Although she plays the goody girl character, Rachel Berry on Fox’s hit show “Glee”, 24 year old Michele (Happy recent Birthday BTW!) is all but preppy in real life. She actually embodies an ultra-cool edginess with several visible tattoos, as seen at the Emmys this past Sunday.  Also in the recent issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, she reveals she has 9 tattoos. Some of these tats have been very spontaneous and a spur of the moment decision. Recently on a trip to Chi town, her and fellow casts Jenna Ushkowitz and Kvin McHale all got matching “Imagine” tattoos on their left foot. The tattoos each cost $50, and of course our very own Lea was the one who in her own words “instigated the whole thing”.

Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com

On the same evening, she got another tattoo  — a gold star which was an homage to her overachieving “Glee” character. Other tats that Lea has are an “I Believe” tattoo on her right wrist in teal ink. a blue butterfly located on her right foot which was actually designed by her cousin, another butterfly on her back which she inked with her mom being present.

Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

Michele’s remaining tattoos are of little bird on her hip, two musical notes from Queen’s hit song “Bohemian Rhapsody” on her left shoulder, and a tattoo on her thigh which is in memory of her late grandfather, who passed away a year ago.

Lea Michele is super excited for Britney Spears’ upcoming appearance on an episode of  Glee, where the former teen pop star will preview her own material and songs as well as have a role on the show. At a party last night in Hollywood, Lea gave us a little sneak peek of what to expect on the show… Lea Michele Gives Us The Scoop About Britney\’s \”Glee\” Episode

“We’re recreating Britney Spears’ videos…a few of them, in fantasies, so I happen to be caught in my tracksuit. Whether or not that’s “Hit Me…Baby One More Time,” you can put the pieces together.” Lea actually had it mind to sing another song before coming to a realization that she, “wanted to do “Circus,” which we’re not doing, but I realized that the choreography would be way too hard for me!” said Lea.

Recently going Vegan, Lea says her tight bod is the result of the all that she does on the show, rather than her recent change in diet. “I do a vegan diet just because I love animals,” the TV star explains. “I do try to work out, but I’m not a big workout fan. Glee is what keeps me super active.” Not a bad gig to have, that keeps you in great shape, has you doing two of the things you love doing (singing & acting), along with allowing you to rub elbows with real life pop-stars like Britney Spears. We’re very happy for you Lea!

Lea Michele has revealed what it was like kissing Jonathan Groff in Glee.

The actress, who plays Rachel Berry in the all-singing, all-dancing hit show, already locked lips with Jonathan every night when they starred together on Broadway in Spring Awakening.

She told E! Online: “It had been a really long time, so it was interesting when we had to do it for the first time on Glee.”

She continued: “But we had also done it so many times before that we sort of just jumped right back into it.”

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The UK Mirror recently caught up with Glee stars Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Dianna Agron and Chris Colfer about their favorite Glee moments, audition processes, high school experiences and more.

Golden Globe-Nominee Lea Michele talked to the UK mirror about her audition process for the role of Rachel Berry. She explained that she had three separate auditions for the role and that for the first audition, “the piano player messed up and they were laughing at me. I was like, ‘Why are you laughing? This is supposed to be a serious scene.’ But it turned out I was doing a lot of things that were very much like Rachel Berry.”

Read the other stars favorite moments here.

Be sure to check out a brand new interview with Ms. Michele at Speakeasy!

“I haven’t even wrapped my mind around the fact that our show has become as popular as it has. The fact that it was nominated for four Golden Globes and I got a best actress nomination is just…absolutely amazing. We haven’t even completed our first season.”

Rachel Berry, the teenaged would-be drama queen at the center of Fox’s song-and-dance series Glee, would pretty much kill to be Lea Michele, the actress who plays her. After all, Lea made her Broadway debut at eight, stepping in as young Cosette in Les Misérables after an open call. “I’d never sung before,” the New York City native says. “My friend was auditioning, and I was like, ‘I want to go too!’ I just took to it.”

