Ripped from the Headlines

The Daily News reports that the (not) subject of Wednesday’s Law & Order is threatening to sue the show:

Guardian Angel leader and radio host Curtis Sliwa, infuriated by the portrayal of a Sliwa-inspired character on “Law & Order,” said yesterday he may sue the popular NBC show.

Sliwa’s character was played by Jose Zuniga as a hypocritical, philandering, self-righteous, publicity-seeking phony who sacrifices his principles for the lure of a satellite radio show.

“As Seinfeld used to say, I was ‘bizarro’d’,” Sliwa groused yesterday. “This was a world where everything up was down. My character was so despicable that he deserved to get shot.”

The “Law & Order” episode used as its springboard the shooting of Sliwa in 1992, allegedly on the orders of mob heir John A. (Junior) Gotti.

At the end of the show, the Sliwa character declined to identify his assailants from the witness stand, seduced by the payoff of the satellite radio show.

“That was the worst part,” said Sliwa. “Twelve years I’ve been waiting to get on the stand and finger those guys. That will be a highlight of my life.”

After Sliwa was shot, there were rumors he arranged it to cover up an affair.

While recent real-life government disclosures have since pinned the hit on Gotti, the TV show ran with the affair angle.

Sliwa panned the show in an interview with the Daily News after watching the episode Wednesday night.

He lashed out again on his WABC radio show yesterday morning.

“The whole show was a massive disinformation effort by [‘Law & Order’ executive producer] Dick Wolf,” said Sliwa.

Sliwa said he will consult “a phalanx of legal beagles and see what’s possible. This is a very popular show. It could follow me for a long time.”

If he does sue, he can take a number. Brooklyn lawyer Ravi Batra just filed a $15 million defamation suit against “Law & Order,” saying it portrayed a character based on him as corrupt.

A spokeswoman for the program said yesterday, “‘Law & Order’ is fiction. It’s not anybody’s life story.”

A “phalanx of legal beagles”? Now there’s an image . . .