Law & Order: Los Angeles Episode 1.01 Hollywood

Nighttime is the right time for cruising Hollywood's glittery Sunset Strip. Starlet Chelsea Sennett and her mom Trudy screech up to Edison, the club of the moment, to hundreds of paparazzi flashes. Manager Nick Manto gets them situated, then points Chelsea in the direction of handsome young actor Colin Blakely. Within minutes, Chelsea and Colin are making out, while Colin's girlfriend Melinda is home alone, and hearing odd noises. She makes a run for it, but her assailant beats her around the face with a pillowcase filled with the booty he's just stolen, leaving her bloody and unconscious on the floor. The next morning, LAPD detectives TJ Jaruszalski and Rex Winters investigate the scene as a battered Melinda recovers from her skull fracture in the hospital.

While Winters is dealing with a newborn at home, TJ is hip to the Hollywood scene, having grown up in it. He already has the dope on Miranda's boyfriend Colin. He was bussing tables last year - and now he makes $3 million a picture. Colin found Miranda upon returning home at dawn, then insisted on riding in the ambulance with her. TJ and Winters have been investigating a series of robberies targeting high-profile young stars, and this one fits the pattern. No forced entry, and the robber took what he found laying around: three grand in cash and eight Rolexes. The detectives proceed to the hospital to question Miranda, who doesn't have much to tell them, other than she's pretty sure Colin was spending last night with another girl.

Colin tells TJ he left the club at 1:00 a.m., then went back to a buddy's place to pass out. He refuses to name names until his people talk to her people. When TJ offers to ask any of a dozen paparazzi, Colin insists he didn't cheat on Miranda. Moments later, TJ climbs into Winter's car to explain that Colin cheated on Miranda with Chelsea, a former child star, who's fallen on hard times and who is prone to the party life. Neither Chelsea nor her mom Trudy recognize Miranda's assailant from the police sketch. When TJ reveals they're really looking for burglars working the club circuit, Chelsea points them to her friend Vicky, heiress and recent burglary victim.

At a tony salon, Vicky shows TJ and Winters a photo of her stolen designer T-shirt, a one-off worth two grand. That was the night Chelsea threw a drink at her ex-boyfriend K.K., now a reality show star. TJ muses that there's probably dozens of Vickys out there who don't even know they were burgled, and decides to create a Facebook page for her stolen shirt. Later that night, they track down Toni, who's wearing the shirt outside a club. Toni admits to buying it off an Asian girl named Kai, who's often outside clubs with shopping bags full of clothes. After a DMV search, Winters quickly identifies Kai Ng, and the detectives decide it's time to consult paparazzo Moshie, who agrees to work with them if they'll give him first dibs on future break-ins.

After several hours, Winters and Moshie establish a pattern for four of the burglary dates. Each night, Kai and a nameless blonde were photographed at the same club as Chelsea. Meanwhile, a young guy named Sam tries to sell Nick Manto the eight Rolexes stolen from Colin, unhappy that Manto refuses to pay what they're worth. Sam climbs into his car, which also contains Kai and the blond. The girls want to take off for Palm Springs, but Sam insists they need to do one last job. Dressed in black, they enter an unlocked home, searching for valuables. Sam hears a noise, and wheels around just in time to spy Trudy pointing a gun at him. Trudy fires, Sam falls dead, and the girls take off. When Winters and TJ show up to investigate in the morning, Trudy tells them she doesn't recognize Sam. Things like this aren't supposed to happen to people like her and Chelsea.

On the way out, TJ and Winters catch Chelsea giving an improptu press conference defending Trudy at the gates of their home. Back at the Robbery Homicide Division (RHD), they run into Deputy DA Evelyn Price. and explain their desire to keep focusing on Chelsea, who might be heading the bling ring. Trudy wasn't supposed to be home and got in the way. When Price demands to know why a movie star would logically get involved in burglary, Winters explains that Chelsea was fired off her last two movies, and has been spending money like water. Price agrees to tell Assistant DA Peter Morales to stall, and the guys head off to question Chelsea's ex, reality star K.K. on the set of his show.

K.K. claims he still loves Chelsea and always will. Before they dated, no one knew his name, and now he's got his own reality show! But he'd give it all up, just to get back together with Chelsea. K.K. reluctantly identifies Sam as a guy who might have been in his acting class. Acting coach Jay Bickson remembers Sam audited his class using several last names, and pulls an expensive headshot out of his files. Sam was proud of the photo, and claimed it was going to make him a star. The detectives proceed to question photographer Maria Olsen, who usually shoots portraits of the rich and famous. She claims she met Sam at a party, and was shocked when he was able to pay her fee. She also remembers Kai from the shoot, which took place on the roof of the SLS Hotel.

TJ and Winters proceed to the SLS, where a former cop buddy is head of security. Jim Bikel can't find any hotel record of Sam under any of his identities. When Winters asks if there's a record of Chelsea Sennett during the same time frame, Bikel snorts. Chelsea's been banned from the hotel for two years, and so has her mom - for humping a boy toy in the elevator. Within minutes, Bikel's showing them surveillance video of Trudy making out with Sam in an elevator. Meanwhile, Assistant DA Morales holds a press conference, promising that his office, in conjunction with the LAPD, will conduct a full investigation, but he's not considering any charges until the investigation is complete.

