‘Glee’ season 5 notes: Amber Riley, Damian McGinty, and Dot-Marie Jones

We’re going to start this “Glee” season 5 article with a pair of additional tributes to the late Cory Monteith, but we will be ending here with what is something a little bit more hopeful and optimistic.

In beginning with Amber Riley, what we have from the actress responsible for Mercedes Jones (who is no longer a series regular for the first time ever) is some proof that a good many members of the show’s cast have actually gotten together recently to try and talk out everything that they have been through as of late … and it has been quite a bit. Just take a look at what she wrote in a new post on her Twitter account, her first time addressing the news since it first broke:

“Yesterday I got to sit with my Glee family and remember a man I considered a brother and friend. With a very heavy heart, RIP Cory Monteith  Continued prayer for his family and Lea. Sendings hugs to all you gleeks”

Also, we have a video below via “Extra” with Damian McGinty, who follows Jane Lynch as one of the few people to speak out on television about Cory. He said many kind things about him, and while he may not have worked on the show for as long as Amber, it was his first major break through into American television after “The Glee Project.” Not only that, but his first scene he filmed was with Cory.

Finally, we’ll close here with some happier news for whenever the show does resume filming: Dot-Marie Jones will be back for some more work as Coach Beiste, which she finally confirmed. We imagine in some way that her third straight Emmy nomination as a guest actress helped in some way to solidify her position as someone that the show really cannot afford to lose. She has yet to win for a role, and admittedly, her best shot may have come with her emotional abuse story last year.

If you do want to watch Lynch’s emotional take on Cory from “The Tonight Show” last night, you can do so over here.

Photo: Fox