Naya Rivera/Santana Lopez

[tab19]

Is it too much to hope for some Glee tell-all in this?

 

I wish.  Unfortunately, Naya seems far too career focused to let anything really good spill.  I would say the most might be some carefully cleaned up stuff - you know, 'a producer' or 'one of the writers' - but I can't see her burning any bridges.  Even if she's never going to work again with RBI, and would be willing to trash them, I'm sure she knows better than to want the reputation as a loose cannon.

 

I think we'll have to wait for someone who's washed up and desperate for money...

[caracas1914]

Is it me who finds it ironic that the name of her memoirs is her Single that she collaborated with Big Sean?

 

I don't think she will diss Glee openly but Big Sean, waiting to see the chapters on their relationship.

[tom87]

Naya's publisher (Tarcher Books) describe itself as  "one of the premier Mind/Body/Spirit publishers".   Plus looking at her website and her "mother earth" posts she is trying to portray a certain image.  Tell all doesn't fit what she is putting out recently.

 

I am interested in the mixed race in Hollywood .  As a kid she was mostly cast as a little black girl now she is the latina girl. 

[dizzyizzy01]

i think the mixed race stuff in Hollywood will be really interesting, but I do wish she had chosen another title.  I find "sorry not sorry" just an obnoxious turn of phrase.  Also that single was pretty bad.  Why do you want to remind people of that?

[fakeempress]

It may be mostly hype, but she's dangling the "juicy" carrot. It's widely known that feathers flew in the BS breakup and the conflict with Falchuk and whoever else around the "firing", so she will have to address at least those instances. In any case, I'm interested to get her perspective on growing up in the industry.

 

Edited June 9, 2015 by fakeempress

[tom87]

i think the mixed race stuff in Hollywood will be really interesting, but I do wish she had chosen another title.  I find "sorry not sorry" just an obnoxious turn of phrase.  Also that single was pretty bad.  Why do you want to remind people of that?

It would be like someone naming thier book YOLO.

[tab19]

Apparently Naya was not controversial enough for the View - Raven Symone is the new host.  I thought Naya said sufficiently boneheaded things to qualify, but apparently they wanted someone willing to agree out loud that Michelle Obama looks like an ape.  JFC!  

 

Suddenly seems like maybe it's a good thing Naya that she didn't get the gig...

[AndySmith]

I like Naya, so I like to think and hope she can do better than the View.

[caracas1914]

I'm glad that Naya isn't putting her goal of having children on hold for her career, she's always voiced how being a mother is something she really looked forward to. For all we know, like Heather, she'll come back even more focused on her acting (got a mouth to feed!) and since I think she already is a good actress.

She is rocking the maternity look, LOL.

Edited June 11, 2015 by caracas1914

[fakeempress]

 

Sounds to me like she's working with a ghost writer of some kind. 

 

And apparently she's a celebrity blogger for People.com. 

Edited June 19, 2015 by fakeempress

[caracas1914]

http://nayapictures.com/thumbnails.php?album=216

 

 

 

Naya, sweetie, a nursery is not a prison, just saying...

 

My eyes hurt....

[jaytee1812]

I kind glanced passed that picture on Instagram earlier, didn't realise it was her kids nursery. I like Naya but she needs a better decorator and stylist. 

[fakeempress]

I don't mind stripes, but the patterns clash (not in a good eclectic way). But her baby may not care at all... 

Edited June 25, 2015 by fakeempress

[tom87]

Wall paper is busy. Maybe just one accent wall instead of the whole room. 

[caracas1914]

when is she due?

[caracas1914]

Naya's baby shower:

http://celebritybabies.people.com/2015/08/05/naya-rivera-baby-shower-photos-details/

[truthaboutluv]

Naya gave birth to a baby boy. Apparently it was a month ago, so I'm surprised US Weekly only just found out. 

 

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-moms/news/naya-rivera-gives-birth-baby-boy-first-child-ryan-dorsey-2015309

[caracas1914]

Congrats to Naya!

[fakeempress]

Naya gave birth to a baby boy. Apparently it was a month ago, so I'm surprised US Weekly only just found out. 

 

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-moms/news/naya-rivera-gives-birth-baby-boy-first-child-ryan-dorsey-2015309

 

They're saying she announced in April while linking to her insta from February, could be they muddled up the dob too. I'm more surprised she's kept it quiet. Anyway, great news for her.

