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A man threatened to blow up California’s iconic Hollywood sign Sunday unless authorities coughed up a ransom of $10,000. But he didn’t do his homework.
Instead of calling Los Angeles Police in the famed Hollywood landmark’s backyard, TMZ reported the would-be bomber called police in the sleepy town of Hollywood, Fla. — more than 2,700 miles away.
As someone who was born and raised in Florida’s Hollywood and lived there until only a few years ago, I can tell you what a major blunder this was. After all, Hollywood, Calif. and Hollywood, Fla. are about as similar as the Four Seasons hotel and Philadelphia’s own Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
While Hollywood, Calif. boasts a legacy of glitz and glamour, Hollywood, Fla. is best known for beaches that look like they’re perpetually stuck in the 1960′s and, most recently, a giant glass guitar-shaped hotel with spotlights that can be seen from my parents’ suburban home miles away.
Growing up in Hollywood was the perfect way to get a taste of more densely-populated cities like Miami and Fort Lauderdale while being far away enough from both to be able to afford to live on the income of a college student and local newspaper reporter.
Founded in 1925, the quiet little Florida town got its name from Hollywood in California, but that’s where many of the similarities end.
On Sunday, according to TMZ, in a threat that resembles something out of Austin Powers in Goldmember, the man called South Florida’s Hollywood Police Department and said that unless he was paid $10,000, he would blow up the landmark using pipe bombs. (Not groovy, baby.)The Inquirer has requested a copy of the police report.
From there, Florida police reportedly told the Los Angeles Police Department of the misdialed threat. LAPD investigated, but found no credible threat, TMZ reported. It’s unclear if the man will face any charges. TMZ reported that there have been no arrests, but that the matter is under investigation.
This isn’t the first time California’s Hollywood sign has been the star of a threat. Since it was erected in 1923, the sign has been altered by activists and pranksters as a display of protest.
In 1976 and again in 2017, groups used tarps to change the sign to appear to say “Hollyweed.” In 1987, Danny Finegood changed it to read “Ollywood” in protest over how Oliver North — the lieutenant colonel of the National Security Council at the center of the Iran-Contra scandal — was treated, according to the Hollywood Reporter. In 1990, Finegood made a sign saying “Oil war” in protest of the first Gulf War. In 2010, someone covered the sign with black and red letters to say “Save the Peak,” an attempt to raise awareness about overdevelopment.
The pranks have prompted the Hollywood Sign Trust — the nonprofit that oversees the sign — to beef up security over the years. Currently, the Hollywood sign is under 24/7 video surveillance, making it tricky to plant, you know, pipe bombs.
There was one time, however, when the Hollywood sign made its way to Florida — well, sort of.
In 2011, while filming Rock of Ages in South Florida to save money, the movie, set in Los Angeles, caused a laugh among locals for its set design.
To recreate the Hollywood sign in Pompano, Fla. (another small Broward County city), set designers made their own version and placed it on the closest thing South Florida has to hills or mountains — a landfill.
That’s right. The Hollywood sign dupe was temporarily displayed atop Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park — known by residents as Mount Trashmore. The landfill’s owner, Waste Management, donated the undisclosed location fee toward four graduating high school seniors scholarships. The set was taken down when filming for the movie wrapped.
"Hollywood" - Google News
February 22, 2023 at 08:31AM
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A man threatened to blow up the Hollywood sign, but called the wrong town. If he’d grown up in Hollywood, Fla. like I did, he’d know they’re nothing alike. - The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Hollywood" - Google News
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