It’s a forgotten fact that before he became president, Donald J. Trump was a major Hollywood star. Well, not really. He’s played himself in movies like Home Alone 2, Zoolander, Two Weeks Notice, Woody Allen’s Celebrity, and the Bo Derek-Anthony Quinn rom-com Ghosts Can’t Do It. He’s done better on television, not only with The Apprentice but for producing the televised Miss Universe competition. It’s for the latter that scored him a much-coveted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Alas, said monument has been repeatedly vandalized and destroyed since he rebranded as a divisive politician. And its most recent destruction came at the hands of a person dressed as the Incredible Hulk.
This comes from The Los Angeles Times, which notes that, on early Friday, mere hours after news broke that the president and First Lady had tested positive for COVID-19, someone cosplaying as the largest and angriest Avenger took a pickaxe to the Donald’s star. No arrests were made, but whoever did it may be in hot water: Because the damage to the plaque exceeded $3,000, the crime is bumped up from a mere misdemeanor to a felony.
Trump received the star in 2007, and in the last four years it has undergone numerous attacks. One vandal in 2016 went at it with a sledgehammer, and another, two years later, also went with a pickaxe. Despite being a frequent target of people angry over, say, his endangering of Secret Service agents for a photo op, the star will not be removed. According to the rules laid out by the chamber that oversees the plaques, “Any star, which is vandalized or destroyed, no matter which honoree it belongs to will be replaced by the Hollywood Historic Trust, a non-profit, non-partisan group.”
In other words, we’re stuck with the Trump star, if perhaps not Trump the commander-in-chief.
(Via The Los Angeles Times)
