THE LINEUP: Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach)/Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt)/Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson); Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston)/Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell)/Adam Schiff (Steven Hill).

THE PLOT: A rich man with a much younger wife winds up dead after he throws a Christmas party for disadvantaged youth.

WHY TO WATCH: Based on the controversy surrounding Anna Nicole Smith’s marriage to the much older oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, this episode has a slew of one-liners, a panoply of suspects, and a gloriously scene-chewing performance by Daytime Emmy Award winner Anna Kathryn Holbrook, who plays Velma Darcy, the silver-tongued, Texas-raised mother of the young bride. Velma’s been living her dream life in a New York hotel suite and has zero intention of giving up the good life anytime soon.

THE ONE-LINER: “Oh, girl. You are as dumb as a sack of hair.” – Velma Darcy.