‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star Reveals Huge Gamble She Took During Auditions

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay revealed the huge gamble she took at her auditions for the gritty police procedural — and the fact that the whole scenario unfolded directly in front of series creator Dick Wolf.

During an appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast with host Alex Cooper, the 61-year-old actress confessed that she marched into her first interview and instructed Wolf to send another actress home: “This is my part.”

Hargitay explained that, at the time, she hadn’t really grasped just how big Wolf was in the television industry — but she knew the risk was worth it after she read the script for the first time.

“So I read it and I said, and I never had this experience, ‘I’ve never loved anything more. This is my show. This is the most progressive show I’ve ever seen. I love it. I need it. I have to do the show,’” she said, and with that in mind, she went for her second callback audition in front of Wolf — who had already earned a slew of nominations and one Emmy for the original “Law & Order” series between 1992 and 1998.

“And then I had the audition and then I got a call back and on the second callback, Dick Wolf was there,” she said. “I see another girl in the waiting room and I’m like, ‘Oh no, this is not happening.’ So I walked in there and I said, ‘Listen to me.’ I didn’t know that Dick Wolf was like, king of television. And I go, ‘I don’t know who that is out there, but let me tell you something. This is my part.'”

Wolf, she said, seemed more amused than anything else. “He’s like, ‘Oh, is it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah. So you tell her to go home.'”

Once the audition was over, Wolf gave Hargitay his notes on her performance. “I’m like, ‘Those are good notes. Thank you.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, are they, are they good notes?'”

Hargitay landed the role of Olivia Benson on the long-running drama, which explores sex crimes in Manhattan — but she admitted that no one actually sent the other actress home that day, mainly because she wasn’t there to read for the same part.

“Then it turns out that the beautiful, talented actress that was in the waiting room was there for another part. And she was in the pilot, and she’s a fantastic actor, actress. I was like, ‘Get her out of here.’ And of course, you know, we’re friends now for life,” Hargitay said, although she did not reveal the name of the actress in question.

Supreme Court Says States Can Cut Off Medicaid Funds For Planned Parenthood

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that South Carolina is allowed to ban Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood.

Justices voted 6-3 to reverse the Fourth Circuit’s ruling that an individual Medicaid user could bring a federal civil rights lawsuit over Planned Parenthood being excluded from Medicaid in South Carolina.

Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the court’s opinion, saying that Medicaid law does not clearly give patients the right to sue. He noted that states have the authority to decide which health care providers are “qualified” and can participate in Medicaid — for example, doctors who have committed felonies may be excluded. Planned Parenthood can challenge its exclusion from Medicaid through South Carolina’s administrative process, Gorsuch said.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson penned a dissent that was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

“At a minimum, it will deprive Medicaid recipients in South Carolina of their only meaningful way of enforcing a right that Congress has expressly granted to them,” she wrote.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a Republican, previously argued that “taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize abortion providers who are in direct opposition to their beliefs.”

South Carolina cited its own state law prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars for abortion. Federal law also prohibits Medicaid funds from paying for most but not all abortions — the funds are permitted in the cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger.

Planned Parenthood has two clinics in South Carolina.

About Us

Virtus (virtue, valor, excellence, courage, character, and worth)

Vincit (conquers, triumphs, and wins)