“It’s out of my hands,” Christopher Meloni told TV Guide Magazine about his and costar Mariska Hargitay’s oh-so-public
Law & Order: SVU contract negotiations. “I wish I could enlighten, and I’m not being coy about it, but I really don’t have anything to say.”
Meloni joined Richard Belzer and
Law & Order alum Jill Henessy to support the franchise’s creator, Dick Wolf, who was honored by the Joyful Heart Foundation—the organization founded by Hargitay that reaches out to victims of domestic and sexual assault. Though Wolf wasn’t giving any clues about the future of
SVU, Hargitay was optimistic yet unsure about whether she’d be returning to the drama, which has already been picked up for an 11th season. “I hope so!” she said. The actress also shared what the show has meant to her: “What I’m most proud about is that the show has provided a platform,” she said. “It’s like, ‘If it’s normal enough to be on television, then it’s OK to talk about.’ And I’m trying to say, you know what? I support that. We have to talk about it.”
If the actors do sign on the dotted line, Meloni has some story ideas he’d like to share. “I’d like to see Benson and Stabler get together,” he joked. “But I can’t let that happen. Mariska and I have been a wonderful, solid married couple now for ten years—we see each other more than our families—it’s just nice to get a different dynamic in there every once in a while.”
As long as that "different dynamic" doesn't mean new actors.