I have a theory: Ryan Murphy is currently entrenched in a high-stakes, one-man game (maybe even … The Game?) called Glee Celebrity Bingo, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes, i.e. cast every celeb who can halfway hold a tune, to win.

That would help explain, anyway, why Gwyneth Paltrow’s name is the latest to pop up as a guest star on Glee season 2, a season already more sprinkled with stars than a bowl of Lucky Charms in space. (Javier Bardem. Britney Spears. Carol Burnett. Meat Loaf. … BINGO!)

According to E! Online, Paltrow is currently in talks to play a substitute teacher/Will love interest in two episodes this November. Here’s the setup: “Mr. Schuester gets sick, so Gwyneth’s character steps in and takes over the glee club. The kids love her, and Will starts to fall for her…complicating his relationship with Emma.”

Wait a second: Coming between Will and Emma? I thought that was John Stamos’s job!

If the rumor proves true and Gwyneth takes over glee club, rest assured (or unrest anxiously, your choice): She will sing, and she will dance. Most Glee fans who aren’t literally in high school will recall Paltrow’s most notable public singing stint opposite Huey Lewis in Duets circa the year 2000.

As a film, Duets is objectively terrible. This is just a fact, and you’re better off accepting it. But it’s also a fact that Paltrow’s got some pipes on her. Pipes she will also put on display this January in Country Strong, so named because Female Crazy Heart felt a little too “on the nose.”

Appearing on a musical TV show two months before your Oscar-seeking fictional musical biopic comes out in theaters? That’s PR wizardry at its finest. But is Gwyneth the right choice for Glee, and for a Will Schuester love interest, short-lived as her appearance is rumored to be?

The Emma lover inside me is screaming “Noooooo!” But the hardcore Gleek inside me … well, it’s shaking its head and calmly mouthing the word, “No,” too. Go figure. 

But what matters is what YOU think. Let’s talk, and vote, it out.

(Image courtesy of WENN)

Meghan Carlson

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

Meghan hails from Walla Walla, WA, the proud home of the world’s best sweet onions and Adam West, the original Batman. An avid grammarian and over-analyzer, you can usually find her thinking too hard about plot devices in favorites like The OfficeIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and How I Met Your Mother. In her spare time, Meghan enjoys drawing, shopping, trying to be funny (and often failing), and not understanding the whole Twilight thing. She’s got a BA in English and Studio Art from Whitman College, which makes her a professional arguer, daydreamer, and doodler.