Hulk smash!
President Donald Trump’s beleaguered star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been damaged again — this time by an angry green Avenger.
The sidewalk star was defaced with a pickax early Friday morning by a person dressed as the Incredible Hulk, the Marvel superhero, said Jeff Lee, a public information officer for the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police officers responded to the scene around 5:50 a.m. and a vandalism report was taken from witnesses, Lee said. No arrests were made and the investigation will be handed over to detectives, “just like any other vandalism” case.
The incident occurred just hours after the president revealed that he and first lady Melania Trump contracted the novel coronavirus.
The Hollywood Boulevard plaque sustained more than $3,000 in damage, a spokeswoman for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce told the Los Angeles Times. That bumps up the crime to a felony.
And the star will be replaced — again — by the chamber, which administers the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“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,” said chamber President and CEO Rana Ghadban in a statement to The Times.
Ghadban continued: “When people are angry with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California State landmark. Our democracy is based on respect for the law. People can make a real difference by voting and not destroying public property.”
The iconic pink-hued landmarks dot the streets of Hollywood and celebrate the professional contributions of inductees. Trump received his star in 2007 in the television category as a producer for his work on the beauty pageants that he owned.
In recent years, the street monument has become a battleground for political debate in Los Angeles, often hosting protests, being spat upon or written on. In 2016 it was bashed with a sledgehammer, and in 2018 it was destroyed with a pickax.
This will be the third time the former “Celebrity Apprentice” host’s star will be replaced by the trust, the chamber said. Clean Streets LA has previously cleaned up graffiti that the star sustained. But the stars are generally maintained on a voluntary basis by the Hollywood Historic Trust, which preserves tinseltown’s history, and no taxpayer dollars are used, the group said.
Other stars for fallen icons such as Bill Cosby and Michael Jackson have also endured bouts of vandalism, but have never been removed.
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© 2020 Los Angeles Times
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