Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay is beautiful not only on the (obvious) outside but on the inside as well. When she began the series, she was deluged with letters from women who talked of their own real life experiences as victims of domestic and sexual violence. Realizing she could be the conduit to change and awareness, the actress formed her charity the Joyful Heart Foundation. The organization's mission:

The Joyful Heart Foundation works to foster a community that turns toward the issues of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse. Such a community, empowered with knowledge, courage and compassion, can support survivors of this violence and engage in an open dialogue about how to collaboratively end the cycle of violence and abuse

Earlier today she and Michael Cohen, founder of Michael Stars clothing and accessories, teamed up at Bloomingdale's in New York where a portion of the sales of his collection goes to the JHF.

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Photos: PNP/WENN

Mariska Hargitay is a vision of loveliness at the Chairman Awards held in New York City last night as she poses with her Law & Order: SVU costar Harry Connick Jr.

The busy mother of three has signed on for another year with NBC which has fans hoping Season 14 of the drama will happen. She got a sweet pay raise according to a reporter by THR in April, and by sweet we mean an additional $500,000 per episode. The average person doesn't make that in a year never mind per episode. She's worth it though!

Since hunky Christopher Meloni left the series, viewership is down so it remains to be seen if the show will go on. However if you need your fix of him, he will now star in True Blood which means he's bound to disrobe at some point on the series.

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Photos: Joseph Marzullo/WENN

The very beautiful Mariska Hargitay is seen here filming Law &  Order: SVU on the streets of Manhattan, New York. Despite the serious role that she plays on the show, Mariska says she's actually much funnier than we think and her co-star Ice T agrees. He's started an informal campaign to get her a hosting gig on Saturday Night Live and E! Online joined the efforts with a Twitter campaign hashtag #mariska4SNL. She tells E!:

My real personality is more Saturday Night Live than Olivia Benson,"  "Ice is always like 'Damn, I don't know how you got on this show. You should be on SNL.' So they always talk about it on set."

"I did want [to host] for a long time," she admitted. "You know, if I do it, great. If I don't, I'm fine. It's such a compliment that my coworkers even think that I would be worthy enough."

Would you like to see her host SNL? That would be such a departure from what we are used to seeing her do!

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Mariska Hargitay is in New York on the set of Law & Order SVU where she is filming season 13 for the first time without Christopher Meloni. That's so hard to believe isn't it? Can the series survive Detective Olivia Benson without Detective John Munch? That's what everyone's worrying about, but back in mid-September she spoke with Access Hollywood and she's keeping an open mind:

“I am going into this with a completely open mind,” she said when asked if she’s thought this could be her last season. “What I’ve learned is you don’t know what the future brings and everything is new and everything is fresh and it’s exciting to have different eyes on something.”

Besides that, they've added the very talented Danny Pino from Cold Case and Kelli Giddish from Chase to this season so perhaps his loss won't be felt as much. But sometimes people do not like change, do they?

Who doesn't love Mariska but not seeing Christopher Meloni is difficult isn't it? Time will tell, right? Are you enjoying the show without him in it? Do you think it will survive without him?

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Photos: Anthony Dixon/WENN

Jennifer Love Hewitt Signs on For Law & Order: SVU

The deal is all but signed!  She might be single and she might not have her own show… but Jennifer Love Hewitt is about to sign on for a role on Law & Order: SVU.  Mariska Hargitay’s character, Olivia Benson is going to get a promotion on the show and Hewitt is going to fill that spot.

Mariska Hargitay Adopts Baby Girl

Mariska has made it clear that she’s going to be cutting back on her hours… and that is obviously happening but she’s keeping her salary in tact.  This being said, she’s got her deal for the 13th season locked in.  On the other hand, Christopher Meloni has not signed on.  He wants a raise and NBC is cheap as hell, so we know this is going totake a bit to clear up.  I don’t think they will let him go though.

What do you think of Jennifer Love Hewitt joining the cast?  Good things?

Photo: WENN

Law & Order: SVU’ star Mariska Hargitay and her husband, Peter Hermann just adopted a baby girl!  Her name is Amaya Josephine and she is one week old and was born here in the United States.

PHOTOS: Mariska Hargitay and Others Salute Alec Baldwin

Mariska spoke with People,

“I’m deliriously happy.  From the minute she was born, she was just surprisingly alert and so full of love.  We were considering both international and domestic adoption and we’re thrilled that this is the way our prayers were answered,” she added. “We talked a lot about mixed-race adoptions, and we are very excited that we are now a multi-racial family. We’re just so happy she’s here.”

Their 4-year-old son, August is pumped to be a big brother!

“He is over the moon. He calls her his baby because he says the whole thing was his idea. He always talks about how he’s going to protect her. He’s going to be a great big brother,” she said.

That is too precious for words.  I am so happy for them.  Adoption is such a beautiful thing.

Congratulations!!

Photo: Joseph Marzullo  / WENN

I know. It’s a salute to Alec Baldwin and it would probably make more sense to have his puss as the main picture, right? But I had to put Mariska Hargitay’s at Alec Baldwin’s salute as the main picture because she’s a doll and it’s been too long since we’ve seen her. Don’t get me wrong I love Alec, but I love Mariska a little bit more.

Mariska was at Cipriani’s in New York where the Museum of The Moving Image Salute to Alec Baldwin took place. Alec is very much loved by his friends and colleagues and understandably so. He’s beyond gifted and hysterically funny. Him showing up on Saturday Night Live is a guaranteed good time, isn’t it?

Also saluting the funny man were his 30 Rock co-star (and boss) Tina Fey, Lorne Michaels, Jimmy Fallon and more. Access Hollywood was at the event and spoke to the celebrities on why they loved Alec Baldwin:

Pictures after the break

(more…)

How I forgot to talk about Mariska Hargitay & Christopher Meloni at the 2010 Emmy Awards I’ll never know.  Or the fact that, yes I actually was surprised that Mariska didn’t win in the Best Actress category which I had forgotten about. Don’t ask. I get very little sleep and I can’t function very well without it.

More importantly than just these beautiful pictures is a very hot little interview on the red carpet in which they talk about whether or not their characters will hook up in the reportedly last season or not.  If I were in Mariska’s shoes I would not have shown so much restraint.  It’s hot.  Check out the video of the interview at  The Ausiello Files.

Photo:  Fayes Vision/WENN