Indifference (Season 1 Episode 9)

On Friday night, after absorbing 90 minutes of turgid presidential debate, Tony and I decided to cleanse our palates with Super Egg and a few episodes of L&O. I'd link to a Super Egg recipe, but shockingly, the  pancake-like affair that my mom has been making since the beginning of time has less Internet presence than our friends Nate & Amanda, who happened to stop by just in time for our third episode of the night, Indifference.

The ep is based on the story of Lisa Steinberg--a child beaten to death by her guardian, Joel Steinberg, who also abused his partner, Hedda Nussbaum--and it provides a moral dilemma that every cast member can have a different opinion about: was Nussbaum culpable for the child's death when she, too, was beaten by Steinberg? I spent a lot of the show wondering whether the case, which was a very big sensation in its day and vilified Nussbaum (who cut an immunity deal), would play the same way today. I think and hope that 20 years later, a lot more people in the criminal justice system better understand the dynamics of domestic abuse. But in case I run out of juice worrying about global warming, McCain/Palin and the financial market meltdown, concern about double jeopardy for victims of domestic violence is a good one to keep in my back pocket.

Speaking of victims, I remember the Steinberg case because my Grandma Gwen felt strongly that, because Joel was Jewish, the whole ugly incident was "Not Good for the Jews." Personally, I take more after my Great Aunt Tootsie, who felt that a Red Sox win was the sort of thing you could classify as not good for the Jews. But I can see my grandmother's point: while we were watching, I couldn't help but mentioning several times to the assembled Christians and dogs that this episode was, really, not good PR for the latke-loving people.

Weirdly, the episode ends with a written disclaimer about how the actual Lisa Steinberg case turned out somewhat differently than the L&O version, in which the Nussbaum character winds up going to jail. Seeing as the show reinterprets headlines all the time, I didn't know what to make of that. Anyone?   

L&O hires the right actor: Nussbaum on the left; Kurtz--who portrays the Nussbaum character, Carla Lowenstein--on the left. Incidentally, Jacob Lowenstein, the Joel Steinberg charcter, is played by David Groh, Valerie Harper's boyfriend on the late great Rhoda.