Law and Order, particularly Law and Order: SVU, is known for taking inspiration from real-life events and scandals, so it should come as no surprise to fans that the long-running series is planning an episode based on the Harvey Weinstein sex scandals.
Although it'll replace the film industry with the airline industry, the episode will deal with the same issues. The show's executive producer, Michael Cerenuchin, told EW that the episode will hit on Harvey Weinstein "head-on."
"It’s a real important episode about the rape culture in an industry, and we wanted to try stretch the law to criminalize that sort of environment," explained Cerenuchin. As he tells it, the idea had been knocked around the writer's room as a story about the male-dominated airline pilot industry, but that it shifted somewhat with the exposés on Weinstein.
"We were beating the story out and said, ‘Wow, this is exactly what the actresses go through in Hollywood. It’s the same environment.’ So we got all of our Harvey stuff out with airline pilots."
This isn't the first time SVU has taken its cue from the real world. The series famously made an episode about a boorish politician who was considering a run for high office - the US Presidency, in fact - and was dealing with accusations of sexual assault. Apropos of nothing, multiple women have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct - to the point that there's a pretty detailed Wikipedia article about the whole thing.
The Weinstein-inspired SVU episode will air on US television some time in 2018.
Via EW
