Exit, Law & Order
Bruce Vilanch writes in the Advocate about the original Law & Order...and why one recent character may have exited the show with quite a line that has him wondering what prompted the writing in of this line and why the character hadn't revealed her sexual orientation earlier.
Cinema historians will be thrilled to know there is finally an exit line to top Orson Welles’s immortal “Rosebud…” at the end of Citizen Kane. A few episodes ago on Law & Order—the original, not the one with the sex crimes—the blond ice-goddess prosecutor played by Elisabeth Rohm was fired (translation: Her character was written out). Since she’d been doing a pretty good job of putting bad guys away for the last few years, she was, naturally, puzzled at this turn of events. Finally, out of the blue, she asked, “Is this because I’m a lesbian?” And…commercial.
[Vilanch wonders] "Was she ashamed? One little line and all these possibilities.... People keep secrets for all sorts of reasons.... Living in shame also seems to be OK with the Cheneys, that fun couple who have more to do with the way our country is run than people care to admit. Whenever mention is made of their lesbian daughter, they rush to hide behind a wall of shame. Polite people don’t mention such things in public—do you hear us, John Kerry? If their daughter’s sexuality didn’t truly bother and shame them, they wouldn’t care how many people called her a lesbian on TV. It would be a statement of fact, like that Joe Lieberman is a Jew or Prince Harry is a jerk—something unassailable and true since birth.
For all the Cheneys’ talk of how proud they are, they’re deeply ashamed. They cry like wounded banshees when Mary’s sexuality comes up in any conversation. What wonderful role models they make for parents everywhere, these paragons of law and order.