What was the 2nd Law & Order based on tonight?

Cafe Society
1

Anyone see the second of the two Law & Order: CI episodes that were on this evening? The premise was…

SPOILER!
…there was a website and book devoted to this sick kid who had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and people were donating all kinds of money and equipment to her. Turns out her foster mother made the whole thing up and there was no sick kid.
END SPOILER
They ran the little “based on true events” disclaimer before the show started, but I never heard of anything like this happening. Does anyone know the true story it was based on?

2

Well, for the answer, look two places. Try “The Night Listener”, by Armstead Maupin. Then, when you’re finished, find the article he wrote about writing the book for New Yorker magazine.
Of course, Mr. Maupin is still amongst the living.

cyn