Edited September 30, 2015 by fakeempress

[caracas1914]

http://fyeahgleeclub.tumblr.com

Ok, now it's saying Naya's baby was born Sept 17, which makes more sense, as far as being under the radar for 9 or 10 days.

[tom87]

I knew they had to be keeping that baby quite.  It seemed really long.

[AndySmith]

Belated congrats to her!

[AndySmith]

Hey guys, the Rumor Has It/Someone like you mash-up is a candidate on today's King of Disparate TV Things Mountain...

 

http://previously.tv...s-rumor-has-it/

[ExplainItAgain]

Naya Rivera reveals she had an abortion during Glee

[caracas1914]

The one interesting detail to me is that Ryan Dorsey was the man with whom Naya got pregnant six years ago.   So apparently they had some sort of relationship before getting together again  after the whole Big Sean breakup.

Their seemingly quick engagement/marriage doesn't seem as random In that context.

[truthaboutluv]

In fairness, at the time of the marriage, her camp did say they'd known each other for years. Most people just dismissed it as PR spin though since the whole thing was so quick, not to mention the getting married in her original wedding dress and on the original wedding date for the wedding that was supposed to be her and Big Sean, made it easier to just think she was kind of nuts. 

Edited August 26, 2016 by truthaboutluv

[fakeempress]

This twitter has been posting bits and pieces about the book. 

Among other things: "Naya and Chord had a ~thing & hooked up when he joined the cast, but then he found out about her drama with Mark & they ended things."

This rang a bell and google came through. I've forgotten much of the earlier gossip!

http://www.sugarscape.com/celebs/news/a608018/glees-naya-rivera-in-love-triangle-with-chord-overstreet-mark-salling/

http://www.eonline.com/ca/news/222317/source-glee-stars-chord-overstreet-and-naya-rivera-hooked-up-in-vegas

[spiritof76]

So I read Naya's book. Yes the whole thing! (LOL! ) That's what happens when your stuck at home sick. (Yaaaaa allergies! ) Would be happy to share the highlights. Overall I really enjoyed it. Surprisingly so. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I  thought it was good. 

ETA: So I can't sleep (at least not until this next dose of Benadryl kicks in) so I thought I'd share some of things that jumped out at me, for anyone who is interested. I read so you don't have to! 

So first as I said above, I actually really enjoyed Naya's book. I'm sure she had a ghostwriter or help or whatever, but however they did it, it turned out well in my opinion. I went in pretty neutral on Naya. I definitely thought she was super talented on Glee. Santana was not always my favorite character, but that could be said for almost every character on the show. By the end I don't know if there wasn't one character left that hadn't seriously annoyed me. Off screen, Naya certainly seemed to have a way of attracting drama, but as with any celebrity you never know how much is true and how much is rumor/speculation. So I say all that to say, I went into reading this not as a super fan or super hater of Naya. Just interested in what she had to say and her perspective. 

For everyone looking for a juicy Glee tell-all, this isn't exactly that. However, Naya does not pull any punches. She doesn't really talk around certain issues which I appreciated. She also doesn't really "out" anyone, meaning she doesn't really talk about anyone else's business unless it was something having to do with her relationship with the person. So for example she does talk about her issues with Lea, her relationship with Mark, etc. But she doesn't tell anyone else's secrets if you will, (like so and so and so and so were totally hooking up and we all knew it). She does spill the tea per say,  but basically it's her tea.

I'll be interested to hear what other people who have read the book think, but I think on the Glee angle she didn't really saying anything I found totally shocking or out of left field. A lot of what she said, really for me, just confirmed some assumptions that I already had, with a few more details thrown in. Now of course this is all written from her perspective, so that has to be taken into account, but I didn't read anything that sounded crazy or made up to me. And she earned a lot of credibility (to me anyway) for not letting her self off the hook. She was pretty straight up about her mistakes and bad decisions. I would say her drama queen status is somewhat correct, but she owns up to it. She seems to be very self aware in a way I wasn't expecting. She knows what people think and how certain things have looked.

