Two years ago, Lea Michele seemed almost unemployed.
The “Glee” star was “deposed” in June 2020 after she tweeted in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, and former co-star Samantha Ware, a black woman, shot back that Michele was an on-set bully. Ware wrote in capital letters on Twitter: “I think you told everyone you would if you had the chance
‘s – – t in my wig!’ ”
Other “Glee” actors were heaping on allegations of cruelty, prompting Michele to take to Instagram to apologize for her mean girl behavior. But the damage was done. Like many a canceled celebrity, she rode off to metaphorical Siberia. . . never to be seen again. . .
Until this September, when the Spring Awakening actress, 35, takes on the lead role of Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl.
One Oscar voter said fans are ready to forgive, forget and enjoy the show. “Everybody knows deep down that a lot of their favorite stars through the ages have probably been a – – hole, and so it seems like people might be able to stop by for the show.”
Hollywood and Broadway sources tell The Post that behind-the-scenes bigwigs are wrestling with how to bring back stars with messy pasts.NY Post photocomposite
Following the cancellation, Lea Michele returns to the spotlight in Broadway’s Funny Girl.Getty Images
Does that mean The Great Un-Canceling is ahead?
Hollywood and Broadway sources tell The Post that behind-the-scenes bigwigs are struggling to bring back stars with messy pasts sent to the glamorous glue factory. Who is Redeemable? who isn’t Has enough time passed since the news? Does the paying public even care anymore?
“Certainly we are seeing those guilty of substandard behavior emerging from hibernation,” said an industry source of the changing landscape. “You’re off the ground again. But will they be able to fly again? We will see.”
And the trend is coast to coast.
James Franco is set to star in a new movie called Me, You after being away from acting for several years.Willy Sanjuan/Invision/`
This month, the Hollywood Reporter announced that James Franco, who was accused of sexual misconduct by five women at the height of the #MeToo movement in 2018, will also be starring again in a new movie called Me, You.
When his comeback was announced, the backlash was . . . almost non-existent.
A few years ago, this relative silence would have been shocking. The man was an outcast. In a 2019 lawsuit, two of Franco’s acting students alleged that he “attempted to create a pipeline of young women exposed to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education.” Franco, now 44, settled them for $2.2 million and was never charged with a crime.
Countless stories and columns have been written about the scandal, and it features prominently in new documentary Body Parts about the dark side of Hollywood. Everyone – and I mean everyone – has written off Franco as donezo, but like it or not, he’s back.
Type of.
James Franco (right) once starred in major films like Planet of the Apes: The Rise.` Photo/20th Century Fox
One Hollywood top dog says Franco won’t return to his former heights of starring in tent poles like Spider-Man or Planet of the Apes: The Rise. “These people get terrible jobs,” they said. “Nothing compared to what they had.”
As for Michele, a Broadway source said the actress would never have willingly stepped down from Beanie Feldstein, who originated the role of Fanny in the revival, prior to her controversy.
“Lea would have expected to have opened Funny Girl,” they said, “and probably should have.”
Yet these shrunken stars are no longer hiding. And no one seems to mind. The public’s appetite for cancellations has waned thanks to COVID-19, crime, inflation, and the millions of other storms we’re battling at the same time. The bar for exile has risen. Spicy.
Kevin Spacey is set to go on trial in the UK next year on sexual assault charges.Getty Images
Some non-negotiable offenses are obvious: sex crimes and harassment, for example, cannot be tolerated.
Actor Kevin Spacey is the most famous running example. The Oscar-winner faces a sexual assault trial in the UK next year (he has pleaded not guilty) and, pending his name being cleared, remains a liability to film studios. Yes, Spacey has a low-budget Italian film starring Faye Dunaway, who, according to my colleague Michael Riedel, has had her share of backstage meltdowns. But is a new “House of Cards” in sight? I do not think so.
Louis CK, meanwhile, was quickly deposed despite horribly masturbating in front of uninterested female employees. His second chance is undeserved. You have money to make, but Louis should be selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands with Armie Hammer – another who doesn’t deserve a second chance.
Wrong decisions, however, should get a second look.
Matt Damon was angered last year because he idiotically revealed during an interview that he didn’t know “f—-t” was a gay slur and admitted he used it at the family dinner table. The dumb star apologized and narrowly avoided a cancellation. Good. It’s not a crime to be an idiot.
And when Whoopi Goldberg falsely claimed in The View in February that the Holocaust was “not about race,” she was suspended — not fired. That was the right call. She apologized and learned from her mistake.
Attitude problems should not be a reason for removal from this planet either.
Broadway sources say Michele is hardly a pleasure to work with, but I say when she sells tickets, she sells tickets. Chrissy Teigen has urged teen stars to “kill themselves,” and she’s still hanging out, getting kind letters about her year of sobriety. I say if she sells cookbooks, she sells cookbooks.
“The dust is settling and a new form of order is emerging,” added an industry source. “And with that, part of the talent.”
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