Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay are besties on and off screen.

During a brief appearance on Hargitay’s October 21 episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast, Meloni was interviewed about his friend and SVU co-star. He couldn’t help but bring up another story about Hargitay that will bring a smile to every fan’s face.

Amy Poehler mentioned that Meloni and Hargitay enjoy doing “bits” while they’re on set together, and the Law & Order: Organized Crime leading man not only confirmed it, but told a hilarious story revolving around his co-star’s fictitious boyfriend named “Gerald.”

According to Meloni, early in their Law & Order: Special Victims Unit tenure together, Hargitay was “going out on dates,” which led to a hilarious running joke between the two of them.

“I said, ‘You should be dating a guy named Gerald,'” he explained to Poehler. “And why that struck us as funny, we don’t know.” Meloni revealed that Hargitay was fully committed to the bit and ran full speed ahead with it.

“But all of a sudden, she had a phantom guy she was dating that she was really in love with, but it was difficult to manage — with Gerald,” Meloni explained.

“There’s nothing like a fake boyfriend,” Poehler quipped.

But the story gets better; Meloni then recalled a particular moment from a day of filming.

“I said, ‘Gerald’s here, but I told him to get lost because you’re working,'” he recalled. “In the middle of like, setting up a scene. And she goes, ‘Gosh, Chris! You’re not allowed to do that! And she starts running out, she goes, ‘Gerald!'”

We must admit, the visual of Hargitay making a big scene, yelling at her co-star, and running off set screaming the name of a boyfriend who doesn’t exist is pure hilarity — and Meloni thinks so, too. What a wonderful relationship the two have.

“There you go — it makes no sense, it’s not even particularly funny. But it’s funny to us,” Meloni confessed.

Watch Christopher Meloni in Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5

Although the fifth season of Meloni’s Law & Order spinoff wrapped up in June 2025, all Season 5 episodes are being re-aired on NBC every Thursday night.

Fans can catch Meloni in Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 on Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC, after new episodes of Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU premiere at 8/7c and 9/8c, respectively.