For 24 seasons, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” has connected viewers with a disturbing case.
But the on-screen drama is nothing compared to what goes on behind the scenes at the NBC juggernaut — the longest-running prime-time live series in history.
According to Los Angeles Times reportIn June, David Graziano, who came on as host of “SVU,” was accused of abusive behavior toward script coordinator Haley Cameron, leading him to leave the series.
“David Graziano is very unprofessional, egocentric and immature. I’ve been in this industry for a long time and I’ve never experienced such pure, white-male misogyny,” Cameron said in a post on a listserv shared among script coordinators.
Describing the Graziano-era production, also known as ‘Graz’, as an ‘absolute disorganized horror’, he added: ‘I urge you, especially women, to put yourselves in the same dire situation as I was. I ask you to think twice before putting yourself in that situation.”
Alafair Hall, Graziano’s spokesman, denied Cameron’s claims in a statement to the Times.
“The implication that Mr. Graziano created a hostile work environment or was sexist, inappropriate or unprofessional is false,” he said.
This is not the first time the presenter has been accused of workplace misconduct. The trail of complaints runs through Graziano’s resume, which includes previous stints on USA Network’s “In Plain Sight,” Fox’s “Le to Me” and CBS All Access’s “Coyote.”
“Graz is very toxic and I have never run away from work so quickly in my life [worked] for him. Stay away,” wrote Amy Hartman, a script coordinator under Graziano on Coyote, on the same thread as Cameron’s post.
“Every day I was in fight or flight,” Hartman told the Times. “I’m totally amazed that he’s up and running again [‘SVU’]”.
While Graziano admitted in a statement that Coyote was a “difficult person to work with,” he denied making inappropriate comments about women or people of color.
While working on Lie to Me, Graziano was furious with the junior writer over the casting decision, according to two people who were present at the time and a third show employee who heard about it the next day. “He fired her right there and told her to ‘pack your things and get the f–k out,'” one of them recalled.
Hall denied the account, saying that Graziano “told the recalcitrant writer in a stern voice to leave the room.”
Meanwhile, Graziano, the male writer on Lie to Me, “talks about how he hits on women in the writers’ room and how he does it.”
A former assistant, who worked under Graziano on “Clearly,” who asked not to be named, said Graziano “talked about women’s bodies and what he wanted to do with them” and joked that he “wanted to hook up with him.” me.”
While the former assistant worked as a full-time nanny for Graziano’s twins, she said she threw him a pair of jeans and demanded he buy five more.
“Mr. Graziano never threw anything at an employee,” Hall said in a statement.
But it’s not just women who have accused Graziano of creating a toxic work environment.
David James, who worked as script coordinator on Coyote, described it as “the worst job I’ve ever had in Hollywood”.
“People always needed a moment,” James recalls. “There was a lot of crying in that office; was every day.”
Paloma Lamb, an assistant writer on “Coyote,” said Graziano would even complain about getting lunch orders wrong. “If he had the wrong tortilla chips, he would be furious,” she said. Also, Lamb added, “He was always commenting on women’s looks.”
Describing the culture of Coyote under Graziano as “a very masculine workplace,” one writer noted that “he took more leeway to bounce ideas off female writers than he did male writers.”
But Hall said: “Mr. Graziano adamantly refuses to discriminate against, mistreat or dismiss women writers.
“I haven’t had a negative experience with him,” Jessica Butler, a former TV writer who worked with Graziano on “In Plain Sight,” told the Times. Still, she added, “I don’t want to say anything to diminish other women’s experiences.”
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