Lea Michele And Ryan Murphy Hold Memorial For Cory Monteith On 'Glee' Set For Cast And Crew

by UInterviewJuly 26, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Lea Michele and Ryan Murphy held a private memorial on Thursday for Glee star, Cory Monteith, who died almost two weeks ago of a drug overdose at the age of 31. The memorial took place on the Paramount studio lot, where much of Glee production takes place.

“Today, Ryan Murphy and Lea Michele gathered the cast, crew, and producers of Glee, along with colleagues from the network and studio, to share memories and music in an emotional celebration of the life of Cory Monteith. We thank the public for their continued outpouring of love and support as we grieve our friend and colleague during this difficult time,” Fox wrote in a statement.

Over 150 of Monteith’s friends, costars and family members reportedly gathered in Los Angeles, listened to music and celebrated the young actor. Co-stars Kevin McHale, Darren Criss, and Chord Overstreet were in attendance, according to People, and all wore small black ribbons in honor of Monteith. Criss previously wore a similar ribbon in honor of his co-star to a New York City screening of his new film Girl Most Likely.

The memorial was a chance for crew and cast alike to be together and support each other, something showrunner Murphy expressed is a top priority moving forward.

“The thing that we ultimately found was that our cast and crew wanted to be together, they wanted to go back to work, they wanted to sort of be in a place where they could all remember and discuss Cory sooner than later,” Murphy told E! in an interview following Monteith’s death.

Monteith’s Glee co-stars have been slowly breaking their silence on their loss, though Michele, who had been dating Monteith for over a year, has yet to address the death personally (instead, she has released statements asking for privacy).

“He was he greatest dude you’d ever met…Never met anyone who said anything bad about him…I spent more time with him than I have with anyone in my family the last three or four years…We’re a family,” Overstreet said in an emotional interview with E!

“I’ll never forget all the laughs we shared or the faces we made after awkward interview questions. Love and miss you, buddy,” wrote Chris Colfer on Instagram on Thursday, accompanying a screenshot of the two actors (below).

As for Fox’s hit show, Murphy has announced that Glee will return later than scheduled with three new episodes in the fall. The first two are a Beatles tribute that has been in the works for some time, and the third episode will act as a tribute to Monteith. After that, Murphy plans to put the show on a hiatus while the cast and crew decide what their next step should be.

“Now…after we shoot this third episode we’re going to go down for an extended hiatus, where we figure out the future of the show because we were really trying to deal with him and take care of him,” Murphy told E!

Murphy also stated in the interview that he would begin to work on a tribute episode after a memorial for the cast and crew, meaning the writers of Glee could be working on the episode this week.

It is unclear whether or not the show will, in fact, continue after those three episodes, as Murphy revealed that they did consider taking the show off the air following Monteith’s passing.