D-Girl (Season 7, Episode 15)
Premise: The murder of a Hollywood studio president, found in pieces in Manhattan, sends Briscoe and Curtis to Los Angeles to pry a blood sample from her personal trainer.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 7, Episode 15
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell)
- Guest stars
- Scott Cohen as Eddie Newman, Jeffrey D. Sams as Evan Grant, Lauren Graham as Lisa Lundquist, Janeane Garofalo as Greta Heiss, Keith Szarabajka as Neil Gorton
- Director
- Ed Sherin
- Writers
- René Balcer & Ed Zuckerman & Gardner Stern
Summary
The Investigation
“D-Girl” starts with a routine shooting by the river that turns up a second body: a woman’s torso without head, hands or feet. The medical examiner says a heavy, smooth blade such as a machete was used while her heart was still beating, and finds semen and expensive breast implants. Implant model numbers point to Heidi Ellison, 32, president of Mattawin Studios. Her assistant, Greta Heiss, claims Ellison is vacationing near Bora-Bora, but the pilot of the borrowed jet says she never showed up, and her head is found in a trash can, inside a bag from a wine store near her gym.
Studio CEO Ben Hollings posts a $100,000 reward. Heiss mentions a sexual harassment suit against the studio, Ellison’s ex-husband, director Eddie Newman, and her trainer, Evan Grant. Detective Stu Miller recalls answering domestic calls when Newman hit her, and luminol shows blood beneath her flipped mattress. Grant, who once broke a girlfriend’s jaw, says he drove to New Paltz that night to go rock climbing, yet his prints are all over her apartment. Before police can ask for his blood, he leaves for a ten-week job in Los Angeles.
There, studio executive Lisa Lundquist steers the detectives to Grant on the set of Newman’s children’s film. Grant refuses a blood test, his motel check-in leaves hours unexplained, and Lundquist learns that Ellison froze his acting contract shortly before she died. Newman says he spent the night in LA with his friend and therapist, Dr. Dan Duvall. Lundquist also pursues Curtis, who is separated from his wife; he turns down her offer to stay the night.
The Trial
Ross gets a court order for Grant’s blood, but his celebrity lawyer, Mitchell Klein, wins a California restraining order, and back in Manhattan Judge Caffey quashes the order after hearing Klein and McCoy. The detectives instead retrieve a bandage Grant threw away on the studio lot. His blood matches the semen, and he is extradited, charged with first-degree murder and held without bail.
Ross’s ex-husband, lawyer Neil Gorton, tells her the studio has asked him to protect its interests around Newman. Grant then admits he slept with Ellison but says he took her car at 7:30 and may have left a toll receipt in it. The receipt is not there, but the garage attendant reveals that Newman ordered his own identical Mercedes cleaned inside and out the morning after the killing, and phone records show Duvall’s late call to Newman was forwarded to a cell phone.
Spoiler, the ending: The episode ends with the case unresolved. As the detectives pull Newman’s cell phone records, Gorton confronts Ross and McCoy and warns them he will come after them if they cross him, setting up “Turnaround.”
Why it stands out
- First of three linked episodes, continued in “Turnaround” and “Showtime,” all credited to René Balcer, Ed Zuckerman and Gardner Stern.
- Much of the investigation moves to Los Angeles, where Briscoe and Curtis contend with studio security, a restraining order and a celebrity lawyer.
- The guest cast includes Lauren Graham as studio executive Lisa Lundquist and Janeane Garofalo as Ellison’s assistant, Greta Heiss.