A closer look
Receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is not an award based purely on merit; the celebrity or their sponsor actually has to pay a massive fee, currently around fifty-five thousand dollars, to cover the creation, installation, and upkeep of the star. It is less of a prestigious cinematic honor and more of a heavily trafficked, overpriced piece of sidewalk real estate. Millions of tourists visit Los Angeles every year to eagerly stare at the ground, happily walking over the names of D-list celebrities while sidestepping questionable puddles, discarded chewing gum, and aggressive street performers. It is deeply poetic that the ultimate symbol of Hollywood success involves paying an exorbitant amount of money just to have strangers physically walk all over your name!
