A stand-up guy. Actress Monica Moskatow recalled a time that Cory Monteith showered her with compliments after his Glee costar and future girlfriend Lea Michele allegedly called her ugly.
“September 2009 I was hired to work at the premiere party for Glee at a high school. They hired lookalikes of the shows characters to perform at the party. I was the Rachel Berry lookalike,” Moskatow wrote in an Instagram comment on Michele’s page on Thursday, June 4, referencing the Emmy nominee’s character.
“I didn’t know my character was the lead let alone who played her,” she continued. “When the actors arrived at the event and found out there were lookalikes of them Lea came searching for me. When she saw me she said, ‘oh my god! Could they have picked someone uglier!’”
Moskatow wrote that Monteith “saw the look on my face and said, ‘don’t listen to her she’s just jealous, you’re beautiful.’” She added, “I never forgot that.”
Monteith and Michele, 33, played Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry, respectively, on the Fox musical drama. The costars started dating after meeting on set and were a couple until the Canada native’s 2013 death from an overdose at age 31. The Scream Queens alum is now married to businessman Zandy Reich, with whom she is expecting her first child.
Numerous stars who have worked with Michele through the years have come forward in recent days to call out her alleged misbehavior. Samantha Marie Ware, who played Jane Hayward in season 6 of Glee, was the first to speak out after the “Run to You” singer tweeted about the Black Lives Matter movement.
“LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISION GIG A LIVING HELL?!?! CAUSE ILL NEVER FORGET,” Ware, 28, tweeted on Monday, June 1. “I BELIEVE YOU TOLD EVERYONE THAT IF TOU [sic] HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WOULD ‘S–T IN MY WIG!’ AMONGST OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGGRESSIONS THAT MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD.”
Glee alums Dabier Snell, Alex Newell and Heather Morris followed suit, with the latter tweeting on Wednesday, June 3, “Was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so; for Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she SHOULD be called out.” Amber Riley, meanwhile, said on Instagram Live that she does not “give a s–t about” the controversy and is instead focused on social justice causes.
Michele broke her silence on the allegations against her on Wednesday morning, writing in part on Instagram, “Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused.”
A source who once worked with the actress also came to her defense, telling Us Weekly exclusively, “Though she was completely self-obsessed toward everyone, she did not discriminate. It didn’t matter if you were young or old, black or white — it’s just kind of her world.”
