RIP LAW AND ORDER

Unless there's some kind of 11th-hour renewal being devised, last night's season finale of LAW AND ORDER served as a decent-enough valedictory episode for the series' 20-year run.

I wish I could write reams of brilliantly articulate analysis of the show. Suffice to say that I began to be hooked on it around the summer of 1992, when I watched the late-night repeats on A&E.

And I've followed just about all of the series and spinoffs (excepting the CONVICTIONS one, where Dick Wolf seemed to be channeling EQUAL JUSTICE from two decades earlier) ever since--though SVU has devolved into over-the-topness for the past three seasons.

Hoping that the upcoming LAW AND ORDER: LOS ANGELES (nicknamed LOLA by the entertainment media) is an honorable carrying-forward of the franchise.

Michael Moriarty--like Jon Voight before him--turns Right.

It's a sort of ritual for certain aging male celebrities to publicly retreat into social and/or poltical conservatism. Steve Allen, in his last years, became a cranky crusader against what he considered "filth" in entertainment. The late Ron Silver (once involved with the left-to-moderate Creative Coalition) became vocal about his rightist beliefs after 9/11. Jon Voight, who won an Oscar for playing an anti-Vietnam War paraplegic (inspired by Ron Kovic) in COMING HOME, now can be found opnionating on Fox News. And don't get me started on former comedian Dennis Miller.

Michael Moriarty has now come to the proverbial fork in the road--and has turned Right. Here are links to an interview and a Moriarty-penned article for Andrew Breitbart's showbiz-liberalism-bashing site BIG HOLLYWOOD.

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aliciacolon/2009/11/25/interview-michael-moriarty-on-obama-palin-nbc-beck-and-gutfeld/
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mmoriarty/2009/12/09/dead-end-america/

Angie Harmon's a conservative from Dallas, Texas--and Fox News loves her.

The undoubted high point of actress Angie Harmon's career was playing Abbie, the go-get-em assistant prosecutor on LAW AND ORDER. Years after that triumph, Ms. Harmon (I'm guessing due to some kind of talent deal with Disney/ABC, who aired her last series THE WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB) is now just another supporting player on the bland Christina Applegate yupcom SAMANTHA WHO?--and Ms. Harmon's also receiving publicity for being an anti-Obama Republican: http://www.popeater.com/movies/article/angie-harmon-deemed-racist-for-hating/404722

Somehow, I don't think Abbie, no matter how conservative her politics and her attitude towards criminals, would have given Fox News the time of day.