Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg’s last-ditch bid to save ‘HOLLYWOOD’
By ANISunday, April 25, 2010
LONDON - Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are fronting a campaign to save the iconic Hollywood sign from being bulldozed.
The actor-director duo is making all efforts to buy off the 138 acres of land on which the nine 45ft high letters have shone since 1923.
But they have less than a week’s time to make the purchase.
Hanks and Spielberg were given an extension to a deadline earlier this month to raise 12million dollars and told no further extensions would be granted.
Owner Fox River Financial Services, based in Geneva, Illinois, said it would have to sell the land to a property developer at the end of this month if Hanks, Spielberg and others can’t generate the money.
“We are agonizingly close to our purchase target with a little over 1million dollars left to go,” the Daily Express quoted Will Rogers, president of Trust for Public Lands, a non-profit nature conservation group, as saying.e added: “It’s unthinkable to us that the Hollywood sign could be bulldozed to make way for upscale housing. It’s the thing most people in the world think of when the name Hollywood arises. We’re not talking about defeat.”
Hanks and Spielberg have already donated huge sums to save the site.
A source said: “Both men have given their hearts and souls for this project and have been overwhelmingly generous. No one could expect them to give more, although, the truth is, the hope in everyone’s mind is they’ll pledge the extra cash at the 11th hour if we are still short.” (ANI)
