Hollywood is full of anti-border wall celebrities. But on Tinseltown’s biggest night, ten-foot security fences have been erected around Union Station in Los Angeles, California, to keep celebrities safe and the public out during Sunday’s 93rd Academy Awards.
The perimeter around Union Station is cordoned off by security fences and the entrances to the building are blocked by similar structures. Signs posted to the fences bear a stark warning: “This property is closed to the public. No entry without permission.”
From the hedging in of Trump’s Hollywood Star with an artistic rendition of a border wall during the 2016 presidential campaign, reported by Breitbart, to the 28 celebrities who came out against a border wall during the same campaign season.
Business Insider listed the celebrities as George Clooney, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Lady GaGa, John Oliver, J.K. Rowling, America Ferrera, Russell Simmons, Bette Midler, Jennifer Lawrence, Miley Cyrus, and others.
It was Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins who in 2019 said “No walls. No borders. Fuck him,” in reference to then-President Donald Trump during a rant in front of a star-studded crowd at the annual National Board of Review Awards.
The hypocrisy seen in the contrast between Hollywood’s anti-border wall posturing and the erection of a security fence around the Academy Awards is similar to the contrast between Hollywood’s anti-Second Amendment rhetoric and the use of good guys with guns to keep celebrities safe.
For example, on February 24, 2019, Breitbart News reported that law enforcement sources indicating that pro-gun control Hollywood Academy Awards attendees would enjoy security “similar to when a U.S. president visits” Los Angeles.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that “a huge chunk of the [Los Angeles Police Department’s] 10,072 sworn officers [would] be on hand” for the event. Moreover, they spoke to an officer who indicated the 2019 Academy Awards would be a “mid-to-max deployment day” involving protocols similar to those used when presidents visit.
On March 4, 2018, Breitbart News reported LAPD’s deployment of “500 officers to wrap the Dolby Theatre in multiple barriers of armed security for the [2018 Awards].”