The late summer months are usually when the stars of the Law & Order franchise are too busy filming new seasons to be spotted out and about far from New York City, but that wasn't the case this year thanks to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Both Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay crossed the pond to cheer on Team USA, which involved everything from hanging out with Snoop Dogg to meeting emotional medalists.
I was fortunate enough to speak with the Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 star about his other summer project, so keep on scrolling to see two gymnasts having an extremely relatable reaction to Mariska Hargitay and what Chris Meloni shared about encountering SVU fans in France.
Jordan Chiles And Suni Lee Met The SVU Star
Following her milestone 25th season as Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay stepped away from filming Season 26 to cheer on Team USA. After thanking Ice-T in a caption for "holding down the fort" while she was away, she posed with Snoop Dogg for a photo with the men's rowing team and their gold medals and shared a sweet photo of her daughter with gymnasts Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles.
While both medalists were composed when they posed for a pic with Mariska Hargitay's daughter, they were still in the "geeking out" stage of meeting the SVU legend in a sweet video posted by Peacock. Take a look:
Anybody who watched the gymnastics events on NBC or streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription saw how happy the two gymnasts were when they won their individual and team medals, but it's fun to see them get so excited about something entirely different. Hargitay also had a surprise for somebody else: Jordan Chiles' sister. See for yourself:
While we have footage of athletes/fans reacting to Mariska Hargitay at the 2024 Olympics, Christopher Meloni opened up to CinemaBlend about his encounters with Parisians that didn't happen in front of a camera.
Christopher Meloni Opened Up About Fan Encounters In France
While Christopher Meloni is undoubtedly best known for playing Detective Elliot Stabler for twelve seasons of SVU and four seasons of Law & Order: Organized Crime so far, he branched out this summer with the release of the Catch a Cat Burglar: Purry Duty podcast, which is currently available on Spotify, Apple, and all major platforms.
I spoke with Meloni shortly after he finished his time in Paris, so I asked what it has been like for him to attend the Olympics and promote a podcast during the time of year when he'd usually be in Stabler mode to film Organized Crime in NYC. He explained:
Well, [the podcast] was just kind of an interesting project to be a part of and get in there and see how that operates and works. And then the Olympics – that's just an experience. That's the experience of a lifetime, especially in Paris. The last one I went to was in Atlanta. They call Atlanta the 'Paris of the South,' but it's not there quite yet.
Meloni will be filming Organized Crime again at some point, but the show's move from NBC to streaming on Peacock means that it won't necessarily keep on a similar schedule to Law & Order and SVU anymore. So, he was able to visit Paris for the Olympics without having to leave the OC set, which was apparently a step up from the Atlanta Olympics in 1996!
Of course, both SVU and OC are pretty dark shows, but frequent SVU marathons on cable TV as well as its status streaming for both Peacock and Hulu subscribers have turned Special Victims Unit into comfort viewing for a lot of people. When I asked Meloni if he often hears that from fans, he shared:
I usually don't get that. I get that occasionally, even though I'm sure it's far more than that. All of my interactions are because people will bump into me, so they're not expecting it. They're just overwhelmed by 'Oh my god, I'm your biggest fan.' It's that kind of thing. You just get an understanding that whatever the impact is, it's an impact. It's both the dynamism of the storytelling, but also the longevity [and] how long through reruns and various platforms that the show has been on, in all parts of the world. I mean, I got it in Paris. As a matter of fact, [the Parisians] said, 'The cop's in Paris!' Or 'Unité spéciale.’
The closest that Christopher Meloni came to appearing on Law & Order: SVU in its milestone 25th season was a voice cameo in the season finale, but that may have been due more to the WGA writers strike delays than anything else. Fans of Stabler and Benson on SVU – or "unité spéciale," to quote the Parisians – may be able to see them back together in the 2024-2025 TV season, though. For now, take a look at Meloni living his best Olympics life in France:
If you're now in the mood for some Stabler action, you can find all four seasons of Organized Crime so far streaming on Peacock, as well as all of Christopher Meloni's seasons as an SVU regular. You can also check out the Catch a Cat Burglar: Purry Duty podcast with Meloni on major podcast platforms.
