Last year, the cast of Glee sang the National Anthem at the World Series, but this year the spotlight is on Amber Riley. The 24-year-old L.A. native will be performing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star game all by herself.

As super fans know by her portrayal as Mercedes Jones on the hit Fox series, Amber's got an incredible voice and will undoubtedly nail her rendition of the notoriously difficult song.

But we're wondering why the talented actress was asked to appear alone at the celebrated event. Could this be a clue that her solo album may finally be on its way?

Matthew Morrison's record is due out this fall, and with so many amazing singers on the cast of the show, we expect more solo CDs to be released in the not-so-distant future. We can't wait to find out who's next.

Amber will be joined by many A-list celebs at the All-Star game, including Colbie Caillat, who will sing 'God Bless America.' The performance will be broadcast on Fox (naturally) on Tuesday, July 13 at 8 p.m. ET, so set your DVRs, Gleeks!

A deal to bring Glee to the big screen isn't in the works (yet) but the cast has already signed on for three -- yes three! -- movies.

According to Hollywood Life, McKinley's best singers signed a contract before they shot the pilot episode that states, "[The actor] hereby grants Fox three exclusive, irrevocable options to engage [the actor] in up to, respectively, three feature length motion pictures."

Sweet! Gleeks everywhere, including American Idol's Katie Stevens, must be stoked. She dished to us, "I love Glee. I love Rachel. I think she's hilarious. Sue Sylvester has to be my favorite."

As for next season, Katie says, "I would love for Rachel and Finn to get back together. I like them. I was really mad about the Jesse thing."

In this week's Glee episode called "Laryngitis," someone -- obviously -- loses their voice. That someone is Rachel and it's hilarious to watch.

Puck's also losing more than his Mohawk, and in the first sneak peek clip, the nerd squad dumps him into the trash. Can you say role reversal?

It's here in the discarded lunches and crumbled up history notes that Puck has a social revelation on how to bring back his cool factor. "I don't need to be a Cheerio. I just need to date one," he plots and behold, the beginning of Puck and Mercedes' love story. Our bet is it's a short one.

Also this week, Rachel's on a mission to force her gleemates to bring a better A-game. During practice she tells the group, "I have chosen Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" because it's about overcoming obstacles and beating the odds. In my case, the obstacle is you, my lackluster teammates who refuse to carry their own weight."

"Big girls are sexy too, and don't let them tell u any different! I'm representin!!! ;)" Amber Riley proudly tweeted last week and then posted this photo of herself at from this year's TV Land Awards.

Darn straight, girl! On last week's Glee episode, Amber brought that same self-confidence to her character when the Cheerios', psycho-yet-hilarious coach Sue Sylvester pushed Kurt and Mercedes to lose some weight.

Mercedes was told she had one week to either drop ten pounds or get kicked off the team. This lead to a seriously unhealthy crash diet that ultimately caused M to pass out in school. With a little help from Quinn, Mercedes realizes how beautiful she already is. Then, in our opinion, Amber gave her best performance yet with Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful' and encouraged her classmates to stop stressing about having too many pimples and not enough friends.

This seriously resonated with both Glee's audience, who made Mercedes a trending topic, and Amber, too. She tweeted, "I hope all of you know how Beautiful u r!"

Whether or not the First Family are Gleekaholics remains a national mystery.

"[President Obama] was saying that he wouldn't let either one of the kids or both of the kids watch [Glee] yet because they were a little too young," dishes the show's executive producer Brad Falchuk.

But another producer on the show, Ian Brennan, begs to differ. "I think Sasha, the younger [daughter] does watch it. I think Malia, the older daughter, hasn't," he says...but then confuses himself a bit. "I don't know who's watching it. I would encourage all four of them to."

Brad then chimes in, "I would encourage them to get Congress to mandate it into some kind of law that everybody in the country had to watch it."

If you can't sing like the members of William McKinley's glee club, you can at least dress like them.

Fox Licensing, along with Glee's creator Ryan Murphy, are working on a line of Glee-inspired clothes and accessories. You might be able to buy a hoodie that Mercedes would love, a Rachel Berry -approved argyle sweater, a white peasant blouse that's so Quinn, or a shoulder bag that Kurt would go crazy for, or a rocker tee that Puck would...well, you get the idea.

The line will be available Fall 2010, which makes us wonder if that's when the second season of the show will premiere.