Stars may not be sacrificing style to protest sexual harassment on this year’s Oscars red carpet (all black is sooooo 2017), but in between their “Times Up” pin and their ACLU ribbon and their other assorted “Resistance” accoutrement, Oscar nominees and their dates will be sporting orange flag pins in support of gun control.
According to People Magazine, Everytown for Gun Safety will provide the pins — which typically retail for around $15 on their website — to celebrities who will walk the red carpet ahead of Sunday’s Academy Awards broadcast, as a way of encouraging Americans to support tighter restrictions on their Second Amendment rights.
The move is likely to be popular: A-listers from Tom Hanks to George Clooney have donated to a “March for Our Lives” against gun control set to take place later this month in Washington, D.C., and stars like Oprah Winfrey have committed to attending the march in solidarity with students from the Parkland, Florida, high school that suffered a mass shooting in February.
Everytown, founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is a celebrity magnet — even if it isn’t exactly a reliable source for accurate statistics about gun violence. Emma Stone and Julianne Moore have appeared in their PSA, and Kim Kardashian regularly re-tweets their suspect claims (they claim Kardashian is an unpaid spokesperson, but Kardashian has said, previously, that she doesn’t tweet for anyone who pays her less than five figures).
The display, of course, isn’t without its own irony. Celebrities, particularly those on the A-list, wouldn’t be walking the red carpet absent the presence of armed LAPD officers and their own (likely also armed) security details. According to Variety magazine:
More than 500 officers will be on hand, many of them working overtime, to ensure the safety of the 90th Academy Awards, along with firefighters, police helicopters and agents from the FBI. Private security guards from Security Industry Specialists will work the inside of the theater.
But they’d prefer you and your family go without simple protection. Because they’re more important, of course.
