One of the more colorful (i.e. annoying) things when walking up at Hollywood & Highland and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, both major tourist meccas, here in Hollywood has been the costumed figures lurking about. I say lurking because some of them have been known for being downright assholes about their gig. Making demands for money before someone even asks to take their picture with them, or getting hostile if some passerby takes his picture without asking, like his soul is going to end up in the family scrapbook or something. Now that’s not the majority of them, but there are some you wish Doctor Doom or Lex Luthor would put out of our misery.
Now I get the whole tourists getting picture taken with celebrity / superhero thing. And that’s fine; fun even. But what always got me was how absolutely shit some of the costumes are. I defy you to come to Hollywood and find a guy dressed as Spider-Man who has even half the friggin’ costume right. Anyway, here’s a humorous news story from the local NBC Channel (I saw it at THR.com’s Heat Vision) about a guy dressed up like Batman getting arrested in the midst of a current police crackdown on these longjohn types for loitering. This is in response to some of them getting a bit too aggressive regarding money as mentioned. Enjoy.