SVU Exclusive: Ellen Burstyn Is Stabler's Mom

• Aug 12, 2008 10:04 PM ET
• by TV Guide News

Stabler's mom has got it going on. Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn has been cast as Detective Stabler's bipolar mother on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, TVGuide.com has exclusively learned. My SVU moles hint that Burstyn's visit to the series will be "explosive" (they actually used that word), and with this kind of acting firepower on board, I say bring on the conflagration. Burstyn will appear in only one episode.

Playing complicated matriarchs is nothing new to Burstyn. She won a Best Actress Oscar for playing a young widow and mother in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and has been nominated five other times, including for playing Jared Leto's pill-popping Coney Island ma in Requiem for a Dream. More recently, the actress had a memorable turn on Big Love last season as Barb's loving, dignified, though ultimately disapproving parent.

What do you think of this casting? Can't you just picture Burstyn making Chris Meloni take out the trash? "But, maaa." - Mickey O'Connor

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