Lydia Lebasi (Law & Order: SVU)

Lydia Lebasi (Patti LuPone) is the villainess of "Agent Provocateur", episode 16.11 of Law & Order: SVU (airdate January 14, 2015). She was the manager for famous actor Scott Russo, who was starring in the film Falsely Accused alongside his friend Skye Adderson, a fellow actor and another client of Lydia's.
==Events==
The episode opened with 15-year-old Madison Baker being found overdosed and placed in a suitcase in an alleyway, with Scott being considered a suspect after Madison revealed she was a big fan of Scott's and had come to New York for the purpose of meeting him after they contacted each other over social media. Lydia first appeared with Scott at his apartment as he told detectives Finn Tutuola and Sonny Carisi that he hadn't had sex with Madison after they met up at a party, with Lydia vouching for Scott and asking the detectives to email her any further questions they had. Lydia was also present when Skye was questioned by Tutola and Carisi during a photo shoot, with Skye admitting that Scott had left the bar around the same time as Madison.
Throughout the episode, Lydia continued to argue in Scott's defense, even as video footage was recovered of Scott kissing Madison at the bar and of her showing up at his hotel suite. The incriminating footage was shown to the public by Lenny Simmons, the head of tabloid news program LMZ, with the SVU squad orchestrating a sting operation to get Lenny to confess to his source, after he was arrested for contempt of court for refusing to name them. While talking with Tutola (who was posing as a prisoner and LMZ fan), Simmons revealed his source was none other than Lydia herself, later accepting a deal to cooperate with the detectives in exchange for not having his reputation as a crusader for freedom of press ruined.
==Reveal==
Lydia was later interrogated by Nick Amaro and ADA Rafael Barba, with Lydia blasting Lennie for ratting her out before making a confession, claiming Scott had called her to his suite after Madison overdosed in his room, and that she had given Scott the suitcase he used to take her to the alley while she cleaned up the room, later calling LMZ and having them retrieve the security footage by posing as NYPD. After her confession, Lydia swore to tell the police the full truth, with Scott being arrested shortly afterwards. But it was then that Madison came to the SVU station and revealed the full truth of her assault: she had had sex with Skye, and had lied and claimed Scott had sex with her out of fear that he would hate for her "cheating" on him.
Madison additionally revealed that Scott was truthful in his claims of having turned her down when she came to his suite, and Skye subsequently invited Madison into his room for drinks to comfort her, where Madison suffered an overdose after taking some of Skye's pills for her nerves. Realizing that Lydia and Skye were trying to use Scott as a scapegoat, the SVU detectives decided to goad the pair into a confession by claiming to have found the rest of the security footage. Olivia Benson and Tutuola confront Lydia and Skye while they were at the latter's suite preparing to head on a flight to New Zealand for a new movie deal Skye had landed, with the pair unsuccessfully claiming that Skye had been with Lydia the whole night of Madison's assault.
When told by the detectives that Lydia gave them the rest of the footage (which she quickly denied) and that the footage showed him consoling Madison and later wheeling a suitcase out of his room, Skye panicked and asked if they had any footage of Lydia bringing in the suitcase, outing her as his conspirator. After Skye apologized to Lydia and stated that he couldn't take the fall for his actions, Lydia agreed and contested full responsibilty for the cover-up, claiming Skye had wanted to call an ambulance for Madison after her overdose and that she refused due to not wanting her to ruin his new movie deal. Skye vehemently agreed with Lydia's claims and the villainess pleaded with the detectives to let Skye go and arrest her, only for Benson to instead say they were arresting them both. Before their off-screen arrests, Lydia comforted a worried Skye and assured everything would be alright while referring to him as her "beautiful boy", indicating that her willingness to cover for Skye was motivated by a romantic attraction to him.
Category:2010s
Category:Betrayer
Category:Brunette
Category:Callous
Category:Conspirator
Category:Deceiver
Category:Hero's Friend
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Show Business
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Fate: Arrested