as you probably know from videos like these, Guinness World Records, especially today, is a book business that sells 'world acclaim' to people willing to shell out thousands of dollars to sound cool
did you know there's a physical location version of this, called the hollywood walk of fame?
according to their own, uncited history which. you know, the idea of putting tokens in the ground for celebs was to, and i'm quoting here:
"...maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world." -E. M. Stuart
again, pulled from their own website. which, to be clear, is not a primary document.
it's surprisingly difficult to find records from the time without physically living in LA and having access to their library, i suppose. but best i can tell:
the hollywood walk of fame was specifically designed by The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to generate the air of prestige they were trying to keep cultivated in hollywood during one of very, very many unprestigious american times
(side note: it's not really fair to say that america has had "unprestigious times" as it implies we had prestigious ones)
but like? okay? a chamber of commerce's function is specifically to stimulate the local economy, get people visiting your district and spending money from elsewhere into it. this isn't inherently flawed beyond my general views of capitalism. and especially pre-internet it was pretty important to not just get people who lived in hollywood spending, but new money into the system
how better than terrazzo and brass to inspire celeb-hunters to stalk your streets, buy some merch, and stomp or piss all over for some kinda gratification, sexual or otherwise. also, uh, statues or caricatures or whatever would be expensive.
speaking of expensive! how much does a walk of fame star cost?

$55,000! (plus a $250 application fee)
that's at least twice(?) as much as the beer boys' couple K for a world record.
now i'm obviously not great at math, but that does seem to be around six times more expensive than it used to be- in the 80s, adjusting for inflation, it cost around $8200. these days the money goes to the hollywood historic trust, which i'm sure will handle it responsibly
in this one particular case, we're actually charging celebrities more than everyone else for a taste of yet further fame, since they can afford it
...right?
i mean, yes, most celebs can afford it, but what were those next points, below the cost. on the Walk of Fame Q&A page?

so.
the loved ones of deceased celebrities, will band together to scrape up the $55k required for a star to be immortalized alongside their peers:

ah. hrm.

oh come on. they have to keep repairing that one, too

if you don't know why this one is bad, i have some homework for you
they should probably start clearing out some of these old, obviously bad stars.

for fuck's sake, they're using the same logic as blockchain bros! "it's on the walk, bro, can't be taken down now."
but i mean. it can. with a pickaxe, remember?
good grief, just about anyone, regardless of how terrible they are, can just buy a star and be recognized, right? well, actually, they are quite insistent that this is not the case. they get hundreds of nominations each year but can only approve so many, provided the celeb or representatives for them agree to dole out the cash
maybe this is part of why more than 90% of the stars were for white people as of 2011. since then, they've started accepting more applications for celebrities of color- within the past decade as the price has increased by $25,000 at least
so, they're happy to start correcting their history of overwhelmingly representing white people, so long as you're willing to spend a RDJ's chewing gum worth of cash

i feel the same, iron boy.
