Fame (Season 17, Episode 1)
Premise: A police detective is killed when he walks in on a burglary at a nightlife photographer’s apartment, and the search for the gunman leads to the hard-partying husband of a movie star whose embarrassing photos were the target.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 17, Episode 1
- Detectives
- Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin), Det. Nina Cassady (Milena Govich), Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Connie Rubirosa (Alana de la Garza), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- Wayne Wilcox as Justin “J-Train” Smolka, Barbara King as Sky Sweet, James Ransone as Michael Wayland, Khan Baykal as Terry Blanchard, Geoffrey Cantor as gossip columnist Adam Stein
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Nicholas Wootton
Summary
The Investigation
“Fame,” newly promoted Det. Nina Cassady’s first case, begins with a police killing: Det. Nick Carvahal hears noises in the apartment below his on East Fifth Street, calls in a burglary and is shot by the intruder. The flat belongs to Terry Blanchard (called Gary in the episode), who photographs club-goers for a paid website, and the thief ignored his expensive cameras. Van Buren, wary of Cassady’s tabloid fame, tells her to watch and learn.
The bullets match an unsolved nightclub shooting, and a bouncer questioned in that case steers the detectives to ex-convict Teddy Gullo, who says Blanchard owed him a cut for tailing actress Sky Sweet. Blanchard had photographed Sweet dropping her baby in a park, and she had won an injunction against selling the pictures. A neighbor who saw the gunman picks out her husband, would-be rapper Justin “J-Train” Smolka, from a magazine cover. Smolka admits e-mailing Blanchard a threat, but Beth Swailes, who runs Sweet’s fan site, gives him an alibi.
Smolka’s phone records lead to Michael Wayland (called Whelan in the episode), a drug-dealing addict Cassady knew on patrol, and the gun that killed Carvahal turns up in his apartment. Under Cassady’s gentle questioning, Wayland admits lending Smolka the gun and driving the getaway car for $50. Smolka’s prints are on the weapon; he is arrested and held without bail.
The Trial
Defense lawyer Paula Turco says Wayland once asked Smolka to hide the gun and committed the burglary himself, chasing rumored photos worth millions. Branch has Wayland tried alongside Smolka so the case cannot look personal. Gossip columnist Adam Stein writes that prosecutors have the motive wrong and jabs at McCoy’s estrangement from his daughter. A judge rules the shield law does not protect Stein’s talk with a source in a nightclub restroom, and after a few hours in jail he names Blanchard, whose computer holds pictures of Sweet snorting cocaine while five months pregnant.
On the stand, Smolka denies knowing about those pictures and blames Wayland, accusing him of draining his dying sister’s insurance for drugs. Swailes then drops out as an alibi witness and hints that Sweet was set up. Facing extortion charges, Blanchard admits Smolka hired him to hide in a club restroom and photograph Sweet using cocaine Smolka supplied, as leverage in a divorce under a prenuptial agreement that left Smolka nothing. Blanchard had raised his price to $1 million the day before the burglary.
Spoiler, the ending: McCoy offers Smolka 20 years for the truth about Wayland’s role, and Sweet confronts her husband, saying he told her he shot the detective. The episode does not show whether Smolka accepts. Wayland takes eight years, and Sweet enters rehab as her fans rally around her.
Why it stands out
- Alana de la Garza (ADA Connie Rubirosa) and Milena Govich (Det. Nina Cassady) make their first appearances, joining the cast after the departures of Dennis Farina and Annie Parisse.
- Cassady arrives at the 27th Precinct already a tabloid name, having earned her promotion after a shooting at a beauty salon.
- A judge refuses to extend the shield law to a gossip columnist whose source confided in him in a nightclub restroom, and jails him for contempt.