Hargitay Takes Emmy Host Gig Despite Friends' Warnings, Debuts Bold Sequin Look

Mariska Hargitay, a television institution shaped by decades of dramatic work, steps into unfamiliar territory as host of the 78th Emmy Awards — a role her closest confidants urged her to decline. In a year already defined by Broadway and the continued demands of 'Law & Order: SVU,' she has chosen to add the particular vulnerability of live ceremony hosting to her portfolio. It is the kind of decision that reveals something essential about a person: not recklessness, but a deliberate willingness to be seen differently, to risk the comfort of a well-earned reputation in pursuit of something new