“Law & Order: SVU” is making a Harvey Weinstein episode
If it wasn’t depicted on Law & Order: SVU, did it really happen? The show is famous for its fictionalization of real-life events, and an upcoming episode is no exception. Law & Order: SVU is taking on Harvey Weinstein.
“We are hitting Harvey Weinstein head-on, but it’s not in the realm of the entertainment business,” Law & Order: SVU executive producer Michael Chernuchin told Entertainment Weekly. “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.”
Instead of Hollywood, the episode will take place in the airline industry. That said, it still fully plans to depict the tragic realities that have come to light in the past two months. In fact, the slight idiosyncrasy is a complete reflection of just how ubiquitous sexual harassment and assault are. Professionals in many industries, from politics to journalism to the culinary world, have been under fire for allegations of sexual misconduct in the last month or so.
The episode will center around a powerful Weinstein-esque character in the airline industry. Chernuchin revealed that Law & Order: SVU already had the episode in the works when the Weinstein story first broke.
“We were actually working on a story about airline pilots and what a boys club that is,” Chernuchin continued. “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.”
Lieutenant Benson approves.
The episode will shed light on the constant harassment women who hold service jobs experience.
According to Refinery29, in a survey conducted in 2014, 27% of flight attendants said they had been sexually harassed on duty. Not ok.
Maybe it isn’t the second coming of Game of Thrones. But it IS an extremely important moment in television. SVU is using its platform to highlight a larger message. We definitely think that’s worth DVRing.
