The actresses met as children and reconnected decades later.

Watch Jamie Lee Curtis and Mariska Hargitay argue over how to pronounce ‘Los Angeles’: ‘Nobody says that’

The actresses met as children and reconnected decades later.

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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June 15, 2026 5:48 p.m. ET

Jamie Lee Curtis in New York in December 2025; Mariska Hargitay in Beverly Hills on April 22. Credit:

Dave Kotinsky/Getty; Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

- Jamie Lynn Curtis and Mariska Hargitay are addressing the age-old question of what is the proper pronunciation of Los Angeles

- The actresses are part of Hollywood dynasties, met briefly as children, and later reconnected while Hargitay was working on a documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield.

- Curtis called the documentary a "gorgeous movie."

How do you pronounce "Los Angeles"? Ask Jamie Lee Curtis and Mariska Hargitay.

The actresses, who are members of Hollywood dynasties, debated how exactly to pronounce "Los Angeles" during their conversation for *Variety *and CNN's "Actors on Actors." Curtis' parents are actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Hargitay, meanwhile, is the daughter of Jayne Mansfield.

"You explained to me that you were making a doc, you had explained to me that you had come back to Los Angeles, you had gone through the beginning of the storage unit," Curtis said, referring to Hargitay's documentary *My Mom Jayne*. Before the *Freaky Friday** *star could continue, Hargitay paused her.

"I'm trying not to laugh, because you just said Los Angeles," she said, emphasizing the "o" like in the word "ghost."

"Okay, but, what do you call it? Los Feliz," Curtis responded, placing the same emphasis she does in "Los Angeles." Hargitay countered that they're not talking about Los Feliz. "You don't say 'Los Angeles.' If I had a jury here, everyone would vote for me."

The actresses asked those in the studio with them how they would pronounce Los Angeles. While the *Scarpetta** *star pressed their colleagues on their pronunciation, Hargitay had enough.

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"Nobody says that. You guys, please God, let's move on," Hargitay concluded, before apologizing to Curtis as she was about to say "deep s--t."

"You can laugh," the Oscar winner reassured the *Law and Order: Special Victims Unit** *star.

Curtis and Hargitay have more in common than their respective Hollywood lineage; in fact, their lifelong connections to showbiz brought them together decades earlier.

"Nobody knows this: You grew up in a pink house on Sunset Boulevard, which was once owned by Sonny and Cher and later purchased by Tony Curtis," Curtis told Hargitay.

"He married this very young woman. He bought this house, and [you and I] met. There is a photograph of us standing in the driveway. We never saw each other after that. You ask yourself, 'Why don’t we know each other when we have so much history with our families?'"

Mariska Hargitay and Jamie Lee Curtis at the New York 'My Mom Jayne' premiere in June 2025.

Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty

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They would later reconnect as adults through actress Amy Landecker, when Hargitay was filming *My Mom Jayne*. Hargitay called their first phone call "so emotional."

"When we have histories like ours, we are in such a unique and singular position that people just can’t understand it unless they’ve lived it. You’re one of the most deeply sensitive, empathetic, and compassionate humans that I’ve met. Your unique lens on my story was extraordinary," Hargitay said.

Mariska Hargitay and Jamie Lee Curtis at the 2026 NBCUniversal Upfront on May 11 in New York.

Heidi Gutman/NBCUniversal via Getty

Elsewhere in their conversation, Curtis praised *My Mom Jayne *as a "gorgeous movie."

"For anyone uninitiated," she said, "that’s how we met, and that’s where the connective tissue is. It’s deep, raw, human, and has nothing to do with show-off business, even though our whole lives have been in show-off business."

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