Hargitay is on the case
BAREFOOT and eight months pregnant, actress Mariska Hargitay greeted guests arriving for a cocktail reception at the Melrose Place jewelers Me & Ro with one question: “Are you going to shop till you drop?” The star of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” teamed with Robin Renzi, the designer of Sanskrit-inscribed bijoux, for a May 5 fundraiser, the first to benefit Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation, which she formed in 2002, she says, “to provide programs to help heal the minds, bodies and spirits of survivors of sexual assault.” The party was also a kickoff for the foundation’s first urban retreat in Los Angeles, a weekend that included surf lessons by Roxy pro Lisa Andersen.
“I’m probably going to cry,” Hargitay warned close friends Hilary Swank and Joely Fisher as they eyeballed boho-chic baubles. “Pay no attention. I’m just hormonal.”
It was hard to ignore the 42-year-old mother-to-be. After an introduction by her husband, “United 93” actor and Joyful Heart board member Peter Hermann, she spoke plainly: “One in four women in this country are sexually abused. When the door closes on them, it is hard to get them open again. It is time to get the blame and the shame off of them.”
Hargitay chose one of Renzi’s pendants stamped with the word “fearlessness” for her TV alter-ego, NYPD Det. Olivia Benson. “I thought it was groovy,” she said with a smile reminiscent of that of her mother, Jayne Mansfield. Now Me & Ro produces versions that raise funds for Joyful Heart.
Swank, wearing a frock by Karen Zambos, who also dressed Hargitay, noted that the actress “not only lends her name but her time to help these women.”
Me & Ro donated a third of the evening’s sales to Joyful Heart, raising $10,000. In a raffle, a gold and rutilated quartz necklace was awarded to Yvette Morales of Y’Sharis Spa, who had donated massage treatments to 20 Joyful Heart clients. “Now that’s what I call karma,” said Hargitay. Then she grabbed a cellophane-wrapped cupcake in one hand and slung her Stella McCartney heels over her shoulder and walked into the night.
-- David A. Keeps
