Page 24 - People (February 2020)

Scoop

Celebrates

21 Seasons of SVU

470 Episodes
& Counting
For more, pick
up the new People
special edition Law
& Order: SVU: Prime
Time’s Longest-
Running Drama.
With friend and
former costar Chris
Meloni in 2000.

In 1999, when Mariska Hargitay landed the lightning in a bottle. I had a optimistic about the
role of Olivia Benson, a detective with the different kind of clarity than I’d future, I couldn’t have
Special Victims Unit of the New York City ever had in any audition. Then ever dreamed that we’d
Police Department on Law & Order: SVU, I met Chris Meloni. They be here in this moment
she had no idea the impact the show would called our names together, in television history.
have. Now the Emmy winner, 56, reflects and the rest is history. It really Do you ever think
on the past two decades and how the role felt like fate, very meant to be. about the end of SVU?
has changed her life. ‘EACH YEAR Do you identify I hope it doesn’t go on
Hard to believe it’s been 21 MARISKA’S with your character? forever. I hope that one day we’ll go, “Wait,
seasons. Do you remember INFLUENCE HAS I felt so deeply connected to what? That doesn’t happen.” That this kind
your first audition? GROWN, AND Olivia Benson from the second of sexual violence goes away, physical and
Like it was yesterday. I had SHE HAS BECOME I read it. And yet as actors, sexual violence. But right now I am still
just finished a 13-episode arc AN ICON’ we’ve seen so many projects staggered by how many people come up to
on ER. I’d had the time of my —SHOW CREATOR come and go and not move me and say, “Your show changed my life.
life. I remembered saying, DICK WOLF forward, so we have to protect Your show is the reason that I reported.
“Oh, God, I’ve been on the best show on ourselves in terms of what we hope for. Your show is the reason I didn’t wash off
television—where am I going to go?” I think that the way to describe it is that the DNA.” That is the most gratifying part
Then this audition came, and it was like even if I had been wildly, recklessly of my job. — P A T R I C K R O G E R S

Admissions Scandal Update

Lori Loughlin’s House for Sale CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: CRAIG BLANKENHORN/NBCU PHOTO BANK/GETTY IMAGES; VICTORIA WILL; THE AGENCY; CHARLES KRUPA/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

As Lori Loughlin, 55, and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, 56, await their
Future
Unknown fate in the college admissions scandal, they are once again hoping to find a buyer
Loughlin and for their Bel Air home. Selling the 12,000-sq.-ft. mansion—listed for $28.65
Giannulli leaving million (it was listed for $35 million in 2017)—could mean extra cash ahead of
federal court their criminal trial on charges of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to
in Boston on commit federal program bribery, but a source close to
April 3. Right: the couple insists their motives are not financial.
the couple’s
six-bedroom “Mossimo has been buying, renovating and selling
mansion. houses for over 20 years. It has nothing to do with the
trial.” Another source adds, “They don’t need the money.
They are stressed about a lot of things, but money isn’t
one of them.” A trial date has not yet been set.

24 February 17, 2020