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Alfred Molina Will Try to Save Law & Order: LA by Playing a Cop

Letting Skeet Ulrich go was just the first part of executive producer Dick Wolf’s plan to fix Law & Order: LA’s middling ratings. Alfred Molina, who currently plays a Deputy District Attorney on the show, will now play a cop. (Turns out, unbeknownst to viewers, Molina’s character was a fifteen-year LAPD vet before becoming a prosecutor. Sometimes it’s convenient when you don’t know a thing about a character’s personal life!) This will leave Terrence Howard as the show’s only D.D.A and allow it to have both Molina and Howard on every episode. (They had been switching off.) In the words of Wolf, “We have the fortune of two world class actors on LOLA, and it was frustrating to have one on the bench every week. It would be like having Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as your quarterbacks, playing alternate games,” and, to extend the analogy, having Skeet Ulrich–equivalent Matt Leinart playing in their stead. [Deadline]

Alfred Molina Will Try to Save Law & Order: LA by Playing a Cop