Now for the nitty gritty of specific things that jumped out at me (I bolded things so you could go to what interests you most):

Just how young she was when she started working-I knew she had done TV as a kid (Family Matter's Royal Family, etc) but apparently her mother started her baby modeling when she was about 6 months old. Eventually she moved on to commercials, and apparently worked quite a lot. She said she liked it right from the start. But it did kind of sound like her mom was a little pushy about the modeling/acting thing.

She was actually on the set of the Royal Family when Redd Foxx had his heart attack and died-So I'm totally old enough to remember this show. It starred Redd Fooxx and Della Reese. It was on sometime in the early 90's. Anyway, Naya played one of the grandkids (she was 5) and apparently Redd took a liking to her (in a sweet grandfatherly way) and they got pretty close. The show actually was doing really really well in the ratings. But then on set one day as they were rehearsing a scene Redd slumped over in his chair. At first everyone thought he was joking, doing one of his Sanford and Son bits, but when he didn't move Della Reese ran over to him and all he could say was "get my wife". Then all chaos broke out as they were rushing to get an ambulance etc. While all this was happening five year old Naya who was the one rehearsing the scene with Redd was frozen in place. She said as a child actor, you are told to hit your mark, say your lines and don't move. So that's what she did. She didn't move. Eventually her father saw her standing there, scooped her up and took her to the dressing room. Later at the hospital the whole cast and his family was there when the doctor and came out and told them he didn't make it. She said it hit her hard because she didn't really know her grandparents and he was like that to her. Anyway, they tried to carry on the show without Redd (brought in Jackee Harry of 227 fame to play Della Reese's sassy sister), but it didn't work and the show was cancelled after the first season. 

It is obvious her time on the Royal Family had a big impact on Naya. It was the first time she got a taste of being on a well known show (it really did start with great ratings and totally would have continued had Redd not died) and she liked it. Then she went on to her recurring role on Family Matters which she loved. A guest spot on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. And then......nothing.

Naya absolutely hit a rough patch. As she got older she stopped booking as muck work. She wasn't the cute little kid anymore. And it hit her hard because she felt like she had found what she wanted to do with her life and now she couldn't do it. Her school experience seemed kind of up and down and thing at home weren't super stable. Her parents split up and got back together a few time finally divorcing when she was 17. They had off an on money problems. At one point they had bought a nice house with a big pool and yard, and then her dad lost his job, and they ended up moving around from apartment to apartment. She did have money set aside in what was known as a Coogan account, which is basically a trust where the money a child actor earns goes, so their parents won't spend it all. However she said twice things got so bad financially her parents had to pull from it to pay bills. They had to go to court and get permission from the judge and Naya had to agree. She said she didn't mind because she knew times were tough and they never took a lot. But she is also pretty honest that her parents, especially her father didn't always make the best money decisions. By the time she reached 18 she had about $42,000 in her account, which is nothing to sneeze at as a teenager. 

She definitely had an eating disorder-As a teen as a way to cope with her out of control home life, her vanish acting career and unhappiness, she began not eating. She doesn't say anorexia but it certainly sounded like anorexia. She said it didn't have anything to do with her appearance or weight, she knew she wasn't fat, instead it was a way for her to focus on something and control something, since she had no control over her home life or her career anymore. Also she didn't seem to have a lot of friends. She felt very much like she didn't fit in. She admits her parents had no idea how to help her. Her mom even told her "Naya, this is some white people shit". As a minority myself i can tell you that is a very prevalent attitude in a lot of our communities. Apparently it got really bad, she had to go to the hospital at one point. She said therapy didn't really help her, but that she eventually worked her way through it. I'll be honest I wasn't really clear how. She seemed to imply it was something that she just worked out on her own. But there was one thing she did want to change about her appearance.......

As suspect she did have a boob job. She said she was flat chested and she knew as soon as she turned 18 she wanted to get her boobs done. Her parent's were against it, but she was determined. Once she hit 18 and got access to her trust account that was the first thing she "bought". The next thing was a in her words "piece of shit car".

