12 Law & Order episodes ripped from the headlines

The opening disclaimer of many episodes of the Law & Order franchise reads, "The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event." Despite these definitive words, as anyone who has ever marathoned the show knows, many of said stories take direct inspiration from real headlines. Ahead, 12 episodes from Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent that referenced major news stories that had everyone talking.

Josh Duggar's scandal involving his alleged history of molestation inspired a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode in 2015. Much like Duggar, the character on the episode is the star of a reality show about a large religious family – this time called 13aker's Dozen. The story line also included issues of molestation in the family and the attempt by the parents to handle the problems on their own.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit opened its 17th season September 2015 by taking inspiration from real estate heir Robert Durst. The episode nodded to the happenings of the hit HBO series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, as the episode's alleged killer confessed to the crime in a bathroom, muttering, "This is unfortunate. I think I killed that woman and cut her up."

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit worked in a reference to Solange and Jay-Z's famed 2014 post-Met Ball elevator fight in the beginning of the 16th season. While much of the story line focused on an athlete who had fallen out of favor, the two performers (Henry Simmons and Kelley Missal) were worked in with a scene in which the athlete was seen in an elevator's security footage, being attacked by one of his female associates after wronging her.

In Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's 15th season, the show combined the events of Trayvon Martin's death with the scandal involving Paula Deen's use of racial slurs. The teenage boy who died in the episode was shot by a blonde celebrity chef with a history of racism.

The horrendous 2009 domestic violence that allegedly took place between Chris Brown and Rihanna served as inspiration for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's 14th season. In the episode, the two characters inspired by the performers got into a bit of a spat before the male singer beat up his girlfriend.

Hilary Duff guest-starred in a 2009 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that took clear direction from Casey Anthony and the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. In SVU's take, the little girl's grandmother called authorities to report her disappearance, leading to a trial.

An episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent's sixth season took inspiration from the life of the late Anna Nicole Smith. The bombshell in the episode is a blonde woman who marries an older billionaire. Much like the tragedy of Smith and her late son Daniel Smith, the woman died after the death of her son.

Nodding to a similar alleged incident that took place with Mel Gibson in 2006, a Season 17 episode of Law & Order featured a character played by Chevy Chase. The man in question was a somewhat washed-up actor who got pulled over by police and hurled anti-Semitic insults at those detaining him.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent took on the shocking death of JonBenét Ramsey in 2006, 10 years after the little girl was killed at the age of 6. The episode focused on the death of a child beauty queen, much like Ramsey, and the confusing investigation that ensued.

A character in the fifth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was a wealthy man who had sleepovers with children much like those described in the mid-'00s trial of Michael Jackson.

A season 13 episode of Law & Order featured a rock-star couple who took inspiration from Courtney Love and the late Kurt Cobain. While the story went in a different direction when the character who mirrored Love ended up passing away in the episode, there was a storyline involving Cobain's character's band and the rockers' relationship to the deceased female performer.

In its 12th season, Law & Order adapted a 1999 incident, in which Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Jennifer Lopez were allegedly present when a shooting took place at Manhattan's Club New York. In the show's version of events, the character inspired by Lopez was responsible for the violence.