There's no doubt about it: Elisabeth Hasselbeck is scrappy. The "View" co-star (and, lest we forget, former "Survivor" finalist) lashed out at "Law & Order: SVU" this week on the air after SVU ran an episode in which a victim named "Elizabeth Hassenbeck" is raped -- twice -- and then murdered. Totally creepy, right? You'd think the L&O people would be aghast at the coincidence -- if it was a coincidence. However, Hasselbeck does not think it was a coincidence, and anyway, L&O's executive producer was not, according to Hasselbeck, aghast, or contrite, and come to think of it, did not actually apologize.
This, at least, is how Hasselbeck recounts it on "The View" -- actually quite reasonably, for those of you who may doubt it. Amidst gentle prompting from Barbara, tart interjections from Rosie and generic filler from Joy (who has ceded serious camera time to Rosie), Hasselbeck told of calling up L&O: SVU exec producer Neal Baer to complain about the use of her almost-name for a horribly violated and victimized woman. Baer's response, when he "eventually" called her back, was to dismiss her concerns, saying she should "chalk that up to coincidence" and she said "Really? That's funny. Because your show is so not based on coincidence, and pulls things from the headlines and is so focused on headlines, so I'm having a hard time chalking this up to coincidence." A fair point, that.