Naya ended up with huge money problems-Naya is super honest about all the financial mistakes she made. She had access to $42,000 once she turned 18. Not a fortune, but certainly nothing to sneeze at for a teenager. I know I could have use $42,000 at that age (I could use it now! LOL!) She said she started out really well. Balancing her check book. Paying her bills, etc. She had a job at a clothing store as well, so she felt good. but then she started buying more and more stuff. She was living with her dad at the time and he felt since she had a job, she should pay rent. She felt like if she was paying rent she might as well have her own place. So she moved into an apartment that cost like $1,300 a month. What she didn't think about was all the other things that come with living on your own. She bought all new furniture on her credit car. A new car. A flat screen TV. And then she lost her job at the clothing store. And she had to keep drawing from her savings. She started dodging collection phone calls. Bills going unpaid. By the time she had been in the apartment 6 months she had to move out because she couldn't afford it anymore. Back to her dad's she went. She knew screwed up. She would still get residual checks from Family Matters and Fresh Prince, but they would be like $11 or $ 12. Put she would rush to cash them. Anyway her finances were a mess. She eventually got it back on track but not until she booked Glee and even then it took her sometime to pay her debs off. 

When she auditioned for Glee she had about giving up on acting-she had started going to community college and was thinking of screen writing for her fallback option since acting did not seem to be panning out. When she read for Glee she did in fact audition for the role of Santana, but since Santana had no lines in the pilot she read a Mercedes scene. I think there had always been a rumor that she had actually auditioned for Mercedes and got Santana instead, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

She and Dianna seemed to hit it off right away-She has nothing but nice thing to say about Dianna. By the time she and Dianna had started filming, the original five Glee kids had already been rehearsing and filming together for a while, so initially she felt like a bit of outsider and she Dianna bonded over that. She describes Dianna as "being born fancy". She said she was like Madonna and some days she would come in speaking with a British accent and no one thought it was strange or said anything because it was Dianna. She also called Dianna "Elizabeth Taylor" because of all her male suitors and she totally meant it as compliment. She said Dianna dated some hot guys. Anyway, they seemed to get along well. She liked hanging out with her and they had a good time. This made me smile because this is exactly how I picture Dianna to be. 

Santana-As a lot of people suspected Santana and Brittany started out as a joke. (She also say that a lot of things that went on to be major plot points on Glee started out as a joke. Another confirmation!) Finally  Naya said she asked Brad if Santana and Brittany really were an item. He said he didn't know.  Then they came back from hiatus and he said they decided Santana was gay. 

Apparenly the cast really were that close in the beginning and as a lot of suspected also were overly involved in each others lives. And yes it sounds like a lot of hooking up happened. Like I said she didn't name any names unless it had to do with her, but she did describe the cast as having "the sex drives of bunnies and the bed hopping skills of a polygamist cult". I actually went back and looked that up so I got it right. That's a direct quote. Again, nothing shocking, at least not to me, just confirmation of kind of what was already assumed. Apparently Jenna and Kevin rented a house together during Season 2 that the cast named the "Love Nest", because some tabloid had said that they were "shacking up" in a  Hollywood love nest together. Naya was pretty clear that Kevin and Jenna were most definitely not an item, however their house became the cast hang out that season and apparently a lot went on there. She said they tried to get one of their cast mates high for the first time by feeding them weed-laced Gummi Bears, which I didn't even know was a thing. She doesn't say who the cast member was, but for some reason I think it was Chris. Of that group I could believe he'd never been high before. Well anyway, she said they had no affect on the person. So consider it confirmed, at least according to Naya, that the shenanigans we thought were going, really did go on.

The Mark Salling Relationship-so here was the surprise to me. They apparently dated off an on for 3 years. Anytime it was mentioned in the press it was always made to seem like it was some brief thing that happened at the start of the show. But nope they were together for three years. She said she definitely started out really liking him and trying really hard to get him to like her. She gets in a little dig by saying, "this was Mark Salling circa 2009 when he was still a major looker". Ouch! I guess we weren't the only ones who noticed his looks took a downward slide over the years. Anyhoo, he asked her on a date. He took her to an In and Out Burger where they ate their burgers in the car (after he had just smoked weed.) Then they went to some sort of Halloween thing. She said his car was a hot mess with garbage and stuff rolling around in the back. It stopped on them twice. He spent the rest of their date high, but she was still trying to make a go of it because she thought he was cute. They kissed for the first time the night of Obama's 2008 election. She spent the night and the next thing she knew they were dating. He told her he loved her four weeks later, after he had just taken an ecstasy pill. She said, "Thank you".  Anyway she says their relationship was super dysfunctional. Either they were "very much on, or very much off". She went home with him to Texas, he played the guitar for her and they had a lot of fun together when they weren't fighting. She said they would break up and get back together again, because she was addicted to the drama and so was he. She said he could be super moody. He told her that his publicist had told him he needed to say he was single because it would be better for his career. She was like ok, fine whatever about it, which is why I guess  we never knew how long they really dated. We probably wouldn't have known they dated at all if not for the "car incident". Which totally happened.

