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Ryan Murphy Says Don’t Take Him Literally; New ‘American Horror Story’ Won’t Feature Donald Trump

They serve a lot of booze on "Watch What Happens Live," and three martinis will make you say things.
Ryan Murphy Publicists Awards Luncheon, Cocktail Reception, Los Angeles, USA - 24 Feb 2017
Ryan Murphy at the Publicist Guild Awards
Buckner/Variety/REX/Shutterstock

The new season of “American Horror Story” won’t be as political as we thought.

Creator Ryan Murphy made headlines last week when he told Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” host Andy Cohen that Season 7 would be about the recent presidential election. He even teased that Donald Trump might be a character.

But that’s not quite true, Murphy said on Friday. He told the audience at the Publicists Guild Awards Luncheon in Beverly Hills that he didn’t mean it literally.

READ MORE: ‘American Horror Story’ Election? Ryan Murphy Reveals New Theme for Season 7

“The themes of ‘American Horror Story’ have always been allegories,” he said, while accepting his award for Television Showmanship of the Year. “You will not see [Donald] Trump and [Hillary] Clinton as characters on the show.”

“Watch What Happens Live” is known for serving its guests plenty of booze, which Murphy blames for the slight misdirect. “They gave me three martinis in 20 minutes! That’s not good.”

Of course, on stage Friday at the Beverly Hilton, Murphy couldn’t help but make another joke, after “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” star Sarah Paulson handed him the award. As she stood nearby, he quipped, “Now as I look over at Sarah Paulson, I think of Kellyanne Conway. I don’t know! I might be rewriting!”

READ MORE: ‘American Horror Story’ Renewed for Two More Seasons at FX

Meanwhile, Murphy also took offense at a tweet that he saw from a “straight, white critic,” who wrote – in response to the original news – “Sometimes you just need to say no.”

Murphy said he considered it a message to FX CEO John Landgraf “that I apparently needed to be put in my place and quick. This is after not even a word of the season has been written. Was this a white wine spritzer after a hard day at the office reviewing ‘Big Little Lies’ tweet? Maybe. But later that week I had dinner with my friend Lena Dunham and we were talking about this tweet and we came to the conclusion that this idea of infantilizing, of ‘stay in your box,’ of not expressing yourself or what you’re interested in is something that gay people and women and people of color have to endure all the time in this world and this industry.”

Murphy said that exchange, as well as launching his new foundation (which aims to improve the number of women, gay people, people of color, and transgender people working behind the camera) has given him new focus. “[There are] a heartbreaking number of individuals who are struggling for recognition in our industry. And they are not being heard and they are not being utilized, and I want to in my life help them as much as I can… this is a new form of showmanship and this is the one that I want to embrace.”

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