As Corey reported in February, Vanessa Hudgens went several steps too far to advertise her relationship with boyfriend Austin Butler. The two defaced federally protected rocks in Sedona, Arizona. After etching “Austin + Vanessa” into the beautiful red rock, Vanessa posted a pic (since deleted) on Instagram that caught the authorities’ attention. After investigating the vandalism, Vanessa was issued a citation and fined $1,000.
Actress Vanessa Hudgens has paid $1,000 in restitution for carving a heart into a red rock wall during a trip to Sedona, Arizona.
Hudgens posted a photo of the carving bearing the names “Vanessa” and “Austin” on her Instagram page around Valentine’s Day, along with other photos of the couple amid towering red rocks that draw throngs of tourists to northern Arizona.
The payment resolves a citation issued to Hudgens on a misdemeanor count of damaging a natural feature on U.S. Forest Service land. The money was used by a volunteer group called Friends of the Forest to restore the rock wall, which typically is done by scrubbing or sanding the rock.
A federal magistrate in Flagstaff approved the agreement April 19, but it was not made public. The Associated Press obtained a statement of probable cause and the agreement resolving the citation from the federal judiciary under a records request.
A publicist for Hudgens did not immediately respond to a message left Friday. Hudgens is best known for her role as Gabriella Montez in the “High School Musical” TV-movie franchise.
Hudgens admitted to using a rock to scratch the names inside the heart and gave authorities information on where to find it. Volunteers and Forest Service employees found the 1-by-1-foot heart matching the description around Feb. 23 on a geologic formation known as Bell Rock.
Forest officials rarely find out who is responsible for vandalizing rock walls, but Hudgens celebrity status played a huge role, Coconino National Forest Service spokesman Brady Smith said.
Vanessa got off easy, as the maximum punishment for this is $5,000 or six months in jail. I imagine it would be slightly embarrassing to admit to your cellmate that you were in for carving to your 4EVAH love notes on federal property. Vanessa’s fame worked against her in that most of the time, the forest department can’t catch the anonymous vandals. However, if you are ignorant enough to post your crime to your 18 million followers, you run the risk of being caught. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite famous enough to get her name in the title of the AP report that merely read, “Actress agrees to pay $1,000 for carving on red rock wall”.
There really wasn’t anything Vanessa could do once they had photographic evidence of her handiwork. But, to her credit, she did cooperate fully, confessing and telling them where the offending marks were so they could be scrubbed. Vanessa, who will be returning to TV this fall in the DC Universe-based comedy “Powerless”, is just going to have to find another way to publicly declare her love. Perhaps she could rent a billboard?
Vanessa recently posted this photo from the Mammoth hot spring in Yellowstone National Park. As long as she didn’t bring soap with her, this is probably allowed.
Photo credit: WENN Photos, Getty Images and Instagram
She should’ve had to pay twice as much and do some community service at the park.
The best part of this is that her fans are the ones who turned her in after seeing her Instagram post…………….
Live by the sword, die by the sword!
I just came here to say the same..great minds!!!
Not nearly enough. The same goes for pastry-lickers too.
It’d be nice if she put out a video to raise awareness about the importance of preserving public lands for future generations. She could turn this into something good.
People are so clueless these days. I bet she didn’t think what she was doing was wrong until authorities contacted her. I’m happy to hear she cooperated.
People are really clueless, at pretty much every national/state park I go to I see dumbass stuff. There’s one here in Illinois where people plummet off the cliffs to their deaths fairly regularly because they go off marked trails.
Yeah, I’d say it’s safe to say she didn’t know it was wrong or she wouldn’t have posted it. Sigh.
A similar thing happened in Plitvice recently. The park is organized really well, and it’s very safe, but you must follow the marked roads. But tourists so often get of the road to take pictures and hurt themselves, and a woman recently died. How stupid do you have to be to do that?
Criminal.
Exactly. Even stupidity is not a valid excuse.
I would hate to think she is a roll model to anyone.
