Even as new inductees arrive, some Tinseltown historians say the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame has lost its luster.
The iconic strip that began with a groundbreaking ceremony in 1960 and now spans 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street has experienced physical neglect.
Many of the 2,852 five-pointed brass and terrazzo stars honoring entertainment industry achievements are dirty, cracked and covered in grime. They sit in Hollywood’s commercial center full of discount souvenir shops, panhandlers and pushy vendors. Trash and unpleasant odors are common, while the general overall condition of the boulevard leaves the area feeling neglected and far from glamorous.
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“It’s really tough today because of what Hollywood has become… there’s very aggressive people on the street,” author and pop culture historian Chris Epting told Fox News Digital. “Unfortunately, Hollywood’s been allowed to fall into a really sad state. It’s outright dangerous in many parts.”
Epting, who remembers going to the Walk of Fame as far back as the 1970s when he was a kid, noted that when Hollywood as a place began falling apart, it took the Walk of Fame right along with it.
“There’s no way to separate the two,” he added. “I think a lot of people lament the fact that part of Hollywood — really most of Hollywood — is not that friendly or inviting the way it once was and the stars on the sidewalk pay that price as well.”
Epting, who co-authored the 2017 memoir “Change of Seasons: A Memoir” with musician John Oates of the R&B band Hall & Oates, recalled being with Oates the day he and Hall received their star right in front of the Musicians Institute.
“It’s kind of cool to be part of their little world, the day they got theirs,” Epting said, noting that sometimes stars are put in certain places on the famous walkway. For instance, Jay Leno requested that his star be placed at the exact corner where he had twice been arrested for vagrancy early in his comedy career.
“I don’t think many people go out looking for it like they used to, but I think that if they could help the area out a little bit, that would probably help people reconnect with the Walk.”
Meanwhile, new inductees are named by the Walk of Fame Selection Committee with roughly 33 honorees selected each year from hundreds of submissions.
Last month, Actress Ming-Na Wen and singer/songwriter Sheila E., both Walk of Famers, joined Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Ron Frierson, to announce the Class of 2027 honorees from Funko Hollywood retail store.
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Among the new group of entertainment professionals chosen from the overall categories of Motion Pictures, Television, Live Theatre/Live Performance, Radio, Recording, and Sports Entertainment include actors Idris Elba, Sam Elliott, sisters Elle and Dakota Fanning and Kate Hudson.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos rounded out the Motion Pictures category, while actors David Alan Grier, Lisa Kudrow, Pedro Pascal and Adam Scott were among those selected in the TV category. Waylon Jennings (posthumously), The Ramones, Smashing Pumpkins and others made the cut in the Recording category.
The full list can be seen here.
“… These 32 extraordinary individuals have each made a lasting impact on audiences around the world through their talent, creativity, and dedication to their craft,” Walk of Fame Selection Chairman Peter Roth said in a statement. “We are honored to recognize their remarkable contributions and look forward to celebrating them as they take their place in Hollywood history.”
According to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the Hollywood Walk of Fame attracts an estimated 10 million visitors annually. More recent mobility data, however, has the estimate closer to 5 to 6 million visitors each year.
Still, Hollywood historian and storyteller Scott Michaels, known for creating Dearly Departed Tours, an LA tour company that looks at the dark side of Hollywood history, blames much of the Walk of Fame’s decline on the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, arguing its focus has shifted toward revenue rather than preservation.
Michaels, who was a member of the Chamber for a few years, noted that these days it costs $85,000 to receive a star on the celebrity promenade, while at one time the price tag was just $2,000.
Now, many star ceremonies, which still draw crowds, are scheduled to purposefully coincide with their latest movie or album release. And even corporate brands can receive stars on the Walk.
And because stars are considered historic landmarks never to be removed, certain disgraced figures or minor reality TV names permanently remain.
“There was a time when the Hollywood Walk of Fame was a true honor,” Michaels told Fox News Digital, noting that stepping just below the famous celebrity hands and footprints at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, visitors once experienced the shiny brass-and-terrazzo stars embedded in the sidewalk outside.
Since then, a large silver statue called “The Four Ladies” marking the beginning of the Walk of Fame at the corner of LaBrea and Hollywood Boulevard saw the small bronze of Marilyn Monroe at the very top of it stolen (after a thief sawed it off and took it). Marilyn was recovered, but Michaels noted six years later it’s never been reinstalled.
In August 2025, a van slammed into the statue of the “four trailblazing ladies of color” and heavily damaged pioneering actress Anna May Wong, known as the first Chinese American movie star.
A year later, the damaged likeness of Wong has yet to be fully restored.
While the Chamber may not necessarily be responsible for the statue, it likely had its cooperation on design and approval, Michaels said.
The statue is the “gateway” to the Walk of Fame with tourists often posing in front of it.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce multiple times for comment.
The 1.3 mile famous boulevard has also generated negative headlines in recent years, including the time actress/singer Miley Cyrus claimed she landed in the hospital with a brutal infection after filming a scene on the Walk of Fame. Another incident involved a homeless man dumping a bucket of feces on a woman’s head.
A few years back, when Michaels petitioned to move Marilyn Monroe’s star from in front of the McDonald’s a few blocks from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to in front of the theater because he was “sick of seeing her star being covered in s—, piss and trash,” his request fell on deaf ears.
Michaels said the Chamber representative’s response was simply, “Who will pay for it?”
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Yet, Michaels noted, well over 100 images of Monroe are plastered in shops, on shirts and signs, all visible from the street.
“Vendors are out of control. You can now sell dry fetid sausages without a food grade or inspection, in front of actual licensed restaurants. But try to open a restaurant,” Michaels quipped, about the state of the boulevard.
Chuck Suhayda, former board member of the Hollywood Neighborhood Council, told Fox News Digital there was a time when a lot of money was spent keeping the Walk clean and up to date on repairs. He credited that to the Chamber’s Economic Workforce Development department, various agencies like the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District and “the very effective Community Redevelopment Agency installed in Hollywood under previous California Gov. Jerry Brown.”
Suhayda recalled that historically, security firm Andrews International provided the local Business Improvement District security patrol services on Hollywood Boulevard.
“Cameras were all up and down Hollywood Blvd,” Suhayda said, noting that Hollywood is and has been considered “ground zero” for terrorist attacks in an area that extends from the 101 freeway to La Brea Avenue.
Yet, despite the decline, Epting still holds fondness for the iconic boulevard in his heart.
“I was always curious about what celebs were actually there when their star was unveiled,” he said, recalling a time in the late ‘80s when he took his visiting aunt from New York to see the famous promenade and wound up seeing a real-life star too.
“She kept saying that along with the stars she wanted to see a celeb too,” Epting recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, that’s the last place in the world you would ever go see celebrities’.”
“So we’re crossing the street by the Chinese Theater as I say, ‘Aunt Lee, for the last time, you don’t see celebrities come to Hollywood!’ And then a head turns around of a gentleman passing us, and he goes, ‘Well, I don’t know if that’s altogether accurate young man’ and it was Jack Lemmon.”
“We both laughed, and it was this charming little moment between sort of all three of us,” he recalled.
“But that said, I do hope they figure out a way to make the area more accommodating, more inviting and more engaging because the Walk is, you know, it’s a nice bit of history… it’s kind of like the Hollywood sign. It may just be a sign, but it’s there for so long. It does get sort of engrained in your brain, just like those coral-colored stars on the boulevard.”
