Steve Martin shared his hack for how to be recognized while wearing a face mask in public

• Actor Steve Martin shared a comical hack for being recognizable while wearing a face covering.
• On Saturday, Martin posted a now-viral tweet with a picture of him with sunglasses and a surgical face mask, as well as a handwritten piece of paper on his head that reads: "Steve Martin."
• "I always wear a mask when I go outside. But something about it was leaving me anxious and unsettled. I thought about the problem, addressed it, and here is the solution," Martin wrote.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public to help curb the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Steve Martin has a comical solution for people who fear their face masks are keeping them from being recognized in public — and wish otherwise.

The "Cheaper by the Dozen" actor tweeted a picture of himself on Saturday showing off his concept, which has since gone viral and been shared some 50,000 times.

"I always wear a mask when I go outside. But something about it was leaving me anxious and unsettled. I thought about the problem, addressed it, and here is the solution," Martin wrote, sharing a picture of a handwritten sign on his head showing his name.

"Star Trek" actor George Takei joked that he tried the method for himself, but "no one believed" he was Martin.

Kevin Bacon, who made a brief appearance alongside Martin in the 1987 movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," also had a response to Martin's face mask hack.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public to help curb the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Plenty of celebrities have used comedy and fashion statements to promote the use of face masks.

For example, in July, comedian Chelsea Handler shared a video of herself doing a workout while wearing a DIY sports bra made of two surgical face masks tied together. She went viral for the garment, which she said on Instagram was her way of urging people to "find a mask and put it on."

Some stars who attended recent socially distanced red-carpet events, like the MTV Video Music Awards and the Venice Film Festival, both earlier in September, matched their face masks to their outfits.

Actress Maya Hawke, who wore a rose-gold mask that coordinated with her metallic gown; Tilda Swinton, who walked the socially distanced red carpet holding a custom mask that looked more like a piece of art than a face covering; and Lady Gaga wore a different face mask for each of her VMAs performances.

To Martin's point about not being recognizable in public, face masks have apparently posed some unique challenges for celebrity photographers, who have an added challenge in identifying photo subjects, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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