Glee‘s Lea Michele wrote in her new book, Brunette Ambition, that she began drinking “as a toddler.” Clarifying the comment to Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately, Lea said she realizes that seems crazy when taken out of context.
“I’m Italian, so it was like, at the dinner table it would be Pellegrino, a jug of soda and a huge thing of wine,” she explained. “So, everyone was just drinking wine, like it was part of, like, you know, what you would have along with your dinner.”
Lea added she didn’t realize her family’s drinking habits were unusual until she dined at her boyfriend’s home in high school: “I’d be like, ‘Where’s the wine? Pass the wine.’ At like 17, and they were like, ‘This girl’s crazy.'”
Even though drinking as a young teen or child — let alone “as a toddler” — isn’t widely accepted in our culture, Lea believes learning to imbibe responsibly at a young age served her well in adolescence and adulthood.
“When they make it so you can have it, then you don’t want it,” she rationalized. “It’s when they’re like, ‘You can’t have this,’ kids are like, ‘We gotta get that booze.'”
Do you agree with Lea’s argument?
