Mariska Hargitay was only three years old when her mother, Jayne Mansfield, died, but she hasn’t forgotten her.
“Happy birthday, Mama. We live to love you more each day,” she captioned a black-and-white photograph of the late Hollywood icon on Instagram Thursday, on what would have been her mother’s 90th birthday.
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Mansfield had five children; Hargitay was one of three she shared with her second husband, bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, and was born in the midst of her parents’ divorce.
In a classic Hollywood tragedy that has long fascinated audiences, Mansfield died in a car crash on June 29, 1967, en route to New Orleans for a publicity engagement. She was in the front seat with her attorney and driver in the early morning hours when the car slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer. All three died instantly, but Hargitay and two of her siblings were also in the car, sleeping in the backseat, and sustained only minor injuries.
Hargitay, who followed in her mother’s footsteps to become an actor, has said that she still struggles with the trauma of her early life and her mother’s death. “I clearly was in that frozen place for a lot of my childhood—of trying to survive, actually trying to survive,” she told Glamour in 2021. “My life has been a process of unpeeling the layers and trust and trusting again.”
“I think I learned about crisis very young, and I learned very young that shit happens and there’s no guarantees, and we keep going,” she said. “And then we transform it. That’s been kind of my superpower, and the gift of having trauma early in life.”
Tracy Lauren Marrow had one of the coolest stage names when he entered the rap game, dubbing himself with a moniker that’ll forever be synonymous with hip-hop: Ice-T. Nearly 40 years later, Mariska Hargitay has now revealed she has a fresher nickname for him, if not a cooler one.
The revelation came to light on Thursday at Ice-T’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony. While presenting the legendary rapper, and actor, Hargitay said one of the reasons why she loves Ice-T is because he allows her to call him nicknames. While at the podium, she turned to her “Law & Order: SVU” co-star and practically begged him if she could divulge the nickname only she’s allowed to call him.
Unable to contain his laughter, Ice-T relented, prompting Hargitay to exclaim, “He lets me call him Icy!” Following the presentation of his newly minted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Ice-T spoke with ET’s Ash Crossan and glowingly spoke about his “Law & Order” co-star and the friendship they’ve formed over the last two decades-plus working together.
“Yeah, you know, I told her to be careful with that, but she put me on blast,” quipped the legendary rapper. “I love Mariska. Mariska’s become a close friend. Like I say, how many friends have you had for 25 years that you see every day? You know? So, of course we became close, and we understand we got a job to do and we made a show that’s been on longer than any other show.”
Ice-Ts Hollywood Walk of Fame Induction Ceremony — Pictured: (l-r) Chuck D, Lupita Sanchez-Cornejo, Ice-T, Mariska Hargitay, Dick Wolf at Hollywood, Calif, February 17, 2023 —
— Photo by: Todd Williamson/NBC via Getty Images
Ice-T’s never been shy about his upbringing. He grew up some 30 minutes away from where his star was unveiled, a notion that never crossed his mind when he was living a life of crime and trying to make it as a DJ. It wasn’t long before he established himself as one of the preeminent gangsta rappers and cemented his name with the 1991 album O.G. Original Gangster and a Grammy that same year for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for his collaboration on “Back on the Block”. He’d be nominated for two more Grammys before landing his second trophy in 2021 with “Bum-Rush” for Best Metal Performance.
Ice-T got into acting in the mid-1980s and played his first police detective role in the 1991 thriller “New Jack City”. He’d land numerous roles soon after, but he etched his name in TV lore as Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on “Law & Order: SVU”, joining the Dick Wolf-produced show in 2000 and eventually becoming the longest-running male actor in a TV series.
Ice-Ts Hollywood Walk of Fame Induction Ceremony — Pictured: (l-r) Ice-T, Coco Austin, Chanel Nicole Marrow at Hollywood, Calif, February 17, 2023 —
— Photo by: Todd Williamson/NBC via Getty Images
After such a long road, it’s no wonder Ice-T still can’t believe his name is literally cemented on Hollywood Boulevard.
