lawandorder

Sarah Palin, a media gadfly who seems to have found more things to be offended about on television than the Parents Television Council, seems to pop up every time there is a joke about her and her family.

This time, Ellen, a character with Down syndrome voiced by actress Andrea Fay Friedman who also has Down syndrome, goes on a date with Chris and says that her mother is "the former Governor of Alaska." This sent the Palin family into an anger spiral that prompted her to trash the show and characterize it as an attack on her young son Trig, who also has Down syndrome, and everyone suffering from mental illness.

However, what Palin and the rest of the outraged among us fail to realize is that they suffer from a far greater disability: a lack of a sense of humor.

Rest easy, 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' fans. Despite a story published on Friday (and later yanked offline) in Australia's Courier-Mail newspaper, Christopher Meloni is not quitting his day job as Det. Elliot Stabler on 'SVU.' At least, that's what his boss says.

'SVU' executive producer Neal Baer debunked the rumor in a tweet. Asked by a fan if the story about Meloni's departure was true, Baer simply replied, "No." To another fan's similar question, he replied, "Don't believe everything you read in the papers!"

The original article purportedly quoted Meloni as saying that he'd be leaving the show at the end of the 2010-11 season to focus on theater and film, and that he felt 12 years on the show would be enough. It also purportedly quoted his TV partner Mariska Hargitay as saying she hoped Stabler doesn't get written off the show by being killed because that would devastate her character, Det. Olivia Benson.

Well, it looks like NBC is doing something right.

Amidst an ongoing late-night war between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien, the network has handed out additional episode orders to a number of its shows.

According to the Live Feed, NBC has ordered four more episodes of 'Trauma,' bringing its season 1 total to 20. 'Community' and 'Parks and Recreation' also received handouts, with three and two new episodes, respectively.

Welcome to our special post-Golden Globes edition of New TV DVDs. Though, to be honest, there isn't a lot of connection between the two. While the film industry has wisely capitalized on the Oscars as a marketing tool, the television industry hasn't yet managed to fully harness such events to bolster their own sales. Thus, though 'Glee,' 'Mad Men' and 'Dexter' all had big nights on Sunday, none of them are represented on this week's list of DVD releases.

Still, the shows that are arriving in stores this week do include no fewer than 45 Golden Globe nominations between them, which is nothing to sneeze at unless you happen to be allergic to good television. Yet, we'll bet that you can't guess which of them had the most nominations. Here's a hint: the series is not mentioned in our headline. Give up yet?

If Dick Wolf's Festivus wish was to get Law and Order renewed for another season on NBC, he got what he wished for. NBC chief Angela Bromstad has vowed to renew Law and Order for season 21. That'll mean that Wolf's show will break the long-running record of 20 seasons for a dramatic series held by Gunsmoke.

Bromstad's vow presumably extends to Law and Order SVU, as well, especially since it does better in the ratings. Of course, nothing on the NBC slate is doing particularly well this season with the exception of the National Football League and The Biggest Loser. All the scripted series have struggled in the Nielsens. The Jay Leno Show experiment has been anything but a boon for the prime time schedule, no matter how NBC spins it.

Controversial talk show host Bill O'Reilly is involved in another spat. But does he have a point this time?

The latest feud involving the star of Fox's long-running opinion series 'The O'Reilly Factor' stems from last week's episode of 'Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit,' which revolved around a killer stalking the children of illegal immigrants. During the course of the episode, the suspect's defense lawyer, played by veteran television actor John Larroquette, argued that his client was incited to violence by the words of conservative pundits such as O'Reilly.

As part of his never-ending quest to make himself the news, the "Culture Warrior" has lobbed another fireball on the world of popular culture. This time it's Law & Order SVU creator Dick Wolf, because the show mentioned him.

This week's episode, titled "Anchor," featured a character who kills children birthed by illegal immigrants in America. His attorney, played by John Laroquette, fashions a defense that the TV and radio talking heads who rail against illegal immigrants are responsible for his actions. He even puts one on the stand, played by Bruce McGill, who seems to be channeling a Warner Bros. cartoon version of Lou Dobbs.

