LI's Ashanti, Patti LuPone to get stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Glen Cove and Northport are going Hollywood. Singer-actress Ashanti, a native of the former, and theater legend Patti LuPone, hailing from the latter, will each get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as members of its newly announced Class of 2022.

"Super humbled and honored. Thank you," wrote Grammy Award-winning, multiplatinum singer-actor Ashanti, 40, across her social media in response to this year's announcement by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Congratulatory comments on her Instagram came from actor and fellow new inductee Holly Robinson Peete, Queens-born rapper Ja Rule (né Jeffrey Atkins), for whom she formerly sang backup, and rapper Flo Rida (né Tramar Dillard), among others.

Born Ashanti Douglas in Glen Cove, where she was a standout on the Glen Cove High School track team, the monomial Ashanti is one of eight recording stars named, along with George E. Clinton Jr., DJ Khaled, Avril Lavigne, Martha Reeves, the groups Black Eyed Peas and Los Huracanes Del Norte and the late Ermias "Nipsey Hussle" Asghedom.

Northport-born theater legend LuPone, 72 — a two-time Tony Award winner, for "Evita" in 1980 and "Gypsy" in 2008 — has not commented publicly on her induction. She is one of three theater/live performance inductees, alongside singer-actor-comedian-media personality Angelica Vale and the music duo Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.

Inducted in the field of movies are filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Adam McKay, and actors Macaulay Culkin, Willem Dafoe, Salma Hayek, James Hong, Helen Hunt, Michael B. Jordan, Regina King, Ray Liotta, Ewan McGregor, Jason Momoa, Tessa Thompson and the late Carrie Fisher. The TV inductees are producer Greg Berlanti, media executive Byron Allen, and actors Ricky Gervais, Peter Krause, Bob Odenkirk, Norman Reedus, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jean Smart, Ming-Na Wen and Kenan Thompson, in addition to Robinson Peete.

Rounding out the inductees are radio personality Richard Blade and sports-entertainment figure Michael Strahan.

The famed tourist attraction along Hollywood Boulevard and the perpendicular Vine Street was dedicated in 1960 and this month installed Brooklyn-born actor Jimmy Smits as its latest star, number 2,696.

An inductee has up to five years to schedule their ceremony. There is a $50,000 fee used for the creation and installation of the terrazzo-and-brass sidewalk star, as well as maintenance of the Walk of Fame.