Keke Palmer shuts down rumors about Lea Michele’s reading abilities

Actress Keke Palmer has weighed in on the bizarre internet conspiracy claiming her Scream Queens Scream Queens co-star, Lea Michele , is unable to read. While promoting her new memoir, Master of Me , Palmer addressed the longstanding online joke during an interview on The Toast podcast, expressing disbelief over its persistence. “Damn, that’s crazy. Why do people do this stuff?” Palmer remarked after hosts Jackie Oshry Weinreb and Claudia Oshry explained the theory to her. When jokingly asked if she’d ever seen Michele reading on set, Palmer admitted she hadn’t but defended her co-star nonetheless. “I know that she can read, y’all,” she said with a laugh. “I ain’t never seen her reading, but I know that she can read. She’s got to! Y’all know that girl can read.” The Origin of the Conspiracy The peculiar rumor originated in 2017 when podcasters Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman posted a Facebook Live video claiming Michele might be illiterate. They presented a slideshow of supposed "evidence," referencing anecdotes from the late Glee Glee star Naya Rivera’s memoir, Sorry Not Sorry , which described Michele's alleged refusal to improvise scenes on the set of the Fox series. Despite the absurdity of the theory, it gained traction, with some speculating that Glee director Ryan Murphy read Michele’s lines aloud to her. Lea Michele’s Responses Over the Years Michele, best known for her roles in Glee and Funny Girl , has addressed the rumors multiple times. In 2018, she humorously tweeted, “Loved READING this tweet and wanted to WRITE you back,” playfully mocking the theory. She later discussed the viral video during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen , where she dismissed the idea that Murphy would have the time to read her lines aloud. “I got accepted to NYU. It’s the most bizarre thing,” she said at the time. In 2022, Michele expressed frustration during an interview with The New York Times , stating that the rumor was rooted in sexism. “I went to Glee every single day; I knew my lines every single day. And then there’s a rumor 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.” A Final Word from Keke Palmer For Palmer, the conspiracy theory is nothing more than an outlandish internet joke. Though amused by the question, she firmly dismissed the rumor, standing by her co-star. “Lea Michele can definitely read,” she reiterated. The internet may keep the joke alive, but those who’ve worked with Michele remain confident in her abilities—both on screen and off.