Detectives Benson and Stabler take a tour of the French Embassy. Image source: Netflix. You may have spent countless hours watching all fifteen glorious seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, studiously tracking the evolution of Olivia Benson’s hairstyles, but did you know that the scenes at the creepy billionaire’s mansion in episode 15 of Season 12 were filmed at the French Embassy? The embassy lent its opulence to the episode, entitled Flight, as the home of a defense contractor who has a thing for younger females. The Office of Cultural Services of the French Consulate is housed in the former mansion of Payne Whitney (brother-in-law to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney the founder of the Whitney Museum). The high Italian Renaissance palazzo has a bow-front facade and Corinthian pilasters that can be seen when you look up at 972 Fifth Avenue. According to a 1996 article published in The New York Times the house was a… Read More