Grey's Backstage Drama Update: T.R. Knight Wants Out

Say what you will about Grey's Anatomy's sex-with-ghosts on-screen drama, the never-ending backstage brouhahas sure are compelling, right?

Just weeks after the show suffered a black eye for cutting short Brooke Smith's run and the lesbian Erica Hahn storyline — and more than two years after Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington got the ball rolling with their infamous backstage row — a rumor made rounds on Monday evening claiming that original cast member T.R. Knight (aka George) hasn't attended table reads since this season's Episode 2, "is pissed and miserable," and "has quit." Come Tuesday, a new spin surfaced — that Knight has formally asked out of his contract.

All these rumblings about Knight come on the heels of at least one recent blind item suggesting that a Grey's player has been rubbing cast and producers the wrong way, and as such has been unofficially excised from the show (as evidenced by conspicuously scarce screen time).

Asked to address the new and specific rumor about Knight packing his dressing room and bidding his hair and make-up people farewell, a show rep tells TVGuide.com, "T.R. has never walked off set in the middle of filming. He attended the table read [on Monday] and will be shooting this week, like any other week of production."

But beyond this week could be a different story. Sources tell EW's Ausiello that Knight has asked to be released from his contract, and that all bosses concerned just might say yes. "They're working out the details now," an insider tells my best frenemy.

Knight, of course, played a role in the aforementioned October 2006 altercation between Dempsey and Washington, who went toe-to-toe when the latter referred to a then-closeted Knight using a gay epithet. Knight proceeded to come out, and by some accounts then used ABC's public embarrassment to finagle a stronger storyline for George, who in short order was fought over by Izzie and Callie.