10 Rules of the Hollywood Walk of Fame You Didn't Know

It takes a lot of hard work to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This historic landmark and tourist attraction was first established in 1960 and has since installed more than 2,000 stars along Hollywood Boulevard's Vine Street, honoring notable figures from the worlds of film, television, music, radio, theater and sports.

The Walk of Fame ceremony is always a big deal, honoring some of the greatest and most brilliant minds in Hollywood and beyond, but there are a lot of little details that viewers may not notice that go into the finished product, like recipients having to apply for their star and then having to pay a sponsorship fee if selected.

PEOPLE spoke exclusively with Walk of Fame producer Ana Martinez, who plays a key role in making sure the ceremony goes smoothly, about all the elements that make a star a star.

Here are some details you may not know about the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Anyone can nominate a star, but the star must agree to the nomination.

The Walk of Fame is made up of six categories: film, television, recording, radio, live performance and sports entertainment. Martinez told PEOPLE that nominees must have “longstanding experience in the entertainment field,” meaning they've worked in the industry for at least five years and have won or been nominated for an award.

They also have to do charity work. “You have to give back to the community,” she explains. “It can be wherever you do charity work, even overseas.”

Martinez noted that while celebrities' studios or record companies typically nominate them as potential stars, anyone, including fans, can nominate them — they just need to provide the celebrity's consent on the official application form.

In fact, there is a special “Springsteen clause” requiring celebrity consent, which was put in place after a fan nominated Bruce Springsteen without getting permission from the boss himself, leading to an awkward moment.

“We put it out, and he didn’t want it,” Martinez recalls, “so I created what I called the Springsteen Clause. [means] You have to sign it now because if you don't, it's not fair to the people who want it.”

Sponsorship fees apply

Yes, it costs money to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There is a $250 application fee plus a $75,000 sponsorship fee if selected. This fee helps to create and install the star, as well as to maintain the Walk of Fame.

“We have to apply for permits,” Martinez said, explaining the costs, “we hire off-duty police officers for security, we pay the fire department, we pay for production, star production, barricades, security, photography. It's a tourist attraction, so it's not all free, but it's a free event for fans to attend.”

Martinez points out that when Liza Minnelli's fan club nominated her, they held a bake sale to raise money: “People paid the admission fee, ate the baked goods, and saw her movie.”

She also points out that Dean Stockwell's fans honoured his environmentalist record by recycling newspapers to raise funds for his star.

There are different rules for submitting groups

The application process has one additional stipulation for musical groups: the nomination form must list the names of all members of the group, past and present, which Martinez noted protects the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce from lawsuits.

“Sometimes members of a group leave, there are feuds and so on,” she explains, “so we have an exemption that protects them from being sued because they've left the group and are upset about it.”

There are certain rules for posthumous nominations.

Martinez explains that when a celebrity is nominated posthumously, there is a two-year waiting period after the celebrity's death before they can be nominated, which essentially acts as a “mourning period.”

In particular, she said, “When Carrie Fisher died, people were like, 'Oh my goodness, we have to do this.' It puts a lot of pressure on the committee. So they waited. But her brother nominated her, and she won. It was unanimous.”

She added that just as living celebrities must consent to receiving a star, the family or heirs of deceased celebrities must consent to receiving one posthumously, and she gave two examples of celebrities who didn't receive their deserved stars while they were alive, but would be great candidates posthumously.

Martinez recalled that one Walk of Fame honoree “said, 'Hey, Prince, you should be nominated,' and Prince said, 'No, I'm not ready yet.' And then, sadly, he passed away, so I hope that one day his family will nominate him.”

“It's the same as Whitney Houston,” she added. “She was selected when she was alive, but she didn't set a date. That's why people were so sad when she died. And we can't force them to set a date. We've never heard from the family since she passed away. Maybe one day they'll want to do it.”

There is a special committee that selects the winners.

According to Martinez, “hundreds” of applications are received each year, and a special committee meets each June to review and select the winners. The committee, proposed by Martinez and approved by Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Steve Nissen, is made up of six Walk of Famers (one from each category) and a selection committee chair who is also a Walk of Famer. According to Martinez, past committee members have included Vanessa Williams, LL Cool J, Kristin Chenoweth, Don Mischer, and Vin Di Bona.

