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Mariska Hargitay was in town for a series of private appearances, including a dinner at Neiman Marcus’s Mariposa restaurant Sept. 1, to raise awareness and funds for the Joyful Heart Foundation, which she founded out of a desire to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.

Mariska Hargitay, the beautiful Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, is doing a guest spot on the new Law & Order: Los Angeles in order to help kick off the show.



“I got to work with them yesterday,” Hargitay told E! Online at the Emmys. “They have an incredible cast…I think it’s going to be strong right out of the gate.”



The storyline is going to be about the backlog of untested rape kits, she revealed. Evidently there are a lot of rape kits that never get tested because there’s such a backlog of them. Rape kits are the evidence that is taken from a woman’s person during a four-hour exam that is very invasive, right after she is raped. Having all that evidence never get processed is quite a tragedy, and Mariska’s foundation, the Joyful Heart Foundatin, is working to help rectify the situation.



So this role on Law & Order: Los Angeles is near and dear to her heart. The new TV show premieres September 29

She serves as president of the organization she founded in 2004, in part due to overwhelming response to the character she plays on NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” New York City detective Olivia Benson.