Hollywood Walk of Fame; my experience

I'm going to tell you about the real-life situation of the Walk of Fame along Hollywood Boulevard. The things that the tourism brochures don't show.

Also known as the "boulevard of broken dreams", some movie stars, music artists, even fictional characters are immortalised in the form of a pink star that line both sides of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

Over 5 kilometres long, most of the ones that people want to see/ know or recent celebrities are outside Hollywood & Highland and the other end; at Hollywood & Vine.

Between these two intersections... Well... You don't want to take your family there.

If I were mayor of Los Angeles, I would not want tourists to see my city like this.

The streets are dirty. The stars are black with footprints, dust and cigarette scars. The shops are run down dollar stores or adult stores. The people are sitting on the footpaths, wearing their only clothes, carrying everything they own in trolleys.

This is not rare in LA, it was just a surprise to see this when I expected to see the streets bustling with tourists and buskers.

And it was like that infront of Hollywood & Highland, the mall. There were people dressed as celebrities, superheroes, Disney princesses, Donald Trump (although I knew better than to approach them for a photo unless I had a $10 bill).

So if you do the Walk of Fame, use a map online and figure out where the stars you want to see are. Take a bus from one end to the other. Be careful of people trying to take your cash.

In saying that, I did get a lot of photos with some of the major celebrities' stars. I'll list the movies that I enjoyed them in too.

Tom Hanks; um everything! Catch Me if You Can, Forest Gump, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...

Meryl Streep; The Devil Wears Prada.

The best view of the Hollywood sign (unless you want to go on a hunt like I did in my vlog below) is at Hollywood & Highland (photo above) where all those tourists are, between the pillars.

Or above, at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd and Ivar Ave.

James Franco; Spiderman, 127 Hours... (His brother Dave Franco tho)

Audrey Hepburn; Breakfast at Tiffany's. (Now that there's Tiffany & Co in Auckland, I can recreate the scene.)

Kate Winslet; everything! Titanic, The Dressmaker, Finding Neverland

Jennifer Aniston; Friends.

Ellen Degeneres; The Ellen Show

Mark Wahlberg; not a fan of his character in The Departed, but the ending made up for it.

Jim Parsons; The Big Bang Theory

Claire Danes; alongside Leo in Romeo & Juliet <3 <3 <3

Kaley Cuoco; The Big Bang Theory

Sandra Bullock; everything! Miss Congeniality, The Proposal...

The Olsen twins; in the 90s, I wanted to be a twin because of these two.

Britney Spears; she is so relevant. I want to see her performance in Vegas.

Peter Jackson; Tintin

Ryan Seacrest; the only person who had to remain neutral in American Idol

Daniel Radcliffe; I took this for all my HP friends

Matt Damon; The Departed, Saving Private Ryan

Harrison Ford; took this for my mum.

Julie Andrews; The Sound of Music, The Princess Diaries. She is queen

Robert Zemeckis; Back to the Future

Elton John; took this for my mum too.

Hugh Jackman; here you go mum.

And this one 

Michael J Fox; Back to the Future.

There were blank stars here and there. I wonder how many people are wishing to see their name on it.

I walked 5 km only to find out Leonardo DiCaprio and Taylor Swift don't have stars...?!

Signed,

Elisa