The attorney mentions O'Reilly by name, along with Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, as a "cancer spreading ignorance and hate." O'Reilly not only ripped Wolf a new one for working him into his show, but also brought in fellow pundit Laura Ingraham who frankly seemed more upset that she wasn't one of the name smeared in the episode like a jilted prom queen who only scores "Miss Congeniality". Well, darling, there's always Criminal Minds.

'Law & Order' (8PM, NBC)
There are two big mysteries on tonight's episode: a murder with a key piece of evidence missing, and the return of Benjamin Bratt's Rey Curtis. The murder sends Detectives Lupo and Bernard retracing the steps of a murder victim, an election campaign worker who is found dead, disfigured and with the letters 'FED' written across his chest. Meanwhile, Curtis' return is very hush-hush, though we suspect it may have something to do with Lt. Van Buren's ongoing health crisis.

The sleuths of NBC's crime drama 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' may have inadvertently solved a mystery on another network. NBC announced yesterday that Richard Burgi (pictured, right) and Lena Olin (below) will be guest stars on an upcoming 'SVU' episode - casting news that may answer the question of who died on Sunday's plane-crash episode of 'Desperate Housewives.'

The U.S. government has seen fit to treat the 9-11 conspirators as criminals, instead of enemy combatants, and will do so with trials in New York City.

Cue NBC's 'Law & Order.'

The series is reportedly considering incorporating elements of the terrorist trials into the show, even if the trials won't start for another two years. That's what Rene Balcer, a Law & Order' executive producer/writer recently told an audience at The Paley Center during a fete celebrating the series' 20th anniversary, according to the NY Post.

The plot is in keeping with Law & Orders long-standing "ripped-from-the-headlines" tradition.

The Letterman of the 'Law' is coming to the small screen.

An upcoming episode of NBC's 'Law & Order' will feature a "ripped from the headlines" take on the David Letterman sex scandal -- but with a few notable changes.

Letterman will be represented by a female TV host in her late 30s or 40s who is married with children. She's also a lesbian or bisexual (not that there's anything wrong with that), according to a casting breakdown reported in the Wrap.

Recently on 'Law & Order' (perhaps the hardest-working show on television), the tough, no-nonsense and recently cancer-stricken Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) has revealed that there is a new man in her life, one whose identity she's kept a secret.

Fans have been wondering who this mystery love interest is, and now it's been revealed that Ernie Hudson, fresh from his turn as Captain Lubbock on 'Heroes,' will be playing the role.

I started watching Law & Order during the Briscoe and Green days, so I don't know a whole lot about Detective Rey Curtis, Briscoe's former partner from '94-'99. What I do know is that Benjamin Bratt is pulling a Chris Noth and returning to the show that gave him his big break.

Bratt, whose A&E series, The Cleaner, was just canceled, is reprising his role as Detective Rey Curtis on the original Law & Order. However, it doesn't look like the current crime-fighting duo of Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) and Bernard (Anthony Anderson) have anything to worry about: Bratt is only signed up for one episode.

Has it really been a decade since Benjamin Bratt rode off into the 'Law & Order' sunset?

It has, which makes his upcoming return to the series -- for one episode -- all the more surprising. Bratt, who left his role as New York City police detective Rey Curtis in 1999, will return to the series' NYC set in November to film an episode that is reportedly tied to the cancer crisis of S. Epatha Merkerson's Lt. Van Buren.

Bratt's Curtis was written out of the show when the character took early retirement to care for his wife, who was dealing with advanced multiple sclerosis.

Since its first episode aired 20 years ago, 'Law & Order' has specialized in dramatizing crime stories that are, as they say, "ripped from the headlines."

According to an article in The New York Post, an upcoming episode of the series may be fictionalizing a tragedy that is too fresh.

On July 26 of this year, Diane Schuler, 36, was driving in the wrong direction on the Taconic State Parkway north of New York City when her minivan collided with an SUV. Schuler, her 2-year-old daughter and her three young nieces were killed, as were the three men in the SUV.

An autopsy later revealed that Schuler's blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit and that she had marijuana in her system.

According to the Post, last week a 'Law & Order' crew was shooting a scene in upper Manhattan in which a woman drove a minivan filled with young children in the wrong lane on a busy street. The scene ended with a fiery car crash. The episode is reportedly set to air in November.