Plus an excerpt of an Warren Leigh interview - Law & Order SVU Boss on Season 14: "Everybody Has Secrets"
Leight: I did Criminal Intent for seven years. One of the things that's strange is SVU fans watch Law & Order and Criminal Intent fans watch Law & Order, but Criminal Intent fans do not watch SVU. There's not as much crossover between those shows as you might guess. And now that there's only one show left, I'd like to bring those fans together. When we started to plot the fourth episode, we needed a Homeland Security agent. I didn't want to just keep throwing new people into this mix, and our casting director said "What about your old friend Katie?" We were all like, "That's it. We're done."
Leight: Once Katie said yes, we retooled the script a bit. The backstory is she worked the Major Case Unit for over a decade. Her partner left and she was looking for something new. She's on loan to Homeland Security on a joint terrorism task force, which is high stakes and her character can handle that. It was great to have scenes between Katie and Mariska. These are two women who had long-term partnerships with difficult guys. These are two people who've been underestimated - who've worked just as hard, just as long -and people don't quite get how good they are.
Leight: She'll come back. I don't know exactly when, but she'll be coming back. Katie is so believable as an NYPD cop. The notion of bringing in someone new when she was just sitting there seems crazy to me. She's tough and she can be funny, but don't mess with her.