TV’s ‘Law & Order’ to air Strauss-Kahn-like rape case

WASHINGTON—In a story line inspired by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn assault case, a prominent European is arrested and accused of rape in the season premiere of US courtroom drama “Law & Order: SVU,” TV Guide has reported.

Italy-born veteran screen and stage actor Franco Nero — who appeared in last year’s film “Letters to Juliet” with his wife Vanessa Redgrave — stars as an Italian dignitary at the center of a criminal sex scandal.

The NBC show’s plots often mimic real-life cases that make headlines.

While a source close to the show said the episode was inspired by the sensational Strauss-Kahn case, a spokesperson for the production company behind “Law & Order” told the weekly entertainment magazine the show was fiction.

The episode is set to air September 21.

Strauss-Kahn was head of the International Monetary Fund and considered a likely candidate for the French presidency at the time of his arrest in May in New York, where he stands accused of assaulting a housekeeper in his luxury hotel suite and forcing her to give him oral sex.

His arrest led to one of the most explosive criminal cases to rock the world of globe-trotting VIPs in years, but the case against Strauss-Kahn suffered dents when prosecutors announced doubts about the maid’s credibility.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, and his lawyers accuse the housekeeper, West African immigrant Nafissatou Diallo, of trying to make money out of their wealthy client.