So the "car incident"- So it did happen, just not how the tabloids said. Apparently Mark went out of town and word got back to Naya from someone in he cast no less that Mark had definitely cheated on her with some random girl. She kind of suspected it, but that was the first time anyone had actually come to her and said it. So she got pissed. She called on of her friends, went to the store and bought eggs and beer and dog food and proceeded to throw eggs at his car, dump dog food all over it and and spray beer all over it. So that happened. what the tabloids got wrong was she did not key his car and Mark definitely did not have a Lexus. Since he lived in a pretty sketchy part of time there were a lot of stray dogs and cats around and apparently they kind of attacked his car thanks to all the garbage all over it. She said they never actually talked about it, but she knows that he knew it was her. The liquor store next door to his apartments had video surveillance and they showed him the video and you could see her clear as day.  So yes that instagram picture they posted were they talked about those "silly rumors" and how they were the best of friends? Staged. They felt like it was best for them both to deny it ad move on. But they did not break up. Yet.

Mark broke up with her-So he finally ended it for good with her and she said there was definitely drama on the set for awhile. She didn't even want to look at him. She apparently was really hurt about him dumping her. Of course now she know she was lucky to be rid of him. At the time though she just wanted to annoy him and move on to a new hook up potential. Enter one Chord Overstreet.

She and Chord "were something" very briefly-Apparently she zeroed in on Chord right after he joined the show because he was new and he didn't know about her drama with Mark. Eventually that good old cast grapevine sprung into action again and it wasn't long before Chord was in the know and he was not interested in being apart of their drama. So that was that. I'm still not clear exactly what happened between them. My guess was just a hook up or two, but she wasn't super clear about that. 

Big Sean-She admits that she got all caught up in he glamour of dating a rapper. I mean I personally don't get it because he is scrawny and not attractive to me, but hey to each his own. He started off treating her really well and then things went down hill. She knows that their engagement happened way too fast. She knew the whole thing was a mistake from the start. On time she went over to his house (she had a key) while they were dating and saw a girl chilling on his couch she didn't give her name but she made it clear it was Arianna Grande. So yeah, guess that happened too. As for the whole Rolex watch issue, she says he gave it to her as a gift and then came in her home and took it without her knowing. Which led to her calling him out on Twitter, which she regretted right away. She knew she had "showed her ass" in her words. Like I said, she really doesn't give herself a lot of passes. 

The Wedding/Ryan-So as we know now she had dated Ryan before. He contacted her off the Big Sean break up. They met and she finally told him about the abortion. He processed it and then they started dating again and about 3 months in decided to get married. She said they did not get married on the same date or at the same place she was supposed to marry Big Sean. She said she and Big Sean were supposed to marry in Santa Barbara. She says she also did not wear the same dress. She's actually still trying to sell the first dress. So that's her account on that.

