Hollywood Walk Of Fame

Why is a Scandinavian vodka being enshrined on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? It's not a tasteless homage to stars who drink too much. It's just the latest corporate attempt to buy some good buzz. Today, Absolut Vodka becomes a "Friend" of the walk, shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a star-like plaque embedded in Hollywood Boulevard. For some, the partnership is further proof that no attraction or event in the U.S. is impervious to the phenomenon of corporate sponsorship.

Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve is about to get another shot at Hollywood stardom. That was the name of the lead character played by actor Willard Waterman in the hit 1950s radio comedy "The Great Gildersleeve." The show went off the air in 1957 and Waterman died in 1995. Since then, Waterman's commemorative plaque with its bronze depiction of a microphone has slowly faded from the Hollywood Walk of Fame too. Chunks of the pink terrazzo inside the outline of the bronze star have come out.

Maybe they should order up an extra-thick red carpet for this year's Academy Awards ceremony. Workers are racing to fix a buckling section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the Kodak Theatre, where cracked terrazzo and broken sidewalk stars could be a major Manolo Blahnik hazard for starlets arriving for the Oscars.

Hollywood security guard Lillian Price marched determinedly along the Walk of Fame, anxious to investigate this missing person case personally. She walked past William Bendix's brass star, past William Powell's, past George Sanders'. She stopped short in front of Ann Sothern's polished terrazzo sidewalk square and stared through the barricade on the Vine Street sidewalk. "They're gone!" Price exclaimed. "The stars are gone -- they're missing in action!"

They're little more than waist high to some people. But on Tuesday no one was standing taller in Hollywood than the Munchkins. The seven surviving Munchkins from the 1939 movie classic "The Wizard of Oz" received their star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame.

Sean "Diddy" Combs, rock disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer and Barbara Walters have something in common: They will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Recipients for 2007 were announced Friday by Walk of Fame committee chairman Johnny Grant. The committee said it had reviewed more than 200 nominations to select next year's 23 honorees.

More than 2,300 terrazzo and bronze stars are enshrined on the 46-year-old Hollywood Walk of Fame, with about 20 new stars added annually. Based on an unscientific survey, here are about 100 of the most well-known celebrities on the 35-block sidewalk shrine.

Bob Miller enjoyed real star power Monday. With a crowd of about 150 and a live television audience looking on, the Hall of Fame announcer for the Kings received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For a guy beginning his 34th season with L.A.'s hockey team, it was only a matter of time. There was a time, however, when the much-honored and highly respected play-by-play man wasn't sure he'd make it past the first season.

Of all the cringe-worthy tourist attractions in Hollywood, there is perhaps none so worthy as the Hollywood Walk of Fame. These 2,271 plaques fixed into the sidewalk firmament along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street are meant to immortalize, but they're more like star-shaped trapdoors to oblivion. Pepe Barreto, Al Lichtman, Yakima Canutt. Ah, Arsenio, we hardly knew ye.