Ryan Murphy, the creator of shows like American Horror Story and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, has threatened to litigate showrunner Warren Leight (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) for the Writers Guild of America Strike. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Leight is a strike captain on the East Coast and is a member of the Strike Rules Compliance Committee.
These litigations come from a letter from Ryan Murphy’s lawyer from Murphy addressed to the Writer’s Guild of America. The tension between the two starts when Leight posted on his Twitter that the cast of American Horror Story would “be blackballed in Murphy-land” if they chose not to cross the picket lines to work with Murphy on his projects. Murphy, who has three shows in the midst of production, called out Weight on his post, saying that it was “absolute nonsense” and “categorically false.”
Leight did release an apology and stated that his post was “unsubstantiated” and “completely false and inaccurate” after Murphy’s letter from his attorney was sent to the WGA, to which the union leadership confronted Leight regarding the matter. Leight has also deleted the tweet since then. WGA East officers have given a memo to their strike captions regarding the potential litigations, to which the memo also contains the news that Weight has stepped back from co-chair of the Strike Rules Compliance Committee responsibilities and duties as a captain.
Three out of the four TV series in production on the East Coast include Murphy’s American Sports Story, American Horror Stories, and American Horror Story. Murphy was reported to have crossed the picket lines twice in New York. Due to his membership in the WGA West, he has been allowed to continue production on his projects, so long as the work does not include services that writers give.