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Aubrey Plaza recalls stealing a note from Joe Biden’s desk: ‘I pocketed it’

‘And it’s sad because I lost it. Can you imagine if I’d kept it? I could’ve framed it or sold it,’ actor said

Inga Parkel
Monday 20 February 2023 21:00 GMT
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Aubrey Plaza Cast in ‘The White Lotus’ Season 2 at HBO | THR News

Aubrey Plaza explained herself after admitting she once stole a note from US President Joe Biden’s desk.

Both famous Delawareans, the Emily the Criminal star and Biden have met several times, before Plaza was famous and before Biden was president.

In conversation with The New Yorker, Plaza remembered the first time she met the then-US Vice President at a “Joe Biden youth-leadership conference” and “had a stare-down with” him.

“I was really angry about the conference – and, in fact, I had a stare-down with Joe Biden from the audience, because he asked how it went, and I raised my hand immediately, and I was, like, ‘It’s bulls***. This conference sucks. You didn’t let us talk. This was supposed to be about the students,’” she recalled.

“I was always trying to rabble-rouse at that point. And he did not like it. I remember his face got really red. He used to get really fiery when he would make speeches. It was crazy.”

When asked if she and Biden eventually made up during his cameo on Parks and Recreation, the 38-year-old actor confirmed, “Yeah, we did”, before sharing a “really funny story” from the time they filmed the sitcom at the White House.

“They gave us a tour of the Vice President’s office. Before the tour, I saw him, and he knew my name. He was, like, ‘Aubrey!’ Whenever I see him, he always tells me the same story,” Plaza began.

Aubrey Plaza and Joe Biden (Getty Images)

“His first wife went to the same high school that I went to, so he always tells me about how he used to wait outside the convent for her because it’s an all-girls Catholic school – and it’s a very sweet story, but I’ve heard it a lot. I was, like, ‘I know, Joe! She went to Ursuline!’”

It wasn’t until later when they toured the Vice President’s office that Plaza “saw a note on his desk that had been written by his assistant on official White House stationery that said, ‘Aubrey Plaza’ – underlined – ‘Wilmington, Delaware. You met her at the Joe Biden youth leadership conference when she was sixteen’”.

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“There were bullet points about me. And I was, like, ‘I knew it! He doesn’t remember me at all!’ But that’s how politicians are, you know?” she continued.

“I pocketed it, and Mike Schur, the creator of Parks and Rec, was horrified. He was, like, ‘You cannot steal from the White House!’ And I was, like, ‘I don’t give a s***! I know what he did! He didn’t know me!’”

Plaza revealed that she has since lost the note, adding: “Can you imagine if I’d kept it? I could’ve framed it or sold it. Now he’s the President – I had no idea.

“But, yeah, I stole it right off his desk. And there’s got to be cameras in the White House. But they didn’t do anything to me.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Plaza recounted travelling to Sweden with The White Lotus writer/producer Mike White to stalk her ex-boyfriend.

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