"Law & Order: SVU" Fans Can Relax

After an extremely protracted negotiation, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have reupped with what is currently the most successful of the "L&O" franchises. Both will be paid about $330,000 per episode (about $7.2 million a year), putting them at or near the top of the TV heap. That's a far cry from Dick Wolf's glory days, when he would change stars on "L&O" the way you and I change socks. But it was the right thing to do: they've been the stars of the show since the beginning and it's a different beast than "L&O" with a lot more backstory. So what is Richard Belzer gonna get?