page_title: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 10)
section_title: Guest stars
hierarchical_section_title: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 10) / Cast / Guest stars
caption_attribution_description: English: English actress Brenda Blethyn at 43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
context_page_description: The tenth season of the police procedural/legal drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered September 23, 2008, and ended June 2, 2009, on NBC. It was the last season of the show to occupy the Tuesday 10pm/9c timeslot.
context_section_description: The premiere episode "Trials" stars Sara Gilbert as a rape victim who has given up her child and Luke Perry and Julie Bowen as the foster parents who begin taking care of him. When interviewed about his character, Perry stated that "there are always moments when you gotta find the humanity to people who may be considered the bad guy." Gilbert mentioned being a fan of the show and said "People know me more for comedy, I think, so it's always exciting to me when I get to play something so dramatic." For the role of the foster child, the directors held auditions in New York and Los Angeles before casting Jae Head. In the same episode, Mary Beth Evans briefly appeared as a doctor. She said that the head of NBC daytime "wanted to make Days of Our Lives less of an island and get people from our show onto other NBC shows." In the third episode "Swing", Ellen Burstyn portrayed Bernadette Stabler, Elliot Stabler's mother who suffers from bipolar disorder. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for the role.
  The fourth episode "Lunacy" was the first filmed in the season and starred James Brolin as an astronaut who used to be one of Stabler's role models. Kristina Klebe played an astronaut who is murdered and Chris Elliott played an enthusiast who follows them around. Christopher Meloni, who plays Elliot Stabler, joked "Could there be a more confusing actor to have on this show than someone named Chris Elliot?" The following episode "Retro" which criticized the AIDS denialism movement previously had a working title of "Deniers". It was advertised as being "a big Tamara Tunie episode." Tunie was asked about Martin Mull's character in an interview. She answered "What's frightening is that his argument can sound sane. And Martin is smart enough to make one pause." The sixth episode "Babes" starred actor and singer Jesse McCartney as a chastity advocate. He commented that the role took him into new territory, saying "I play a murder suspect, a super-Catholic conservative white boy.  It's definitely a stretch and a leap.  It's an emotional role."
  The seventh episode "Wildlife" was promoted before the season began for an undercover scene that showed chemistry between Detectives Benson and Stabler. One of the animals shown in this episode was an eleven-month-old white handed gibbon named Kimba. His fictional species in the show was named the "white crested gibbon" because there was no way that a critically endangered black crested gibbon could be used in the filming.
  The eighth episode "Persona" guest-starred Brenda Blethyn as Caroline Cantwell, a sympathetic fugitive who has been living under a pseudonym. She was nominated for an Outstanding Guest Actress Emmy for her performance. Michael Trucco played a rapist in the tenth episode "Smut". He mentioned a flurry of comments on his message board from Battlestar Galactica fans following his SVU appearance. Kelly Hu played one of his victims seen at the start of the episode. She blogged "I get to be the victim this time. Fun.", referring to her numerous previous roles as a police officer.
  Bridger Zadina gave a widely acclaimed performance as a male-to-female transgender teen in "Transitions". He was one of over 200 child actors who auditioned for casting director Jonathan Strauss and appeared in Google's list of top 30 searches after the episode aired. "Transitions" was submitted for Emmy contention but not nominated. The following episode "Lead" featured the return of Stephanie March's character, ADA Alexandra Cabot. March expressed excitement about news that she would work with Judith Light again. When interviewed about the episode, Neal Baer said "I always like to play with the format and it also has flashbacks which we rarely do." The sixteenth episode "Ballerina" guest-starred Carol Burnett as retired dancer Birdie Sulloway. Many of the dancing credits her character mentions in the episode are in fact highlights of Burnett's dancing career. She received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for this episode.
  The sevent
caption: Brenda Blethyn is the guest star of the eighth episode
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