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Joe Biden Will Introduce Lady Gaga At The Oscars
Joe Biden (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
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Vice President Joe Biden will be at the Academy Awards on Sunday, the first VP to attend the ceremony since President Herbert Hoover's second-in-command Charles Curtis attended in 1931.According to The Hollywood Reporter, Biden will be introducing Lady Gaga's performance of "Til It Happens to You," which is nominated for best original song. It was featured in the documentary The Hunting Ground, which explores the horrifying prevalence of campus rape—fitting, considering Biden has long been an advocate against domestic and sexual violence, and he drafted the Violence Against Women Act as a U.S. Senator in 1994. According to NBC, Biden will be using the opportunity to promote the White House's campaign against sexual assault called "It's On Us." (Sidebar: Our angelic animal saving boyfriend Jon Hamm is also involved with the campaign.)
As THR noted, this means that security will be "even tighter than usual." Streets were already closed in Hollywood last weekend, and won't reopen until March 1. Even before it was announced that Biden would be at the Oscars, there were reports that security at the ceremony would essentially render the Dolby Theater at Hollywood & Highland "a military state."
Security precautions in place include bomb-sniffing dogs (already a common feature of red carpet events like this), a security detail responsible for sweeping for explosives inside, teams of snipers, and subterranean rooms or a safe house set up nearby.
"I think he'll stay for the entire ceremony because he wants the attention, and I expect him to sit in the audience," journalist Kessler told THR. "And you could speculate that he's still considering a run for the presidency."
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