos in a span of 2 years. She disappeared for months in kate hudsons house and only returned to work on glee.
I mean some celebs at this point would already have written a book and done the circuits of grief for all these years. But she didn’t and I always respected that. At the very least. Capitalizing on someone’s death is not part of her many character flaws. Your comment here basically insinuates she didn’t even care for him. Even if they were broken up it doesn’t mean she didn’t care. I know years later i still care about the good health of some of my exes…
Horrible people can also sometimes have some natural human feelings, that’s what I’m saying.
Me too! I never watched Glee so I didn’t know of her. I watched Scream Queens but I didn’t like her. She seemed off. Anyhow I remember when her boyfriend committed suicide and how she milked it. It was my first and only impression of her at the time and it just sat wrong with me. Then I started hearing over the years how horrible she is and my intuition was right.
I know this can’t be said of everyone but I have always found theatre people to be abominable people. I don’t know what it is, the pretentiousness of the stage or what, I did drama for a while and they are just a whole other level.
So what did she do exactly to this Craig guy? I’m not a fan of hers and never watched Glee. I do think she has a great voice, BUT if you’re going to trash someone, then spill your guts, give some examples, not just “she’s a despicable, horrible human being!” If you’re not going to give examples, then it just looks like you’re jumping on the bandwagon to bring her down, and get some attention for yourself.
speaking from my own personal experience working with her, the slights sound silly individually but in the aggregate add up to a toxic person to be around. We all know what it feels like to be mean girled, i think. I’m not famous so it doesn’t matter, I have nothing to lose, but I don’t think this dude wins by talking shit. He said he didn’t want to talk about her, and told the truth of his experience anyway.
It really seems that she may have a personality disorder of some kind. I feel that term gets thrown around to describe all-purpose bad/annoying behavior, but the pervasiveness of her alienating other people and the effect that it’s had on her professional (and probably personal) life screams NPD.
“Personality disorder”? Is that what we’re calling being a heinous b*tch now?
It is actually. My sister was diagnosed with BPD. There’s a spectrum of behaviours, not unlike autism, ranging from quiet, anti-social BPDs to full-on malignant narcissist BPD. My sister was the latter and life with her was hellish at times. She was a heinous bitch to me and many others for decades until her untimely and self-inflicted death. Believe me I’ve done my research trying to come to terms with it. Behind every despicable human being there is some kind of mental/psychological/emotional catalyst that makes them that way and only therapy can help them control it.
A+++ thumbnail picture choice @Kaiser. 😏
The shaaaaaaade.
She definitely does not have the career she thinks she should. That comes across in her interviews and presentation.
Interesting Katherine Heigl comparison. I think the main difference is that Lea tends to punch down. I’m sure she’s deferential as hell to Murphy. But Heigl (who yes, also punched down) made actual trouble for Shonda Rhimes, producers, etc. The higher ups aren’t going to care much until behaviours: 1. Cause them real grief and problems directly, or 2. Cost them money.
Heigel bitched about the storylines (she made a great show of her distaste during the Emmy nominations), bitches about how Shonda worked her to death (they accommodated her film schedule so they had to bunch all her scenes) and bitched about the film that made her famous. Plus she was all around horrible to craft services and crew. I know her fans say this is a symbol of holding a woman to higher standards but I don’t agree. She shot her career multiple times.
Another tell, someone pointed out none of her costars ever wanted to work with her again. That’s says it all.
Lea is following that path.
She’ll be on the “see my baby” comeback/ rehab tour soon. I will not buy it that this will change her.
Katherine was nothing like this. She was a diva and highly demanding but she didn’t shame and humiliate trans people for their looks.
Yeah, maybe I’m missing something but I think Katherine’s diva behavior was mostly about getting better parts for herself and sticking up for TJ when Isaiah was being an ass to him.
Yeah, I’m in the “Heigl got punished in a way difficult men never do” camp. What did she do?
1. Defend TJ Knight against IW’s homophobic slurs. Not diva behaviour, the right thing to do.
2. Remove herself from awards contention in a season she was barely in and talk publicly about it. That season was terrible and her role in it was terrible. There’s nothing wrong with removing herself, the issue was talking about it publicly and thus throwing shade on the writers and producers. Pretty bratty but might just be a misplay – trying to be forthright and honest in a blunt way and misplaying it.
3. Say that the female characters in Knocked Up were shrill harpies. True. They did nothing but complain and stop the man-children’s fun. Absolutely true. Not particularly kind to her collaborators but not false.
4. Her mother was reportedly a pain in the arse bts and often when Heigl herself wasn’t present on her behalf. Not good. Her mother’s behaviour was terrible and she should have fired her as her manager. It’d be bloody hard firing a parent though! Especially when you’re close.
Okay, so, that’s some maybe too blunt and honest real talk and failing to reign in her mother’s bad behaviour. Honestly, not so bad.
There are successful male actors who’ve had raging drug and alcohol addictions, who’ve assaulted cast and crew, who’ve screamed bloody murder and thrown things, who’ve sexually assaulted others, who are self-admitted wife-beaters, who regularly say terrible (and often untrue) things publicly, and who regularly act like entitled a-holes. They still have thriving careers.
Heigl is 100% a victim of unequal judgment and treatment of male and female stars.
She really has a beautiful voice. I watched Glee for years and I loved her. Of course, later I found out how awful she was and it tainted the show in my eyes.
I think it is telling that this person mentions that he really cared for her. She must have changed and dropped all of her real friends.
I’m definitely the quiet, anti-social BPD type. I can be a real brat sometimes because I have overly high standards and get disappointed easily. But I agree, there are definitely shades of it.
Her voice sounds so phony to me though, as in she’s trying to make it very girlish.
Why is she even a thing????