Cory-This part was of course sad. She said she and Cory were friends, never anything more. They hung out had fun etc. She said Cory was very upfront with them all when the show first started about his past. He said he was a recovering addict. And from what she saw he lead a super clean lifestyle. At the end of Season 2 they all went out to dinner, before they went on the tour. Everyone ordered cocktails to toast and so did Cory. She said everyone noticed and Cory noticed, that they noticed. He said he wanted to be able to drink in moderation just like anyone else and that he was fine. She said because they never saw any different (that he wasn't fine) they assumed he was ok. The next thing she noticed was after they came back to start filming Season 4 Cory had gotten a lot skinnier. Something I think a lot of us mentioned here as well. He said he was trying to be healthier and had been in the gym a lot that summer. She thought that made sense. By this time he and Lea were pretty serious, and Naya said everyone knew Lea was not a partier so everyone felt like she was a good influence and again things were fine. She said that none of them really had a good understanding of what addiction really was like. She thought of addicts as strung out, and sleepy, slurring their words, etc. The Cory she saw was none of those things. He always knew his lines, his songs, his choreography. He was on time and prepared for work. He just simply didn't look like an addict to them. She didn't really talk about when they found out he had relapsed. But she did talk about founding out that he had died. She was in London with Big Sean. Her phone rang in the middle of the night. It was one of the Production Assistants and her friend Telly. She said he was sobbing so she couldn't even understand him an finally he said, "Cory is dead". She said she was in so much shock she made him repeat what he said several times. This was also when she got her first inkling that her then fiance "Big Sean" was maybe not a great guy. When she woke him up to tell him Cory had died, he rolled over and said, "Oh wow, sorry to hear that babe", rolled back over and went back to sleep. She took her phone called Kevin who was also in London and talked him on the phone all night crying.  I know a lot us talked about "The Quarterback" episode. How the cast felt about it, if it was too soon, what it did to them emotionally. From Naya's telling it seem like it was just as emotionally wrenching and draining as it look. She didn't come right out and say it, but she implies that it was too soon for them. They hadn't really had a chance to grieve Cory personally yet, before they had to actually do it on camera. So what you saw was basically what they were really feeling in that moment. But the show had to go on and they didn't really have a choice. So they did the best they could. Naya said that a lot of the cast talked amongst themselves about Cory, and felt guilty wondering if they could have done something, how did they miss it. Mostly she says, she just feels sad that for whatever reason even though he was always there for everyone else he didn't feel like he could share what he was going through with them. As we suspected the show and the cast never really recovered from losing Cory on a personal level. Season 5 in her words was very stressful. Which may explain the next issue.

Lea-So of course this is what everyone was kind of wanting to know about. Naya tackles it head on, from her perspective of course. Naya says they started off as friends. They hung out together, spa days, dinner, etc. But as time went on, from Naya's perspective  as Santana became a more central character on the show, Lea started getting more and more annoyed with her. They were two very headstrong and competitive people and they just ended up not mixing well. By Season 6, according to her, Lea was not speaking to her at all. Which leads to "the incident".

The Incident-So here is what Naya says happened. They were filming the episode that Chris wrote and was directing (she thinks Chris is awesome and has nothing but great things to say about him.) Anyway, as we remember part of the episode dealt with a dog pound or something so there were a lot of dogs running around the set. Not to mention special guest stars like June Squibb and Tim Conway. She said everyone was a little bit harried. It was the second to last episode of the season and as we already know Season 5 was just brutal for the cast. Anyway, Lea was getting annoyed with the dogs and was asking for hand sanitizer anytime one touched her. (again this is Naya's telling of it). Then Tim Conway, who is a comedy legend by the way, apparently likes to improvise (and if you've seen the Carole Brunnett Show you know he's pretty good at it.) Well everyone was laughing and enjoying seeing this comedy legend do his thing up close and personal. However Lea was annoyed by it. She kept saying, "So are we going to do it like its written now? " Eventually she got fed up with the whole thing and went to her trailer and wouldn't come back out. And they couldn't go on without her because she was in a lot of the scenes. So producers were trying to get her back out on set. At this point now tempers of everyone are on edge for a lot of reasons. Naya said they set up for another shot and she saw one of the producers just kind of sitting there. No one else who was supposed to be in the scene was on the set except her. And now she was pissed. The Glee producers had always told them there job was to show up on time, know your lines, hit your marks. They way she saw it that was what she was doing. And no one else was and in her opinion the producer wasn't doing anything about it. So she went over to him and said "Are you going to do anything about this?" She said he asked her what she meant and she said, why was she the only one from the scene on set? She admittedly got pretty snarky with him and told him it would be great if we would do something, anything about the situation. And she said he lost it on her and screamed, "I've been running this show for six years!" And she replied back, "Yes. Poorly".  And said as soon as she said it she knew she shouldn't have. Now she doesn't say who the producer was. It had to be either Brad or Ryan. My hunch is, it was Brad, but I'm not sure. Anyhoo when she woke up the next morning it was all over the tabloids that she had gotten fired. Which wasn't exactly true. She said the producer told her he needed a break (I guess from her). They were almost to the end of the season anyway. She says they met over the summer and talked and he apologized and  she apologized. She knew she should not have said what she did. She did tell him however, she didn't think her comment warranted a smear campaign. You know all the rumors that she was fired, difficult, etc. She said the producer swore to her that, that did not come from the show. It is clear that Naya thinks the leaks came from Lea, Again, this is her take on it. Anyway, all must of been forgiven because she was back for season 6 and they wrote Santana a pretty big story to go out on. I guess i'm willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt on this one. They were all slogging to the end of a very trying year and season and I can see how everyone was not at their best and was super stressed out. Am I being too generous. I guess i'm just thinking that by that time, that set could not have been a happy place. 

