What Is That?! Lucy Fans Terrified By Her Statue

Even the staunchest Lucille Ball fan probably would not recognize the statue purportedly of the actress that resides in her hometown of Celoron, NY. The privately-commissioned, life-sized, bronze ... thing is fairly terrifying, and while I Love Lucy fans have expressed their displeasure ever since it was unveiled in 2009, a group has now officially formed to lobby for the statue's removal. We Love Lucy! Get Rid of this Statue has nearly 8,000 fans on Facebook so far, and features shots of the statue with captions like, "This is unacceptable!" The group's organizer tells Yahoo News he thinks the statue "looks like a monster."

But they face an uphill battle: The town's mayor tells the Jamestown Post-Journal that the original sculptor would charge $8,000 to $10,000 to "redo" the statue, while other local sculptors would charge at least $5,000. The mayor doesn't want to use taxpayer money, so he's created a special fund for the project—but so far there's not much money in it. "These people on Facebook need to realize that we're all aware that (the statue) doesn't look like Lucy and needs to be fixed. We're just working on getting the funds to do that," he says. In addition to Ball living in Celoron for a time, nearby Jamestown is home to the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum & Center for Comedy. (More Lucille Ball stories.)