Michelle Trachtenberg

L&ONELY GIRL ABDUCTED WEB MYSTERY GAL

Michelle Trachtenberg is a video blogger - modeled after Lonely Girl 15

November 24, 2006 — ’LAW & Order" has built a franchise on its "ripped from the headlines" approach.

But this Tuesday’s episode of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" goes one step further in its depiction of a cyber-kidnapping (believed to be a TV first).

"This is ’pre-ripping’ from the headlines," says "CI" executive producer/head writer Warren Leight.

The episode, entitled "Weeping Willow," stars Michelle Trachtenberg ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") as "Willow," a popular online video blogger whose violent kidnapping is streamed in real time on the Internet.

She and her boyfriend are held hostage by two hooded assailants demanding ransom in the form of downloads from "Willow" fans (at $1.99 a pop).

It’s up to "CI" detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson) to figure out if the kidnapping is real - or an elaborate online hoax.

"Forget about 15 minutes of fame - there are hundreds of people who get their 15 inches of bandwidth, people making names for themselves on Youtube and others," Leight says, alluding to post-it-yourself video sites.

(The video site used in "Weeping Willow" is called "YouLenz.")

"This blogging phenomenon has created a certain kind of ’cyberfame,’ people who don’t have to do anything more than put themselves on the Web and catch a cyberwave," Leight says.

"We now have a spate of very strange celebrities."

Leight says the twentysomething "Willow" is modeled after "lonelygirl15," a video blogger who became an online sensation earlier this year on Youtube.com.

"Lonelygirl," ostensibly a 15-year-old girl, was later exposed as a fictitious character played by an actress and created by two filmmakers.

"At this moment in time, people will do anything to be famous, and this is about the nature of fame at the moment," Leight says of the episode.

"It’s fun to play with the detectives’ expectations.

"Their biggest frustration is trying to understand what’s real and what isn’t," Leight says. "Does this woman, Willow, really exist, and has something happened to her?

"Is she playing a character and a game that’s gotten out of hand? And how do you locate someone in cyberspace?"

Wheeler, Logan’s younger partner, immediately suspects a hoax - while Logan isn’t so sure, especially when real blood is found at the crime scene.

"When we were preparing the episode, I talked to several DAs and asked them what the charge would be [for cyber-kidnapping]," Leight says. "They told me that this is a real problem, that there’s a lag between what’s on the books now and what’s happening out there.

"They said that we’re starting to see this type of stuff, and they have no idea on how to [legally] handle it."

The episode, which also features cameos from actor Wallace Shawn and CNN’s Larry King, airs Tuesday (9 p.m./Ch. 4).