Like most of you, playing Hate Lea Michele’s Hard-Posing used to be my favourite sport too. And then Taylor Swift happened. Taylor Swift came along and took Eponine away, a role that Lea was made for. Even for those who couldn’t bear Lea, you knew that this part was hers. Which is why I wrote, when she wore Marchesa and worked it so desperately at the Golden Globes that:

Lea just lost out on a part that was perfect for her as Eponine in Les Miserables. And she did not fall short on talent. It was something else then. Was it connection? Was it the who you know and the friends you have? Was it the phone calls that get made, on behalf of and in spite of?

That brings us back, actually, to all that posing.

Lea Michele poses so hard because it doesn’t come naturally. And what comes naturally - that amazing voice - isn’t enough, at least it hasn’t been so far, to go head to head against those with not even half of her talent. In her mind then this is sh-t she has to do. When you look at it that way, I dunno, I can’t hate.

Is pity any better?

Probably not.

But it’s just not fun anymore, sh-tting on the girl with the big voice and the wrong colour skin and hair. After I posted that article excerpted above, I received a brilliantly analysed email from a long-time reader called Jonathan who pretty much brought it home. There’s no way I can say it any better.

Lea Michelle is an "immigrant".  She's duddy kravitz. She's Portnoy.

Taylor Swift, Gwyn Paltrow... they're the blond, blue eyed other.  They have the right friends.  They have the right manners... it comes so easily to them.

Lea's pose-harding is because she is an outsider.  Her parents speak poor english.  She didn't go to the right school, belong to the right country club. There's a great line from an early episode of the OC where Julie Cooper goes: I remember as a kid if I saw a limousine driving, I'd always try to see through the tinted window, wondering what kind of life the people inside lived. How glamorous and lucky. Who knew, right? You knew. You were probably in there staring back at me. Which means I've been jealous of you since I was eight. When I met Jimmy I had nothing. No money. I don't want to go back to being nothing again.

And that... is Lea Michelle.  Daugher of a nurse and deli owner.  

And that is why anyone who has ever been on the outside can't hate her too hard.  

I am all for pissing on Jessica Biel for overreaching. For wanting to be Anne Hathaway. Hilarious, right? The thing is...

Lea hasn’t overreached. Lea wasn’t asking to be Cat Woman or Lara Croft. Lea wasn’t trying to get seen for Daisy in The Great Gatsby or Anna Karenina. Lea wanted Eponine in Les Miserables, well within her world. And still she was rejected for the weak voiced girl with blonde ringlets, hand hearts, the right skin tone, and her own guest room at Gwyneth Paltrow’s house. So now when I see Lea sticking her leg out, giving herself a cramp from all the Trying, I’m sorry, I just don’t have the heart. Sorry. And blame Taylor Swift.