Ryan Murphy Threatened to Sue WGA Strike Captain.
Ryan Murphy, in a letter from his attorney to the leadership of the Writers Guild of America, threatened litigation against Warren Leight, an East Coast strike captain and Strike Rules Compliance Committee member who has subsequently forfeited those positions.
The flap started June 21, when Leight, a former Law & Order: SVU showrunner and playwright, alleged in a tweet that crewmembers on Murphy’s American Horror Story had told him that “they’ll be blackballed in Murphy-land” if they don’t cross the Writers Guild’s picket lines. At the time, a spokesperson for Murphy called Leight’s tweet “absolute nonsense” and “categorically false.”
After Murphy’s attorney Craig Emanuel sent the letter to the WGA, union leadership met with Leight, who deleted the tweet and issued an apology and retraction in which he called his initial tweet “unsubstantiated” and “completely false and inaccurate.” Reps for Murphy declined further comment on the letter sent to the WGA.
Following its meeting with Leight, the WGA East officers sent a memo about the threatened litigation to its strike captains, which The Hollywood Reporter has obtained (full transcript below). According to the memo, Leight has stepped back from his duties as co-chair of the Strike Rules Compliance Committee and as a captain.
Sources say the WGA’s letter followed a regularly scheduled strategy meeting with WGA East leadership, including Michael Winship, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen and Chris Kyle, and strike captains that turned contentious. “We were talking about themed pickets. Nobody discussed Warren and everyone was like, ‘When is someone going to talk about Ryan Murphy?’” says one East Coast strike captain. “People were pissed. We wanted an explanation and answer about why Warren lost his captain’s hat and what happened. He was our leader.”
Leight, an outspoken New York-based WGA member, had been dubbed as the East Coast’s “Air Traffic Controller” for his efforts leading the so-called Rapid Response Team that directs striking writers to filming locations. Leight declined to comment for this story.
Multiple sources tell THR that only four scripted TV series remain in production on the East Coast — with three of them produced by Murphy: American Horror Story, American Sports Story and the episodic anthology American Horror Stories (the fourth is Lionsgate/Starz’s Power Book 2: Ghost). In addition to being a member of the WGA West, Murphy is a producer and director and is permitted to continue working provided he is not rendering services performed by writers. Multiple sources say Murphy was spotted twice last week in New York crossing WGA picket lines. Sources close to Murphy say he has not been in New York for the past month.
“He is following the letter of the law and going to set as a producer/showrunner/director and says he’s not doing writing — and no guild can convict somebody
