Watch Jonathan Groff respond to longstanding rumor that Lea Michele can't read

Broadway star Jonathan Groff is finally tackling a hotly debated question: Can Lea Michele read?

Groff was asked to weigh in on the rumor that refuses to die on a recent episode of the Tactful Pettiness podcast, hosted by Cody Rigsby and Andrew Chappelle.

"Have you seen her read?" Chappelle asked as the Mindhunter star burst out laughing. "And what was she reading?"

"And what date and time was it?" Rigsby chimed in.

"I have seen her read," said Groff. "Wait, do you really think she can't read?"

The rumor about Michele not being able to read first began with a 40 minute Facebook Live presentation from One More Thing podcasters Jaye Hunt and Robert Ackerman. They largely based their conspiracy theory on a claim that Michele refused to improvise on the Glee set, further suggesting perhaps she was illiterate because she spent her childhood on Broadway rather than going to school.

It's bounced around the internet in the years that followed, but picked up renewed traction over the last couple years. Michele has both refuted the rumors and played into them in the past. Emma Roberts was even confronted about her Scream Queens' costar's literacy by Andy Cohen in 2023, and only replied, "I mean, we've not been in a book club together."

But now Groff is helping to set the record straight. He told Chappelle and Rigsby that he's seen Michele read off a music stand in rehearsals, swearing that she didn't come in with everything already memorized.

"Let it be known," he said. "We're dispelling [the rumor]."

Not that it's going to do much good — some rumors never die.