SVU Set Visit
 March 25, 2002
A set visit to Law & Order: SVU was part of the auction run in conjunction with the NYC GLAAD 2002 Media Awards. Christina, one of the regulars on the site, was the successful bidder and she shares her story with us. Thanks to Penny, who accompanied her, for the photos.
As you all know, our Giovanni is basically running the New York GLAAD Awards event this year :) One of the items he was able to secure for auction to benefit GLAAD was a visit to the set of SVU. Although I told myself I was not going to get involved with bidding and get all nuts - I lied to myself. lol I ended up winning the auction for what I think was a very reasonable amount. Once they extracted my money from me I was put in touch with production on the show and the big day was arranged for today. I was allowed to invite a friend and asked Penny to go with me. She had to come all the way from Illinois for this but I think she felt it was worth it!

Penny, Chris and Christina
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We arrived at the set at about noon as requested. We were given a tour of the set which turned out to include some very familiar sights such as the squadroom, Capt. Cragen's office, Cabot's office and the remnants of the Stabler household(guess that isn't going to be put to any more use this season). We then got to watch scenes being rehearsed and shot. We saw Dan Florek, Stephanie March, Mariska Hargitay, BD Wong, Richard Belzer, Ice-T and, and CHRIS! lol I felt really sorry for all of them since they had to keep doing the same scenes over and over and it looked a bit tedious. We got to meet Mariska right away. She looked beautiful and is REALLY thin.

There were an unusual amount of people there for the shooting. Ted Kotcheff was there as was Neal Baer and the wonderful David Declerque who was so funny and friendly. We got to sit in some of the director type chairs with headphones on and watch the monitors as the scenes were played right along with the actually important people who were there :) Chris came bounding out repeatedly to talk to the people there and at one point he looked over our way and Penny said "I think he recognized you". After that when he came out he glanced our way on occassion, presumably trying to figure out what the hell I was doing there! The person who was helping us told him why we were there and he came over and was so nice. He said "I saw you and I was wondering why you were here" or something to that effect. Everyone kept calling us the contest winners. lol If they asked what contest I told them I actually won a charity auction for GLAAD. When I told Neal Baer he stated that he had written the episode of ER where Weaver comes out last year. He seemed very proud of it. Unfortunately I don't watch that show so I just said "Great!" I did tell him he had done wonders for the show and he seemed really to appreciate the compliment.

Back to Chris. He saw Penny was standing so he said he was going to go get her a chair. He brought HIS directors chair. So, nothing would do but we both had to sit in it :) Then he told a woman who was there that we were "Two friends of mine"(!) He told her speaking of us, kiddingly, "We go WAAAY back. We go back so far it would make your head spin". lol He was clowning about in front of the cameras too. At one point at the end of a scene he was to walk past BD Wong. As he did in one take, instead of passing BD he went up to him, put his arms around him and said "Kiss me". Whatta scream.

Chris
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At a certain point there was a break and we got ushered into Chris' dressing room (faint). He had a backgammon game on the table in front of his couch and I told him Wayne plays it on the internet all the time. He had us sit down and talk a little and then Penny got to work with her camera :) He then signed our photos that the production office had given us. On mine he put "To Christina, So is it now considered stalking? Hm" When I read it I said "Hey, that's not fair! I won an auction". So he grabbed it back and wrote on it "Ok, ok, you won fair and square"(guffaw). As he was sitting there talking to us he pulled off his tie and unbuttoned part of his shirt. I almost passed out! Then when we were leaving his room he gave us each a hug(swoon). We watched him rehearse one more scene. Sure enough, he had not put the tie back on and was doing the rehearsal with his shirt half-buttoned.

We were leaving after that and he came up to us and I swear it was actually difficult to look at anything but his chest! I told him we were leaving since Wayne was waiting for me at the hotel and by then it was 7 pm. He said "I know, I know, the hubby in the hotel. I use that excuse all the time too-'My hubby's waiting for me at the hotel'" - Priceless! He gave us another hug(!!!) and we left.

God, was that fun!! I'd like to thank Gio for making it possible and Penny for being my partner in crime and Chris for being such a wonderful, giving person to his fans. He is truly the BEST!!!
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