So there you have it! Your abridged version of Sorry, I'm Not Sorry. (I may have saved someone 11.99) And the title actually isn't as snarky as it sounds. At the end of each chapter she does this thing were she lists the things she's sorry for and the things she's not sorry happened and the lessons she learned. I honestly haven't thought this much about this show since it went off the air. But it was kind of nice having a few things confirmed for me and few extra details thrown in.

Edited September 14, 2016 by spiritof76
Might as well give my book recap now while i'm awake!

[RealityCowgirl]

I read it, too. Conversational style felt authentic to her, and I learned about her childhood acting and modeling. Will withhold details for now. I'll just sum it up by saying it's probably about what one would expect of a memoir covering a life that's not yet(?) 30 years.

[caracas1914]

Understandably, it really isn't a tell all book, because, hey, Naya still wants to work as an actress.

For example, she doesn't really address her fall from grace as far as the Producers were concerned regarding the character of Santana.  Yes, she writes about the infamous incident were she was reportedly  kicked off set and subsequently written off the last episode of Season 5, but ever before then, it was obvious she was more than somewhat sidelined.

Something that stood out to me in Season 3 was how much the character of Santana was being built up, arguably she had the most balance of songs/storylines of anyone not named Rachel/Lea.  (Ironically per Naya's POV that was one of the factors that led to the relationship between Naya and Lea cooling off)

The rationale for some fans at the time  of Season 4/5 was that because of the split narrative Naya/Santana inadvertently was a casualty of poor planning by  the incompetent show runners.  However once the narrative shifted completely to NY in Season 5, IIRC Santana was missing for the first 3 All NY episodes and Amber had been brought back for all intents and purposes as the only regular  female lead  besides Lea.  Naya was already marginalized before the bruhaha with Brad.

BTW my favorite quote from the whole book:

Quote

think everyone should have that one relationship where you look back and ask yourself, 'What the hell was I thinking?' You'll learn something and you won't regret it". 

"Unless, of course, that relationship was with someone who had a sizable stash of child porn on his computer. Then, by all means, regret everything."

Priceless!!

Edited September 14, 2016 by caracas1914

[spiritof76]

Yes! That was a good quote! Mark really did seem to be a bit of a mess. 

As for Santana getting sidelined eve before the dust up on set, perhaps if the stuff with Lea was true and she wasn't happy with Naya getting more focus the producers scaled her back to keep the peace? Just speculating. And I also think the lousy planning theory works too. It could have been a bit of both. 

Another thing she didn't write about, didn't she date a Glee writer? I swear that happened. It was kind hush, hush but I remember there was some rumbling about that. Did I imagine that? Maybe that was one of those "I still want to work in this town" stories that got left out. 

[camussie]

Caracas, that is what stood out to me too.  She addressed the incident at the end of season 5 but I also felt like something had to have happened when they first closed down the McKinley narrative.  All signs pointed to Santana and Brittany going to New York and then suddenly we got the rushed they are traveling and Amber/Mercedes was slotted in for those episodes.  IIRC back then Mercedes was only slated for 1 or 2 of the NY episodes and then suddenly she was in and Naya/Santana was out.

As for Cory she contradicted herself a bit.  She said he was "completely sober" through season 3 but she also talked about him taking his first drink in front of all of them at the end of season 2 (my guess is while they were in NYC filming).  She must have meant completely sober as in not doing drugs or ever visibly drunk.  Still what she said fit in with what I always thought happened.  He started off with  the occasional drink and eventually that led back to hard drugs in season 4.  I have always said the Christmas episode that year was the last episode he looked even somewhat healthy to me.  

