'G.C.B.' backstage drama: Darren Star off the set of ABC's new series

Darren Star, one of the executive producers of ABC's midseason series "G.C.B.," is no longer on the show's set and has been told not to communicate with the show's other EPs.

Star ("Sex and the City," "Melrose Place") is still working on the show, but any notes he has on scripts or other aspects of the show are being funneled through ABC Studios, Deadline reports, rather than going directly to creator Robert Harling and showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts.

Why? According to Deadline, Star and Harling -- a veteran screenwriter who's doing his first series -- had a falling out, in part over the way ABC was positioning "G.C.B." as a show from Star. (Harling wrote the play "Steel Magnolias" and the movie adaptation, as well as the screenplays for "The First Wives Club" and "The Evening Star," which he also directed.)

Continuing tension led ABC Studios to step in and ask Star to give his notes to the studio -- although Deadline says the arrangement is likely temporary.

"G.C.B.," based on the book "Good Christian B***hes" by Kim Gatlin, stars Leslie Bibb as a former mean girl who moves home to Dallas after falling on hard times. She arrives to find that her old frenemies (Kristin Chenoweth, Miriam Shor, Jennifer Aspen and Marisol Nichols) are still carrying grudges.