“In our social system, the wedding of two people in love is considered especially joyous,” reads the save the date from Kelly Heenan and John Damask, who plan to get married in St. Paul in August. “Two dedicated individuals will become members of an elite civil union known as Mr. and Mrs. John and Kelly Damask. This is their wedding date.”
(Insert the requisite “dun dun” sound here.)
What started as a goofy “Law & Order”-inspired pre-invite ended up attracting the attention of none other than actor Chris Meloni, who plays Detective Elliot Stabler on the long-running “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and the recent spin-off “Law & Order: Organized Crime.”
It began with a playful tweet from Meloni: “Let’s interact guys!” Heenan, whose Twitter bio includes the line “Elliot Stabler stan account,” took him up on the challenge and responded with the message “Chris please come to my wedding” and a photo of the front of her save the date, which is designed to resemble the “Law & Order” logo.
Meloni’s response: “And do what?”
With that, Twitter took off running with hundreds of users offering responses like “Arrest her, I imagine,” “I’m guessing ‘take fiance’s place at the altar’ is what she’s going for” and “Serve hors d’oeuvres? The guests will be ‘that guy looks just like Stabler’ all night. Could be fun and you’ll have all the crab cakes you could desire.” The latter got a reply from Meloni, who said, “Intriguing …”
Others used Meloni’s tweet as an excuse to thirst over the 61-year-old, whose impressively muscular rear end caused a Twitter frenzy in the spring of 2021, as did his scantily clad Men’s Health photo shoot later that year and his au naturel Peloton ad in July. One user suggested “Reenact your Peloton commercial at the reception” while another cut right to the chase with a photo illustration captioned “All hail Chris Meloni’s butt.”
As for Hennan — who did not reply to multiple interview requests — she responded with: “I accidentally blew the budget on disco balls and peacock feathers, so do you have a camera? Or a makeup kit? Box cake mix?”
Here’s their Twitter exchange:
I accidentally blew the budget on disco balls and peacock feathers, so do you have a camera? Or a makeup kit? Box cake mix? pic.twitter.com/bXqcSZQQga
— Kel loves orange soda (@kellyheenan) December 4, 2022
At this point, it’s unclear whether Meloni will show up for the nuptials. (We’re guessing he won’t.) But wedding guests can rest assured they won’t stumble upon a TV crime scene in the alleyway outside the wedding.
“Can’t believe I have to say this, but the actual wedding theme is NOT Law and Order,” Hennan wrote in a tweet. “That’s just the save the dates. The theme is ‘Palace of Versailles meets Rainforest Cafe,’ which I’m told is equally absurd but trust me there’s a *vision.*”
