Michael Keaton's name misspelled on Pittsburgh Walk of Fame plaque

“Holy typo, Batman!”

Amid all of the celebration on Monday over the Pittsburgh Walk of Fame’s unveiling of its first 10 stars, one mishap went unnoticed — Michael Keaton’s first name is misspelled in the text underneath his star on an honorary plaque.

Instead of “Michael,” Keaton’s first name is spelled “Micheal,” switching the “a” and “e.”

Nancy Polinsky Johnson, the Walk of Fame’s founder and executive director, said she was alerted to the error Tuesday afternoon. She was “initially mortified.”

Johnson is a longtime WQED on-air host and former publisher and editor of Shady Ave magazine for 17 years, which was acquired by Trib Total Media in 2022.

“I would proof 130 pages of copy on a regular basis, so that this got past me on nine lines of type was just more embarrassing than I can say,” she told TribLive Wednesday. “I was very distraught about it yesterday.”

Johnson’s oldest son is actually named Michael, and she conceded to making the same mistake in the past.

“I can’t tell you how often in an email to him I make the same mistake and autocorrect fixes it for me,” she said. “So there’s some real irony that I didn’t see that.”

Here they are — the first 10 stars in the Pittsburgh Walk of Fame @TribLIVE ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/kAyOWwT0k4

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) October 20, 2025

Now, Johnson said she’s taking on a P.T. Barnum philosophy: “Any publicity is good publicity.”

“Today, I’ve decided I’ve got to cut myself some slack; I was juggling a lot of balls,” she said. “We are now getting an extra day or two of publicity.”

And the mistake is going to be fixed.

Keaton’s first name will be altered on the plaque “as fast as it can,” but Johnson said that casting something in bronze is a time-consuming process.

“There are a number of steps involved,” she said. “We can’t determine how fast this is going to happen, (but) everybody’s on it.”

Johnson said she talked to the bronze manufacturer Wednesday, and they said the process is being expedited.

“They are fast, fast, fast-tracking this, so they’re saying weeks — possibly a month, but not as much as two months,” she said.

Since noticing the mistake, Johnson said she knows it’s been circulating on social media. She’s also been in touch with Keaton’s team about it to let them know it’s in the process of being fixed.

Keaton unveiled his star and plaque himself in Pittsburgh during the induction ceremony, which begs the question: Why didn’t he notice the spelling error?

“The people who were involved in the ceremony and in the luncheon that followed, which included me and Michael Keaton and his team, we were all very, very pressed for time, so … no one was stopping to read anything,” Johnson said. “We were just trying to move on to the next thing.”

Keaton was also inundated with people after the ceremony’s conclusion.

“Even if he did have a moment to read it, he might not have noticed,” Johnson said.

Because numerous people had eyes on the plaque before it was placed in the sidewalk on Smallman Street, she said she doesn’t want to place the blame on someone specific.

“I don’t want to put the blame at any one person’s feet,” Johnson said. “Many eyes looked at it along the way, but I had ultimate responsibility.”