TJ and Winters meet with Morales and Price to expound their theory that Trudy may have lied about knowing Sam to protect Chelsea. They head out to interview Sam's father, Frank Loomis. Sam used to call his dad every week and send money. All Frank knows is that Sam used to stay with a friend named Tanya in Palm Springs. TJ and Winters haul Tanya and Kai to RHD for questioning as Morales watches. Tanya finally cracks, admitting the bling ring was all Sam's idea. After the robberies he would sell their booty to Nick Manto, the only fence they knew. Before long, Manto sits in the DA's conference room with his lawyer, Theo Corker. When threatened with nine felonies and attempted murder, Manto offers to give up the real leader of the bling ring, but only in exchange for immunity.

Offering a hypothetical, Manto tells a story of a woman with money trouble who's got a boy on the side that no one knows. She gets him to steal jewelry for her, then sell the goods to Manto for a song. Manto resells, then splits profits with the woman. The daughter has nothing to do with it, although the mother does send her off to party with the right people as a distraction. The woman promised to make the boy a star, but when he found out he was being played, he wound up dead. The cops flagged nine jobs, but there's been more like 25. When Morales claims he can't corroborate the story, Manto points him to the TMZ tip line. It's not long before the LAPD escorts a handcuffed Trudy to a squad car, as a shattered Chelsea wrings her hands.

It turns out that Sam left an anonymous tip for TMZ 48 hours before he was shot, accusing Trudy of using Chelsea to cover her thievery. Trudy's lawyer Jeb Monroe is nonplussed; their claims depend on the word of Manto, an admitted felon, and Trudy's disgruntled spouse! Trudy chimes in, claiming spousal privilege. Later, Manto admits to the DAs that he and Trudy never lived as husband and wife, although they do still have marital relations. Later, Judge Hirsh clarifies spousal privilege for all involved: privacy is privacy, but it can't be used to hide conspiracy. Afterwards, Price and Morales inform Chelsea of their intention to subpoena her. When Chelsea promises to lie on the stand and make them look like idiots, Morales lets her off the hook.

Trudy's trial gets underway, and Morales puts Winters on the stand to establish that she claimed not to recognize Sam when shown his corpse. Monroe effectively establishes that Trudy may have been in shock on cross-examination. Next witness: Nick Manto. Morales has him repeat Trudy's bling ring strategy, and Chelsea hears for the first time that her mother may have used her to distract the marks. Monroe accuses Manto of resenting Trudy. He was jealous of her relationship with Sam and decided to implicate her in a conspiracy she had nothing to do with. Manto counters with a demand: if he hates Trudy so much, why'd he lend her $400,000? And if their relationship was so lousy, why'd she pay him back three weeks later?

During a break, Morales takes Manto back to his office for details on the $400,000, which happened before the burglaries. Trudy asked for money to cover a shortfall so Chelsea wouldn't find out. She paid Manto back on Halloween. Price discovers three separate payments to Trudy's account within a week that add up to exactly $400,000, and they all came from one source. TJ and Winters scramble over to K.K.'s Hollywood Hills pad for a second interview. K.K. admits that he paid Trudy a producer's fee. But there was nothing to produce, and K.K. and Chelsea hooked up 10 days after the payments - it was all over the Internet. After some prodding by TJ, K.K. admits that Trudy promised to get Chelsea to date him for six months. Chelsea never knew anything about it.

Back in court, Monroe puts Trudy on the stand. Although she admits she promised to help Sam with his career, she would never force him into a part in one of Chelsea's movies; she'd never interfere in her daughter's career. Also, Trudy never knew Sam was part of any bling ring. On cross, Morales steers Trudy towards talking about her working relationship with Chelsea. Although Trudy worked as a waitress while pushing Chelsea to stardom, she couldn't manage one meeting for Sam. And although she claims she wouldn't trade on Chelsea's name, Chelsea's contract rider does provide for Trudy quite handsomely. Trudy claims to be a producer, though she's never produced anything her daughter wasn't in. In fact, all Trudy's income comes from Chelsea.

Morales pushes harder, asking Trudy if she's ever secretly profited from being Chelsea's mother. She's never taken payment for getting Chelsea to wear a certain brand of sunglasses? Or show up at a restaurant? How about to have sex with a boy? Morales adds K.K. as a rebuttal witness, then offers Trudy an opportunity to change her answer. Trudy asks the judge for a moment with her lawyer as Chelsea starts to panic. In the conference room, Trudy pleads with Morales to leave K.K. out of it, and Monroe accuses him of blackmail. After conferring, Monroe offers voluntary manslaughter, but Morales insists that what Trudy did was first-degree murder.

When Trudy claims to love her daughter, Morales accuses her of living through Chelsea. Trudy explains that's what parents do - what did Morales' father do for a living? Morales admits his father was a groundskeeper at a tony country club, not his dream job. Softening, Morales lays down his final offer of second-degree murder, 15 to life, agreeing that Trudy's deal with K.K. remain secret. After the jury hands over a guilty verdict, Trudy and Chelsea cry in each other's arms before Trudy's led away to jail. Winters thinks someone should tell Chelsea the truth, but TJ insists she wouldn't believe it anyway. When Chelsea emerges from the courtroom, papprazzi descend like roaches, so Winters takes her in hand and helps her out the back way, as even uninvolved bystanders pull out their phones to snap photos of the poor little rich girl.