| "Skin Deep" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | L&O, Episode 3.01 | → |
| Production number: 68009 First aired: 23 September 1992 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Robert Nathan & Gordon Rayfield Directed By Daniel Sackheim | ||
Plot[]
Probing the murder of a photographer, Cerreta and Logan try to determine if one of the women who posed for him may have disposed of him.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Paul Sorvino as Sergeant Phil Cerreta
- Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
- Michael Moriarty as Executive A.D.A. Benjamin Stone
- Richard Brooks as A.D.A. Paul Robinette
- Steven Hill as D.A. Adam Schiff
Recurring cast[]
- Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet (uncredited)
- Lorraine Toussaint as Legal Aid Attorney Shambala Green
- Scotty Bloch as Judge Naomi Baum
- Donald Corren as Forensic Technician Medill
- David Rosenbaum as Arraignment Judge Alan Berman
- Billy Van as CSU Technician Gilmore
Guest cast[]
- Alberta Watson as Angela Brandt
- Murphy Guyer as Jeffrey Brandt
- Claire Danes as Tracy Brandt
- Fia Porter as Betty Ann Carter
- Maeve McGuire as Celeste Foxx
- John Rothman as O'Hara
- David Bailey as Allan Rohmer
- Gina Torres as Laura Elkin
- Yul Vazquez as Eddie Vasquez
- Glenn Kubota as Hong
- Michael Barbary as Doorman Burns
- Lauren Ambrose as Jessica
- Alexandra Becker as Lisa
- Catherine Featherston as Kate
- Tony Cucci as Avery
- Bob Cea as Holland
- Kevin Davis as Barton
- Jack R. Marks as Court Clerk
References[]
- Alabama
- Barbados
- Cindy Crawford
- National Academy of Sciences
- Yugoslavia
- Julian Decker
- Pamela Stone
Quotes[]
- Donald Cragen: So where does that get us? A lover's quarrel?
- Mike Logan: After sex? Most people, you fight, and then have sex.
- Phil Cerreta: He's not married.
- Phil Cerreta: Look on the bright side--if we do this all week, you'll never have to buy Playboy again.
- Mike Logan: What are you saying, I treat all women like objects?
- Phil Cerreta: More specific, like furniture.
- Betty Ann Carter: Poor Julian, may he rest in Hell. Who do you think killed him?
- Phil Cerreta: We think he had a girlfriend.
- Betty Ann Carter: Oh, I see. Last night? I was on a revolving pedestal pointing at the kind of yacht I used to cruise on. Boat show. The Meadowlands. Better than what a lot of girls end up doing.
- Phil Cerreta: You mean to supplement their income?
- Betty Ann Carter: What do you think you do when this goes and these are all you have left?
- Betty Ann Carter: Sure, he asked me to do it. $2,500 a week on my back instead of $500 on my feet.
- Mike Logan: Well, it must have been tempting.
- Betty Ann Carter: Maybe to you. But honey, I don't think you'd survive. In my experience, cops just can't perform that often.
- Phil Cerreta: So you never turned a trick, huh?
- Betty Ann Carter.: Those beauty contests, some cracker judge would walk up, put his hands on my ass and offer me more money than I'd ever seen to be his "date". I didn't do it then, I don't do it now. That does not mean I have any cause to look down on those who do.
- Mike Logan: That's real democratic of you.
- Betty Ann Carter: Well, it's a free country. At least I don't drink from the taxpayer's trough like some people.
- Alan Rohmer: I was casting an airline commercial. I needed a stewardess.
- Mike Logan: Oh, yeah? Well, fly me. My initials are "A.B."
- Mike Logan: Well, first she said she was with her ex-husband. Then it turns out she’s at the ad agency.
- Donald Cragen: She’s breaking the law, Mike. What do you want her to say? 'Oh, that's right, Officer, I was out turning tricks'.
- Mike Logan: Hey Phil, you know that warrant you told the health club guy you'd get? Exactly what probable cause did you have in mind?
- Phil Cerreta: A senile judge.
| “ | She’s a hooker, Paul. She slept with her pimp, she got very angry, and she stabbed him. Call Eyewitness News, we've never seen anything like this in New York City before. | ” |
–Donald Cragen | ||
| “ | Murder two? You couldn't convict her of bad manners. | ” |
–Shambala Green | ||
- Benjamin Stone: If we had perfect cases, we wouldn't need juries and "less than perfect" certainly doesn't change my job description.
- Shambala Green: I’ll tell the jury she's on trial because prostitutes are easy targets. She was used by her johns, abused by her pimp, and desperate to support her daughter.
- Benjamin Stone: What am I hearing? A prostitute’s manifesto? Hookers of the world unite, kill your oppressors?
- Adam Schiff: When did we turn this office over to the Marx Brothers? First, nobody checks out this husband's custody suit. Now it turns out nobody checked whose bloomers were whose. You're going for a record here. So what's the theory? Mother walks in, finds the daughter, stabs Decker in front of her. That it?
Background information and notes[]
- In this episode we learn that Executive Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Stone has a daughter.
- Paul Sorvino would later play Claire Danes' father in the 1996 Baz Luhrmann film William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
- Continuity error: David Rosenbaum is credited as "Judge Etten" but his character's nameplate displays his name as "Alan Berman" in this and all subsequent appearances.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
The Celeste Foxx Agency |
Forensics Laboratory |
Supreme Court |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|
|
Manhattan Psychiatric |
District Attorney's |
Riker's Island |
| Previous episode: "The Working Stiff" |
"Skin Deep" Law & Order Season 3 |
Next episode: "Conspiracy" |