As far as who comes out the worst in this book - no doubt about it Big Sean and Mark.  I would actually say Mark comes across worse but that is probably because I always thought he came across as a skeeze both in playing Puck and off screen.  

Edited September 15, 2016 by camussie

[Pink ranger]

Actor Tahj Mowry comes off quite bad too. He and Naya dated as teenagers and he dumped her for not being his " financial equal".

As a big fan of Smart Guy back in the day and always thinking of him as an adorable kid, that stung.

[camussie]

Taj was a teenager (I think even a high schooler) when he did that and teenagers can be self absorbed shallow creatures which is why I don't think he came off as badly as Big Sean and Mark.  

Edited September 18, 2016 by camussie

[Spartan Girl]

I just read her book and I liked it too!  My jaw dropped when it was revealed that she was little Gwendolyn on Family Matters.  They really do grow up so fast...

On 9/14/2016 at 1:45 PM, caracas1914 said:

think everyone should have that one relationship where you look back and ask yourself, 'What the hell was I thinking?' You'll learn something and you won't regret it". 

"Unless, of course, that relationship was with someone who had a sizable stash of child porn on his computer. Then, by all means, regret everything."

Bwa!  My favorite quote too.

[Lovecat]

Well this was an interesting story to wake up to this morning...Naya was arrested last night for domestic battery.

http://people.com/tv/naya-rivera-arrested-west-virginia/

[truthaboutluv]

21 minutes ago, Lovecat said:

Well this was an interesting story to wake up to this morning...Naya was arrested last night for domestic battery.

http://people.com/tv/naya-rivera-arrested-west-virginia/

I saw the headline as I was heading to bed. At the time, it was just that she'd been arrested but People didn't have any more details. And my first thought was it was either some type of physical altercation or drugs. 

[Casual Viewing]

On 11/26/2017 at 5:59 AM, Lovecat said:

Well this was an interesting story to wake up to this morning...Naya was arrested last night for domestic battery.

http://people.com/tv/naya-rivera-arrested-west-virginia/

You know, with all the news  about abusive producers/actors & pedophiles emerging in the past few weeks, and the fact that Naya was a child actor, one has to wonder if she too was a victim of the system and it screwed her up.  There are far too many former child actors whose lives have fallen apart with drugs,, alcohol, eating disorders etc. etc. for there not to be a very dark underbelly to Hollywood that played a key role in their troubled lives. 

 

Seems like quite a few of the Glee actors had/have their personal demons.  It makes rewatching Glee sad now.

[auntiemel]

1 hour ago, Casual Viewing said:

 It makes rewatching Glee sad now.

I was just thinking that the other day. It really colors the rewatch.

[buffy11bnl]

On 11/27/2017 at 10:36 PM, auntiemel said:

I was just thinking that the other day. It really colors the rewatch.

Ugh, same.  Between Cory’s death, Mark and now Naya it has become impossible for me to rewatch full episodes.  Even some of the songs I used to love (notably Mark’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You”) have been permanently taken out of rotation. 

[aradia22]

Anyone else find this tres awk? She wouldn't be my first choice for Anita because the role requires more heavy lifting. But for this song, the vocals could be worse. It's just a little pop-y and it doesn't show sustained breath control. There are a lot of levels because she's not controlling her voice well. My biggest issue is she's not acting the song so much as doing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President." What is this? Her eyes are flat/angry and it seems like she has lip injections but she's also pouting a lot. This is supposed to be a fun (if sarcastic and incisive) song. 

[Cranberry]

I could only watch about 20 seconds of that before the secondhand embarrassment got to be too much. She looked so much better to me while she was on Glee, too.

[Lovecat]

Somewhere Rita Moreno got a sudden pain in her neck and doesn't know why.  

[auntiemel]

Somewhere there's a vocal coach who just had stop payments put on his checks from both Naya and Fergie.

[shoregirl]

5 minutes ago, auntiemel said:

Somewhere there's a vocal coach who just had stop payments put on his checks from both Naya and Fergie.

Or Naya stopped going to a vocal coach 

[auntiemel]

1 minute ago, shoregirl said:

Or Naya stopped going to a vocal coach 

That was a joke/reference to Fergie's recent well-publicized and highly-criticized rendition of the National Anthem, performed in that same try-hard sexy-breathy style.