Please just go away…
Yes, ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
Oh man, that picture of her boyfriend… he looks like he needs a good scrub. Reaching Harry Styles level of grimy. He looks like if you touched him, he’d be sticky.
I wish she had been fined the full amount. Idiot.
At least she didn’t pretend it was photoshopped. A lot of people don’t think about the damage they cause to irreplaceable or living objects when they go all “Kilroy was here” on rocks and trees etc. Graffiti in the city likewise is done carelessly with no thought to the work somebody has to do to remove it. If she was cooperative and suitably contrite, that explains the lesser sentence. She’s not in donut-licking territory. Her fame actually helps spread the word about why you shouldn’t do such things.
is’nt she supposed to be “Hippie Chic?”
Ha, good point. Clearly she only wears the fashions.
She is considered the Queen of Coachella, so yeah…fake hippie vibes for getting papped.
I just googled her new show and Danny Pudi AND Alan Tudyk are in it! Two weird crushes in one! I might actually watch this.
I just really don’t like herrrrr. Which is making me question if I can stomach it. Though I love Danny and Alan.
That makes me physically sick. There are some formations that can’t be cleaned any more without potentially destroying them. Millions of years of beauty ruined in an instant.
I live here in AZ and this small shallow damage can be scrubbed off without too much difficulty. That being said, yeah, Sedona is a beautiful area and the red cliffs are sandstone and limestone, not the most hardy type of rock. You would like to think people could refrain from ruining the natural beauty.
she seems so douchy…does anyone else get that vibe?
Not at all. She’s a sweetheart and talented. She lost her father, whom she adored, and carried on doing the TV live version of Grease the next day, which was so hard on her.
Not douchy but after this more so clueless and a little selfish, takes a certain kind of idiot to eagerly post someone carving your ‘love’ into a protected rock.
I visited Sedona a year or so ago and those landscapes are stunning. As a Brit it was like being on Mars. I’m glad they’re being protected from ignorant Instagrammers.
Good!
What an a-hole.
It just seems so stupid that it’s hard for me to gather sympathy.
Who still does silly crap like that in 2016? How old are you (mentally) that you’re still impressed by someone taking a knife to a rock to profess their love?
My perception of her I.Q. took a hard hit.
Yes, when the story came out, there were so many people on here who defended her because she was young, maybe she didn’t know better, just such lame excuses. I knew better when I was 6. There’s no excuse for what she did or reasonable explanation for it. Such arrogance to carve your stupid twit initials in a centuries old, irreplaceable rock formation. Ugh.
I like in the Southwest and visit red rock formations regularly. It angers me beyond words to see twats defacing the natural beauty of the area in the name of narcissism and craving for attention. People leaving trash on the trail too. She got off way to easy, in my opinion.
Has she ever uttered a public apology for what they did? Young girls look up to her and may think she’s cool to do something illegal, even if she got busted.
I don’t feel sorry for her in the slightest and I think she got off way too lightly. Vandalism and graffiti in national parks is a big problem, with some defacements carved too deep to remove. It sucks, and I don’t understand why some people have to ruin things for everyone else.
If you MUST declare your undying love for someone or whatever via carving crude shapes into surfaces, that’s what the picnic tables are for. People will be idiots but at least there’s a less permanent way for them to express their individuality (so independent!) that doesn’t deface natural wonders.
She used to be harmless but now her idiocy and immaturity is showing. You dated the same guy for what 2-3 years now and you guys are still at the “carve/write your lover’s name” stage???? Lmaooo
She should be crucified, then quartered. No excuse.
Yes I live in In the west and the way people are intentionally disobeying rules of some of the most preserved sites all in the name of a good photo for social media is sickening. Most of these places have started posting signs: please don’t get in the water, please don’t stand on the logs or rocks, please pick up trash (u obviously r trash if u litter around parks anyway!)… There r always serious reasons for u not to do these things and no it’s not for your safety, but the site you’re visiting’ safety! Even w these signs you can go online and Google places and tons of pictures come up that people post doing these exact things. Makes me so mad, what will be left in years to come if people can’t respect what few places r left?!