Formerly Famous (Season 12, Episode 6)
Premise: When a washed-up singer’s much younger wife is shot minutes after they leave his favorite pub, the detectives look at his manager, his grown sons and a custody deal that hid a secret about the couple’s baby.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 12, Episode 6
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm)
- Guest stars
- Gary Busey as Tommy Vega, Joe Piscopo as Art Cahill, Bruce Altman as defense attorney Brad Feldman, Diane Cossa as Susan Brandees, Craig Braun as Davey Reynolds
- Ripped from the headlines
- The story draws on the killing of Bonny Lee Bakley.
- Director
- Richard Dobbs
- Writers
- Wendy Battles & Marc Guggenheim
Summary
The Investigation
“Formerly Famous” opens with the murder of Beth Anne Vega, 32, shot in the head on a deserted commercial street while her husband, faded Vegas crooner Tommy Vega, has walked back to Noonan’s pub to change a bet on a horse. Her purse and ring are gone, but Briscoe and Green find ten minutes missing from Vega’s account, and his sons Peter and Jason have already hired celebrity lawyer Brad Feldman. Beth Anne’s sister reveals the couple were divorcing.
Feldman stages a press conference after a parks worker finds the gun and wallet in a storm drain in a park known for drug dealing. Checks from Vega’s accounts lead to club owner Rick Jordan, an ex-boyfriend whose loan to Beth Anne was being repaid, and her mailbox holds a threat from retired pitcher Davey Reynolds, whom she had pressured with talk of the IRS; he has an alibi. The gun’s filed-off serial number is raised and traced to a dead security guard whose grandson, Jackson Hawthorne, admits handing it to his boss, Vega’s manager of 25 years, Art Cahill. Cahill’s print is on the clip, but he claims he left the gun in an unlocked desk drawer after a dispute with a rapper.
Records show Cahill paid Beth Anne about $750,000 through her divorce lawyer. A judge orders the lawyer, Susan Brandees, to waive privilege, and Southerlyn borrows a sitting grand jury to hear her. Brandees testifies that $250,000 above the prenuptial cap bought Vega sole custody of their daughter Sara, and that Beth Anne then reneged and vowed to take the baby.
The Trial
Subpoenaed to the grand jury, which gives him automatic immunity, Cahill admits he spent the murder night with a mistress and that Vega was alone in his office the week before. He then reveals that Sara is not Vega’s child. Blood typing confirms it, and a drummer from Pittsburgh says Beth Anne told him a week before her death that the baby was his. Records for her cell phone, which police never recovered, show a call to Peter Vega’s office within minutes of the shooting.
McCoy concludes that Vega placed that call and that Peter sent Jason to dispose of the gun; a doorman saw Jason go out right after it. Faced with indictments of both sons, Vega testifies before the grand jury, insisting Sara is his no matter what any lab report says, and breaks down over the second chance she gave him.
Spoiler, the ending: Vega pleads guilty under an agreement with the district attorney’s office. Outside court Feldman blames major depression and declines to discuss the terms as cameras record Vega’s last moment in the spotlight.
Why it stands out
- Gary Busey guest-stars as the faded singer Tommy Vega, with Joe Piscopo as his manager, Art Cahill.
- The prosecutors borrow an already-sitting grand jury to question a dead woman’s divorce lawyer, then use a witness’s automatic grand jury immunity to pry loose the case’s central secret.