NEW ORLEANS — Harry Connick Jr. and two of his leading ladies will ride in this year's Orpheus carnival parade in his hometown.
Two-time Academy Award-winner Hillary Swank and Mariska Hargitay, an Emmy and Golden Glove winning actress, will join Connick as a celebrity monarch for Orpheus which rolls through New Orleans on Lundi Gras — the Monday before Mardi Gras. Swank worked with Connick in the film "P.S. I Love You," while Hargitay is Connick's love interest on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."
The trio joins previously announced celebrity monarchs — rocker Bret Michaels, singer Cyndi Lauper, Modern Families' Sarah Hyland and her boyfriend, actor Matt Prokop of High School Musical 3.
Connick co-founded the Mardi Gras carnival super krewe in 1993 with Captain Sonny Borey and it has 1,200 members.