John Waters Jokes His Walk of Fame Star Puts Him ‘Closer to the Gutter Than Ever’ (Video)

John Waters was delighted that he’s “closer to the gutter than ever” as his name was added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday.

In his acceptance speech, Waters said that the Walk of Fame was the first landmark he saw when he got to Los Angeles.

“After driving across the country with David Locke, I got out of my vehicle in 1970 at Hollywood and Vine, darted across the street and got a jaywalking ticket,” he recalled. “The first one — and I never looked back.”

Waters’ star is located outside of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Blvd. and N. Cherokee Ave. Waters said bookstore, which specializes in literature about film and showbiz history, is his favorite spot on the famous street.

The Walk of Fame event, which was sponsored by Outfest, came alongside the newly opened Academy Museum exhibit “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” which looks back at the audacious and transgressive cult films from the filmmaker’s career such as “Pink Flamingos,” “Female Trouble” and “Desperate Living,” a trilogy of 1970s black comedies that pushed the boundaries of bad taste and would be dubbed by Waters as his “Trash Trilogy.”

Later on in his career, Waters would go on to have mainstream success, most notably with his 1988 feature “Hairspray,” which would become a Tony-winning Broadway musical 15 years later. “Hairspray” was also the final film Waters worked on with his longtime leading star Divine, whom Waters called on to also receive a Walk of Fame star in the future.

“I’d like to dedicate this wonderful honor to my parents, Pat and John Waters, who — despite being horrified by my early films and some of the late ones, too — encouraged me to continue, because I guess they just thought, ‘What else could I possibly do except be in show business?’” Waters said.

“I hope the most desperate showbiz rejects walk over me here and feel some sort of respect and strength,” he concluded. “The drains on this magic boulevard will never wash away the gutter of my gratitude, the flotsam of my film career, or the waste of Waters’ appreciation.”

Watch Waters’ acceptance speech above, and see photographs of the event below, featuring frequent collaborators Ricki Lake and Mink Stole, photographer Greg Gorman, New Line Cinema co-founder Bob Shaye, and Adam Shankman, director of the 2007 ‘Hairspray’ movie musical.