She appeared in Ragtime and Fiddler on the Roof and won the starring role in Spring Awakening at fourteen, sticking with the show for almost eight years as it went from early workshops to the Great White Way. (Nothing’s set in stone, but she “really, really wants” to appear in the forthcoming feature film version.) Now 23, she lives in L.A. with Glee costar Dianna Agron (who plays on-screen rival Quinn) and a pair of cats named for two characters in Hair. Meanwhile Ms. Berry, though talented, is still striving (and stuck in Ohio).

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A ruthless brunette with a killer set of pipes who bulldozes through high school with starry ambitions? Takes one to play one. Lea Michele, who launched her Broadway career at 8, seems to feel nothing but warm kinship for Rachel Berry, the alter ego she plays on Fox’s new show Glee (Wednesdays at 9 p.m.).

A singing, dancing glee club member with a pair of stage dads and an eye on stardom, Rachel at one point announces, “There is nothing ironic about show choir.” A Manhattan native, Michele has lived in her own apartment since she graduated from high school (she’s putting college on permanent hold) and was most recently spotted on Broadway in Spring Awakening (Michele freely admits she can’t read music, but it looks as if that hasn’t hurt). Freshly returned to her new Los Angeles digs from a Glee publicity tour, Michele spoke with The Washington Post’s Ruth McCann on the eve of her 23rd birthday.

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Quinn’s got herself a bit of a problem: pregnant and lying about the father. Are you worried about the fan reaction?
DA: You know, we will see. Yes, there is a stereotype with these characters and it wouldn’t be fair if [those stereotypes] didn’t exist a little bit. But [co-creator] Ryan Murphy has a way of taking everything and turning it upside down. That’s the great thing about this show and these characters: nobody is one note, which is amazing.

Rachel obviously has some strong feelings for Finn (Cory Monteith). And she’s quite the little detective. Now that Quinn and Puck are in glee club, will she be the one to first discover that Finn’s not the baby daddy?
LM: Anything is possible. I think she really cares a lot about Finn, obviously, but [she also cares] about Quinn more than you realize. The journey our characters take, separately and together, I think is really great.

Will the kiss that Rachel shared with Finn impact that budding friendship she’s forming with Quinn?
LM: Isn’t that so great that Ryan Murphy didn’t make you wait [for their kiss]? It’s was like, let’s just throw [them together]. We’ll see. I think it’s safe to say that the love triangle between Finn, Quinn and Rachel is very active throughout the first 13 episodes.

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In May, audiences were first given a glimpse of FOX’s “Glee,” when the network aired the pilot after the finale of “American Idol,” forcing fans to wait until the show’s return in fall for more. In addition to a stellar ensemble cast, hilarious writing and amazing pop songs re-imagined by a misfit high school choir, the series introduced a breakout star in the form of chanteuse Lea Michele.

The 23-year-old actress, who plays diva-licious glee club member Rachel Berry, is a newcomer to TV. She is best known for originating the role of Wendla in the Broadway musical, “Spring Awakening,” for which she received a Drama Desk nomination. Her looks remind many folks of another Broadway singing / acting star – Idina Menzel.

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The funny and charming new series Glee got a very unusual launch this past spring, when FOX aired the pilot as a stand-alone episode after American Idol – months before the show would fully debut in the fall. And the experiment seems to have paid off, as the version of “Don’t Stop Believin’” performed by the cast in the show’s pilot hit number 1 on iTunes on the heels of the pilot airing.

More recently, the cast have embarked on a mall tour, which has put them in direct contact with the newfound fans that single episode has given them, going into Wednesday night’s debut of the second episode. When that tour hit Los Angeles, and a local Hot Topic — on an incredibly hot day, that had myself and fellow journalists, Glee cast members and fans alike sweating up a storm — I stopped by and chatted with two of the show’s stars: Lea Michele, who plays the music obsessed, unpopular Rachel and Dianna Agron, who plays a conniving cheerleader named Quinn who is happy to torment Rachel.

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