Aubrey Plaza’s dark and detached April Ludgate is one of the most effective secret weapons on “Parks and Recreation,” but as it turns out, Plaza can be an agent of chaos in real life too. In fact, she once got in trouble for stealing from a major guest star. Not just any guest star, either: Plaza helped herself to a little memento from future U.S. President Joe Biden’s desk when the cast of the NBC sitcom visited the White House.
To be completely fair, Plaza didn’t swipe any state secrets from Biden (who was the acting Vice President at the time), only a note that was pretty noticeably connected to herself. She recounted the story to her former co-star during an appearance on “Good Hang” with Amy Poehler, noting that it wasn’t during filming but rather during the cast’s White House tour. “I saw a little, like, vice president-monogrammed notebook piece of paper that said, like, ‘Aubrey Plaza’ and then, like, three facts about me,” Plaza explained, adding that the note was an executive summary about her penned for Biden’s sake. “And I swiped it.”
Ultimately, Plaza got away with taking the note, which caused both her and Poehler to wonder about the extent and quality of White House security systems. However, it put her at odds with “Parks and Recreation” co-creator and executive producer Mike Schur (who is currently working on a new sitcom with Poehler). Understandably, Schur was less than delighted to learn that one of his stars had just pillaged the VP’s desk.
Joe Biden is an important in-universe figure on Parks and Recreation
As to why the crew ended up touring Joe Biden’s office in the first place, well, he’s not just any random guest star. In-universe, Biden is Leslie Knope’s only celebrity crush and ultimate idol who gets name-checked one quite a few occasions throughout the seven-season series. As fans already know, Biden even appears in-person on the program no less than twice. In his first appearance on the series, Season 5’s “Leslie vs. April”, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) painstakingly arranges a brief surprise meeting between Leslie and Biden, catching Leslie completely off guard with hilarious results.
Together with his wife, the First Lady Jill Biden, the former President also appears in the second part of the touching “Parks and Recreation” series finale, “One Last Ride,” hosting a small dinner party that Leslie and Ben attend. He even sneaks away to quietly complain about Leslie’s tendency to linger at such events. Viewers can also spot on-screen Biden nods in Season 5’s “Ben’s Parents” (in Leslie’s Knope-Wyatt unity quilt) as well as the Season 6 episode “Doppelgängers.” Although Leslie’s admiration could be better described as obsession, “Parks and Rec” certainly paid its fair share of tributes to the 46th President.