“I can’t believe it, you know, where I actually came from, and what I’ve been through, the theory of being on the Walk of Fame is unimaginable,” he tells ET. “I’ve always been that guy that was, you know, in another lane of hip-hop. But then, like, we got to the Grammys, they represent us in the Grammys, and I had my birthday, it’s been a hell of a week for me. So I’m very happy and excited. And I realized that I’m not only getting this star for me, I’m getting it for all my fans and people that have supported me all these years.”
And those people include Hargitay, the rest of his “Law & Order” colleagues, his wife, Coco Austin, daughter, Chanel, and longtime friend, Ice Cube, all of whom were on hand to celebrate Ice-T’s monumental success.
Despite the momentous occasion, Ice-T never forgets he’s a father first. He got a kick out of Chanel joining him onstage when her name was mentioned. But if she ever grows up with plans to join the family business, Papa’s got some advice.
“I mean, you gotta back showbiz with something else,” he says. “She also wants to be a doctor, I’mma tell her to be a plastic surgeon, that ain’t going out of business. You gotta back this, ’cause this is a dream, and when you base something on a dream — ’cause it’s also called the boulevard of broken dreams. … So I want to make sure that if that happens, cool, but have something to fall back on, obviously.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Delays in testing evidence from sexual assaults have been a lost opportunity for investigators and a source of frustration for victims for years, prompting California officials to announce Tuesday that they have created a way for survivors to track the progress of linking their rape kits with DNA evidence.
California is also the first state to hire a sexual assault evidence outreach coordinator, Sarai Crain, who will work with investigators, medical facilities and others to help track and process sexual assault evidence.
The new online tracking system was required under a law approved by state lawmakers last year. It follows a 2017 California law that requires law enforcement agencies to submit the evidence for testing within 20 days and requires crime labs to test the evidence within 120 days or provide reasons for any delay.
The goal is to end the backlog of rape kits by local agencies, make sure they are tested quickly once they are submitted, and keep survivors better informed, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
Of nearly 6,400 kits collected in 2020, 90% were analyzed by May 2021, according to an annual report by the attorney general’s office. The rest were in various stages of processing. About half the tests found DNA that was compared to other DNA on the FBI’s database, and nearly 800 resulted in “hits” or matches with offenders in the database.
Another nearly 200 kits were not submitted for testing for reasons including that the suspect already was known or the victim was not seeking to prosecute. The annual report for last year is not yet completed.
The evidence is collected during medical examinations following sexual assaults, and can be used to link the assault to a suspect in existing DNA databases or develop a DNA profile that can be used in the future.
The new online system provides information to survivors on the status of their sexual assault evidence collected since January 1, 2018. Victims can track whether their kits have been received by a law enforcement agency, are being sent to a laboratory for testing, have been received by a lab, are undergoing DNA analysis or have had the DNA analysis completed.
California is among 30 states and Washington, D.C., that have committed to establishing a tracking system, according to the End the Backlog website run by the nonprofit Joyful Heart Foundation founded by producer, director, actress, and advocate Mariska Hargitay.
However, “that doesn’t address the older kits that are some places still sitting on shelves,” said Ilse Knecht, the group’s director of policy and advocacy.
A 2020 audit looking mainly at kits collected before 2018 found nearly 14,000 untested kits at the local level across the state prior to the new law.
Crain’s job “is the first of its kind that will focus on the rape kit backlog,” Knecht said. “The goal is to get those kits that are older than 2018…to get a real count of what the number is across the state and then make sure they’re being sent in for testing.”
Her job will include linking law enforcement agencies with public or private laboratories, according to Bonta’s office. Crain most recently was deputy chief for Oakland’s Department of Violence Prevention. Previously she was executive director of Bay Area Women Against Rape, the nation’s oldest rape crisis center.
Aside from Crain’s assistance, Knecht said she will propose that California legislators next year pass a law requiring local agencies to test those old kits.
The tests generated some controversy earlier this year when San Francisco’s prosecutor revealed that police there had used a DNA sample collected from a woman during a 2016 rape investigation to link her to a burglary in late 2021. State lawmakers passed a law banning the practice.
