Mariska Hargitay Fulfills Comedy Dream in Guru
Mariska Hargitay by Jim Spellman/WireImage.com
Critics agree.
Mariska Hargitay is the funniest - some say the only funny - element in
Mike Myers' current flick,
The Love Guru.
They're not talking about the stunning
SVU star - though she does have an amusing cameo. One of the movie's biggest laughs comes from Guru Pitka's appropriation of her unusual name as his mantra. So how does Hargitay feel about being immortalized in such a way? "It's hilarious," she tells
TV Guide. "It took Mike Myers to finally teach everybody how to pronounce my name properly! It's not Marissa Hagerty. God bless Mike Myers."
The actress says it all started when a mutual friend, producer Eric Gilliland, mentioned to her name to Myers. "I was told Mike's eyes lit up and he just started riffing on 'Mariska Hargitay.'"
Several years ago, she went to see Myers doing his character Guru Pitka in a workshop packed with his friends. "The first thing out of his mouth is 'I am Guru Pitka. Mariska Hargitay.' I thought I was being punk'd. I'm going, 'OK, is this a joke on me?' He must have said my name 60 times."
The actress continued with, "Then last fall, I get a call and it was like, 'Hi, this is Mike Myers.' And I'm like, 'Are you sure?' He asked me if it was OK to use my name in the movie. He sent me the script and said, 'I promise you I'll take care of you. And then asked me to be in the movie! I've been wanting to do comedy for 15 years and I keep getting cast as cops. So I flew up there and we just had a blast. It was the most fun I've had in years." -
Ileane Rudolph
