From Ask Keck:
Melina Kanakaredes Does Double Duty
Melina Kanakaredes—who went behind the scenes as the writer of CSI: NY’s second-to-last episode of the season, airing May 13—confesses she tried to score a free trip to her homeland by writing a plot involving “evidence in a smuggling ring that takes Stella to Greece in pursuit of a murder suspect.”
Because of the poor economy and looming strike threats, the location shoot in Greece was scrapped. “You can’t kill a girl for trying, right? Now we’re trying to find locations to re-create it.” (Might I recommend Sofi’s Greek restaurant on 3rd?)
Not in the least surprised they couldn't swing shooting on location in Greece.
Ah well. I'll be happy enough, I suppose, that Melina will not only have contributed to writing the ep but may in fact also have input to the look and feel of the ep, so that it's realized as close as she'd hoped it would be for wanting to shoot it overseas in the first place.
The episode will spark never-before-realized chemistry between Stella and Mac (Gary Sinise) and “unravels something personal in Stella’s life. She was orphaned as a child and may find out who her biological parents are.” Stella will stumble on a photo of her mother, played by Melina dressed as an older woman. No word yet if Melina will also don a mustache to play her own father.
I hope that 'chemistry' sentence here is from the writer of the news tidbit, and not from the show; I choose not to jump to conclusions as to what it may actually mean
I know everyone immediately thinks Smacked, but Gad help me I hope they don't truly go there. I hope and trust in Melina's input to keep this from falling prey to melodrama where Stella and Mac are concerned, and that the chemistry is more a simple and genuine closeness between them due their long time friendship. I hope 'chemistry' is not gonna be a romantic expression of it. No no no no no. Leave the two main leads of the series untethered in that sense. Aim higher than that, TPTB. Please.
As for her orphan backstory, how credible her discovering any information about her biological parents will be will depend on what's revealed about her personal history in the first place, how she was orphaned and at what age, etc. There's too much I've no clue about to have feelings about how realistic or not it would be for her to find anything out.
Not gonna dismiss any of it yet as being good or bad. Just hoping it exceeds my current expectations of the show, and am wishing it well all the more for Melina's involvement behind the scenes.