Joyful Heart in the News

Add actress Mariska Hargitay to the list of celebrity fans of Vice President Biden.

The "Law and Order: SVU" star was in Washington on Wednesday to talk about domestic violence victims at an event with Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder.

"I whipped out my cell phone and took a 'selfie' with the VP," she said during a speech at the National Press Club later in day.

Hargitay joins fellow NBC star Amy Poehler in her love of the vice president. Poehler got Biden to appear on her show "Parks & Recreation," where her character called him "precious cargo." Hargitay called Biden "my hero" for his work on the original Violence Against Women Act.

The actress spoke about her work with sexual assault victims via her Joyful Heart Foundation during her speech at the National Press Club. She choked up several times during her talk, recounting how she was inspired to begin her work because of letters she received from victims, who related to her because of her "SVU" character Olivia Benson, a detective who specializes in sex crimes.

"I didn't sign up for the day. I'm sort of in it for the long haul," she said of her work.

Hargitay, who has made multiple trips to the nation's Capitol to speak about victims' rights and lobby for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, sounded like a political candidate as she spoke passionately about her work, reeled off statistics of sex crimes and offered suggestions on how to improve prosecution rates. 

But don't count on her running for office anytime soon.

"That's a good one," she laughed when asked about it.