Okay, I know that saying that District Attorney Jack McCoy stopped by Baltimore last week is stretching it a bit… mostly because McCoy isn’t technically “real” or whatever. But a girl suffering from Law & Order withdrawal has to cling to whatever hope she’s got.
In reality, it was of course actor Sam Waterston who stopped by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to accept the school’s Goodermote Humanitarian Award. And while Jack McCoy may have been an upstanding DA, it turns out that Waterston himself might be an even more admirable person. “Mr. Waterston’s acting accomplishments are well-known, but his work as an advocate for the displaced victims of war is far less celebrated,” Michael Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School said at the ceremony. Refugees are Waterston’s particular area of advocacy; after starring in (and receiving an Oscar nomination for) The Killing Fields, a film about the Khmer Rouge’s brutal reign in Cambodia, Waterston became a board member of Refugees International. He’s also been active in many other charitable organizations.
If you missed the ceremony, check it out here. And if you just like picturing McCoy and his eyebrows frowning sagely at the mean streets of Baltimore, you might want to check out the two-part Homicide/Law & Order crossover episode “Baby, It’s You.”
