HOLLYWOOD — A star honoring John Waters was unveiled Monday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one day after the opening of an exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures dedicated to the contributions to cinema made by the filmmaker nicknamed “The Pope of Trash.”
“Here I am, closer to the gutter than ever,” Waters quipped as stepped to the microphone during the late-morning ceremony. “The Hollywood Walk of Fame. The first place I ever came to in Los Angeles. … I got out of my vehicle in 1970 at Hollywood and Vine and darted across the street — and got a jaywalking ticket.”
Ricki Lake, Mink Stole and Greg Gorman were among those joining Waters at the ceremony in front of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop at 6844 Hollywood Blvd., between Highland Avenue and Cahuenga Boulevard.
The location was chosen because the bookstore focused on film and theater history is a favorite of Waters, Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, told City News Service.
“This star is at the perfect location,” Waters confirmed during his remarks. “I’ve been coming here for half a century. It’s still my favorite spot on Hollywood Boulevard.”
Stole has appeared in all 12 feature films Waters has directed and written and is part of the Dreamlanders, the group of actors who regularly appear in his films. The term comes from the name of Waters’ production company, Dreamland Productions.
The group also includes Divine, who died in 1988, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary, who died in 1977, and Edith Massey.
Lake appeared in five of the six films Waters directed between 1988 and 2004, including starring in “Hairspray.”
Waters wrote the foreword to Gorman’s 1997 book of photographs, “Inside Life.”
The star is the 2,763rd since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the initial 1,558 stars.
Waters was born on April 22, 1946, in Baltimore, where he still lives and which has been the setting for all his films.
Waters was drawn to…
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