Christopher Meloni is very aware that people are sharing photos of his posterior while he stretches on the set of both Law and Order: Organized Crime (which is currently filming Season 2) and SVU. The 60-year-old Wet Hot American Summer star has recently taken a fancy to provocative photoshoots (recently for Interview Magazine) and now, he’s messing with everyone in a new feature shoot for Men’s Health, for which he does the splits and lifts heavy objects against the Manhattan skyline.
Meloni got real during this interview on a number of subjects, including religion and (more relevant for our purposes) the more detailed reason why he left SVU a decade ago. First, though, he couldn’t resist a tush joke. While he and reporter Anna Peele discussed getting in the “flow state,” Peele mentioned killing flies like it ain’t no thing. And Meloni offered, “I catch flies with my a** cheeks, like a Venus flytrap.” According to Peele, he was “giggling” and “cackling” while adding, “I’m clever with my ass cheeks!”
How fascinating. Meanwhile, Meloni detailed how those reported NBC contract disputes (which led to a rather abrupt departure) seemed like more “bullsh*t” than they were previously imagined to be:
He says he told NBC, “Well, if it’s this”–meaning this amount of money–“then this is the way to go around so you don’t have to pay this”–meaning this larger amount of money that Meloni wanted. He got creative. “My thought was: Instead of 22 episodes, bring me back for nine episodes, or bring me back for 18 episodes. They literally came to me on a Thursday night and said, ‘This is the deal. We want the answer by tomorrow. It’s our way or no way.'”
Meloni wasn’t into it. He then told NBC, “I don’t want to f*ck around with you guys. This is what I want. If you can’t do it, that’s fine. Let’s figure out my exit.” And from there, Elliot Stabler left without even telling Olivia Benson goodbye! No wonder she looked exhausted when he showed up for that SVU crossover event. Well, it’s all gone swimmingly since then, with Organized Crime landing as a hit with audiences and scoring its fabulous villain for the next round of hot octopus drama.
In related news, Mariska Hargitay gave an update on her recent ankle surgery (in the below Instagram post), which will not affect Season 23 plans. SVU and Organized Crime will both return on September 23.
(Via Men’s Health)
