If someone wants to argue the opposing view here, please use the comment section to do so. We can bet a virtual beer on the outcome.
The Hollywood Chamber announced today that Bill Cosby’s star on the Walk of Fame would not be removed, the LA Times reported in Hollywood Walk of Fame official says Bill Cosby’s star won’t be removed and neither will Donald Trump’s. Here’s their reasoning:
“The answer is no,” Leron Gubler, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive, said in an emailed statement. “Once a star has been added to the Walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Because of this, we have never removed a star from the Walk.”
Here’s my reasoning:
They threw Trump’s star in with Cosby’s not because anyone seriously is demanding that it be removed, but in order to bolster their weak stance on Cosby’s Star.
Yes, they’ve never removed a Star, but Penn State never had removed a statue before the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The first time something happens, it’s pretty safe to say it previously was unprecedented. There are a lot of things besides the removal of Hollywood Stars in this world that never have happened. But many of them will.
If a past honoree of a Star went into a crowded restaurant with a machine gun and murdered 25 innocents, would they not remove the Star? Of course they would.
So, the question really is not whether a Star has been removed in the past, it’s whether Cosby’s conduct rises to the level of Star removal. To be sure, there are some past Star honorees whose subsequent behavior was less than honorable. I think OJ may even have a Star on the Walk. But this time will be different.
This one is not an easy call, but with the new Cosby revelations pressure will build. Ultimately, the “we’ve never removed a Star before” logic will evolve into “there are other scoundrels with Stars, so why should Cosby’s Star be removed,” at which point the countervailing logic will be “because it’s about time your disgusting tradition of not removing Stars changed.”
I have to backtrack on my original bet that they would eventually remove Cosby’s star. I didn’t waste much time on the research, but a few minutes of looking shows that there are several rapists who have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, going all the way back to Fatty Arbuckle from the 1930s. He got his star in 1960, long after they knew he was a rapist, and of a VERY young girl, at that.
It turns out the people who get the Stars actually have to buy them and pay to have them implanted. The current price is $25,000, with a price increase expected soon. The “Stars” it turns out are less about the accomplishments of the person than they are their egos. So I think the Commission or Board or whatever they call themselves is not going to remove Cosby’s star. Like most things in Hollywood, the Star had a price and the price was paid.
Besides, it is sex, and sex in Hollywood – no matter what kind of sex – is not a big story. I think that is why they stayed quiet for so many years. I think that eventually we will find out that as long as the value of his patronage was worth more than the value of the women’s stories, they remained quiet. But when the value of their stories exceeded the value of his patronage, they came forward. First one, then a bunch of others as they realized the more stories, the less the value of any one story. I think that was why we went from a couple of stories to a bunch of them all at once.
You know, when it comes to some things – such as Hollywod – I have become so-o-o-o jaded.
Totally O/T for this thread, but I wanted to find you and share this. You had a hard time with #BlackLivesMatter the other day. This is the simplest explanation I have seen.
http://mic.com/articles/122541/heres-why-white-people-need-to-stop-saying-all-lives-matter
Petition to remove Bill Cosby’s star:
https://www.change.org/p/hollywood-chamber-of-commerce-remove-bill-cosby-s-star-from-the-hollywood-walk-of-fame-c8abf1fb-6486-4201-aae2-8728e254e906#petition-letter
At this point I wouldn’t even bet a virtual beer about the recriminations Bill Cosby is going to face, no matter how petty. Especially when you are dealing with jello-spined Hollywood types. I predict that, in the end, they will not only remove the star, they will take steps to ensure that no other star has to occupy that “accursed” spot again.