Taylor Swift and Lea Michele Battle it Out for a Starring Role

When you hear the word “miserable” who comes to mind first – Taylor Swift or Lea Michele? It would certainly depend on what your special brand of misery is: oh-so-precious country crooning or big and brassy Broadway flash. Thankfully, Universal Studios is making that decision for us, reportedly choosing Swift over Michele for the role of Eponine in the upcoming and much buzzed about film adaptation of Les Miserables.

Lea, who told NYMag that she would be embarrassed not to get the role that she has played before on stage, shouldn’t feel too bad. ScarJo was also in the running for the coveted lovelorn and somewhat whiny role and she also got passed over in favor of golden girl Swift, which is sort of mind-boggling given her recent insipid whining about being called ScarJo.

The Glee songstress has had a sort of love-hate relationship with the tabloids, often fighting against rumors of high-maintenance, diva tendencies– and the Fashion Police have mercilessly taunted her standard, sour red carpet stance. Maybe it was an effort to counter all the haters out there when Lea followed up her ‘embarrassment’ statement with, “I’m happy to be considered, and I’m happy to be in the realm of the other girls who are being considered, because that’s the coolest thing for me. When I heard the other people they were considering, I was like, wow, this is awesome. I became, like, a fan dork girl.”

It seems that Michele can put aside the diva part of her personality and play nice with others when she wants to. She has not made an official statement regarding her current level of embarrassment, but I hope it’s not driving her to do something crazy like put out an album or something equally unnecessary and likely to only lead to further embarrassment. It is somewhat surprising that she didn’t even get offered the lesser role of Cosette, which Lea has also played before on stage. Amazingly, Amanda Seyfried was offered that part, adding yet another chapter to the mystery of why she keeps getting awesome roles.

I guess Taylor’s acting debut in Valentine’s Day must have really impressed the powers that be. I mean, it was really hard for her to be convincing as a high school cheerleader who was all googly-eyed over Taylor Lautner – that took serious acting chops! Taylor’s camp hasn’t made any comments about the casting choice, but we assume they are all smiles (except Taylor, who probably displayed her classic shocked look). The CMA darling will be joining the likes of Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter who are all slated to star in the ambitious production. Not a shabby way to move up the credibility ladder in Hollywood.