‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ To Take On Harvey Weinstein Scandal
No big surprise here, but NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, known for its use of “ripped from the headlines” storylines, will use the Harvey Weinstein scandal as inspiration for an episode later this season.
However, the episode won’t be set in the entertainment biz; it will focus on the airline industry.
Executive producer Michael Chernuchin told Entertainment Weekly, which first reported the Weinstein storyline, that the writers decided instead to explore the “boys club” of airline pilots. “It’s a real important episode about the rape culture in an industry,” he said, “and we wanted to try stretch the law to criminalize that sort of environment.”
SVU writers were already working on the storyline when the Weinstein scandal broke.
Law & Order: SVU also was planning an episode inspired by Donald Trump for last season, but it never aired.
In the “Unstoppable” episode, the Trump-esque character, played by Gary Cole, is a wealthy and boorish man who makes a run for the White House, but his plan might be thwarted by a woman who accuses him of raping her.
“Unstoppable” first was slated for October 12, then pushed to October 26 and then postponed until after the elections and slated for November 16, but it quietly was pulled after Trump won the election November 8. NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt told Deadline in an interview during the TCA summer press tour that the episode “is probably never going to air.”
The series also was prepping an episode inspired by the Roger Ailes-Gretchen Carlson sexual harassment scandal at Fox News.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs Wednesdays at 9 PM on NBC.
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