“Each committee member who receives a star represents their own category,” she explains. “They get information in advance, meet in June and go through all the applications, then have multiple rounds of discussions and make their selection.”

She added that committee members typically serve two-year terms, but can extend that to four years if they wish. The composition of the committee has changed: “It used to be made up of executives — studio heads, record company people — but I said to my boss at the time, 'Why don't we have a Walk of Famer and let them vote for their peers?' And it worked surprisingly well. We got a really talented group of people.”

After the committee votes, there are several more steps in the selection process, including approval of the vote by the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, submission of permits for each star and final approval by the City Council.

Celebrities must plan their wedding within two years

Once a celebrity is selected, they have two years to schedule their ceremony. Celebrities typically have a management team help them organize their ceremony, but Martinez recalls that John Waters was heavily involved in the process.

“I dealt with him directly,” Martinez said. “He was a lot of fun. He was just a real personality.”

Celebrities can't choose where their star lies

Martinez said celebrities are heavily involved in choosing the location of their stars because there are “so many intricacies to consider,” such as making sure they aren't placed on corners, bus stops or near crosswalks.

Celebrities don't get to choose their star placement, but Martinez says she tries to “make it something that's relevant to me.” She once paid tribute to Steve Guttenberg in a role. Police Academy His star location movie.

“I put his picture in front of the Police Activities League, which is a nonprofit run by the LAPD for kids in the community and has ties to the police,” she says, “and he looked up and said, 'Oh my god. This is where I did my first audition.'” [There are] Such a coincidence rarely happens!”

She is loved by her family (Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell) and co-stars ( Laverne & Shirley(Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall) also starred.

There are more than 2,700 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but Martinez adds that some of the hot spots around Hollywood are quickly filling up. For example, the TCL Chinese Theatre has just one star left, which she's saving for Julia Roberts. Roberts was selected but hasn't had a chance to be inducted in the ceremony yet.

“She was selected just before COVID hit, so for people like her, we're going to bring them back,” she said, explaining that they're allowing an extension to the two-year rule for setting dates because COVID-19 delays made scheduling difficult for several years.

Plus, once you place the star, it stays there forever: “Some people think I place the star in one place and then it moves on, no, the star is placed where I choose it to be. [and] They’re going to stay there.”

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce previously reiterated this in a statement to Yahoo, saying that because the Walk of Fame is “a registered historic landmark, when a star is added to the Walk, it is considered part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame's historic landmark…For this reason, we have never removed a star from the Walk.”

Celebrities choose who will speak at the ceremony

Celebrities don't have a say in where their star goes, but they do have a say in who speaks on their behalf during the ceremony. Contrary to popular belief, there are no rules about who should give a speech in their honor, but stars usually tend to nominate friends or people they've worked with.

The only requirement is that speakers spend the allotted two minutes talking about their relationship, whether it be a friendship or a professional one (“not a biography,” Martinez clarifies, because that happens in the introduction).

One person can get multiple stars

While Martinez called it “very rare,” she noted that celebrities can receive multiple stars. “If someone qualifies in two different categories, they can apply multiple times,” she revealed, noting that Gene Autry is the most decorated award recipient of all time, with five stars.

“Ron Howard [is] “The most recent one,” she says of the child actor-turned-director, “was in 1960 for 'Opie.' The Andy Griffith Show And he is active in the film industry as a big-name director. In other words, he has two talents.

It takes about four days to make a star.

A lot of planning goes into a Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, including the creation of the iconic stars, which Martinez said typically takes four days.

“The star itself has to be made four days in advance as it needs to cure,” she explains. “The star is made from terrazzo, which is Italian marble. Once the star is made, the star maker sends me the nameplate so I can look at it, and once I've approved it, the star is covered and left to dry for three to four days. Then on the morning of the ceremony, the star is polished.”

“And then the ceremony itself, the production, they come in at 6:30 in the morning and they're taken down by 3 o'clock. The ceremony starts at 11:30 and will be livestreamed.”

Martinez recalls a wild incident in which Julia Louis-Dreyfus' star was spelled incorrectly and the team had to rush to correct it. They were able to correct the mistake, but Louis-Dreyfus called it “her Seinfeld for a moment.”

“We ended up giving her a bunch of misspelled names and she made a little video about it,” Martinez added. “It was super funny.”