‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17, episode 16 preview: Mariska Hargitay, cast take on celebrity culture

The title for the upcoming episode of “Law & Order: SVU” is “Star-Struck Victims,” and there are so many different ways to read that.

Before we dive too far down that particular rabbit hole, let’s do our part to lay out what is the main push of this particular installment: A prominent TV star is arrested after being accused of rape, but upon further reflection, there are some twists that could shake up the pace. Is it possible that a victim made up the story for fame? Sure, or it’s possible that these claims are legitimate and people think that because this is a famous actor, they believe fame to be the primary motivating factor. It’s complicated, even we sympathize and believe the victim here; there are so many other ways to get fame these days beyond accusing someone of the unthinkable. While the show has not directly dealt with Bill Cosby and some of his recent headlines, this seems to be at least partially inspired by some of the drama and controversy surrounding it.

The synopsis below makes it very clear that when it comes to

“When a lack of evidence leads Barba (Raúl Esparza) to drop rape charges against a popular actor, Rollins (Kelli Giddish) takes matters into her own hands.”

We’ll hopefully have some more information on this episode in due time, but when it comes to the high-profile nature of this case, we figure that this may be one of the most intense and highly-scrutinized ones the SVU has worked on in some time.

(Photo: NBC.)