US Politics
Jill Biden bid $35k at charity auction for cameo on Heated Rivalry but lost out: report
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Former first lady Dr. Jill Biden bid $35,000 at a charity auction for the chance to make a cameo appearance in the hit ice hockey drama Heated Rivalry, only to lose out, according to a report.
Dr. Biden, 74, was attending the NYC LGBT Community Center’s Center Dinner when she attempted to land the walk-on role and a meal with the cast but was outbid by two anonymous competitors, who each offered $125,000 for the opportunity, Variety reports.
She subsequently posted on X (Twitter) about her near-miss, writing: “Guess I won’t be heading to the cottage after all – but it was worth a shot! What a wonderful evening supporting LGBTCenterNYC.”
The show, based on a series of Game Changers novels by Rachel Reid, was written and directed by Jacob Tierney for the Canadian streaming service Crave and stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as two gay ice hockey stars who play for rival teams while maintaining a secret long-term relationship.
Tierney and his producing partner Brendan Brady received the Cultural Impact Award at the gala Thursday night, at which they were praised for having “elevated and centered queer characters as fully realized leads whose desires, conflicts, and tenderness are treated with dignity” by the center’s CEO Dr Carla Smith.
The Bidens have largely stayed out of the spotlight since President Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in January 2025, as former president Joe Biden has been battling aggressive stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer.
But Dr. Biden, who enjoyed a largely calm tenure in the White House, has twice been in the headlines lately for dramatic reasons.
Last month, it emerged that one of the Secret Service agents assigned to her security detail had accidentally shot himself in the leg while handling a gun inside a parked Chevrolet SUV at Philadelphia International Airport.
The agent was treated in the hospital for the non-life-threatening injury, and Dr. Biden, who was at the airport at the time, was unharmed.
Prior to that, her first husband, retired bar owner Bill Stevenson, whom she divorced in 1975, was charged with first-degree murder over the killing of his second wife, Linda.
Hunter Biden, the 46th president’s son, has also returned to the news, challenging Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump to a cage fight and accusing the first family of “profiting” from the presidency.
“Their hypocrisy knows no bounds,” the younger Biden said.
“It’s almost too much to keep up with, every single day… I will be surprised when they leave the White House if they have not taken the copper pipes out of the walls.”