How Ryan Murphy Torments the Glee Cast

USMagazine, Friday, December 9, 2011, 7:45am (PST)

Ryan Murphy isn't exactly the most popular guy at McKinley High.

The 46-year-old Glee co-creator is making life miserable for the cast of the hit FOX show, multiple insiders tell the new issue of Us Weekly (out now).

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"Things are really bad on set," a show source says. "The cast talks about how much they love Ryan, but they have grown to hate him."

Explains another, "He has bad mood swings and can be really mean."

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Harry Shum Jr., 29, who plays Mike Chang, recently admitted to Us that "the 16-hour days are a bit rough." The brutal work schedule has gotten so bad that a source says Lea Michele, 25, is taking action.

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"The cast bas been speaking about banding together against him, and Lea is leading the charge." (Michele's rep denies any friction.)

Confronting Murphy can have its repercussions, as Michele learned when she told Murphy she didn't want to go on the cast's 2011 multi-city summer tour (for which they had only four days to rehearse).

"He asked her which of her friends she wanted him to fire," says an insider (a claim Michele's rep denies). His implied target: powerhouse vocalist Amber Riley, 25, "because she's one of Lea's closet friends."

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That's not the only point of contention. Despite Glee's massive success, the cast doesn't see a dime from the shows iTunes sales and were all denied raises for the current season.

For more on the mutiny at Glee -- including how Murphy made Dianna Agron's character became utterly unlikable, why he yelled at recurring guest star Kristin Chenoweth, and much more -- pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, out now!

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