Billy Crystal lost the Pacific Palisades house where he had lived since 1979. Paris Hilton watched her Malibu beach mansion burn down on live TV.
The list of celebrities who lost their homes and neighbourhoods in the worst fire in Los Angeles history reads like a Hollywood who’s who.
Jamie Lee Curtis, James Woods, Mandy Moore, Mark Hamill and Maria Shriver were among those who publicly described being forced to evacuate as out-of-control fires swept across some of the most lavish real estate in the world.
The largest blaze consumed nearly 12,000 acres in Pacific Palisades, home to film, television and music stars, where the median house is worth $4.5 million.
Some had yet to comment publicly even as pictures of burning homes said to be theirs were shared by media outlets. Among them were Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester and her husband Adam Brody of The O.C., two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins, Roseanne star John Goodman, Top Gun: Maverick actor Miles Teller and Scary Movie star Anna Faris.
Perennial Oscars host Crystal and his wife Janice said they were heartbroken to lose the Pacific Palisades house where they had raised their children and grandchildren, “but with the love of children and friends we will get through this.”
Media personality Hilton said she was “heartbroken beyond words” to lose her beachfront mansion.
“Sitting with my family, watching the news, and seeing our home in Malibu burn to the ground on live TV is something no one should ever have to experience,” she wrote on X.
Woods, a two-time Oscar nominee and three-time Emmy winner, recounted how he fled his house in Pacific Palisades as flames bore down “like an inferno.”
“One day you’re swimming in the pool, and the next day it’s all gone,” he said. He teared up in a TV interview as he described a niece who “came out with her little Yeti piggy bank for us to rebuild our house.”
Reality TV star Spencer Pratt posted on X: “The one positive sign I saw as our house burned down was our son’s bed burned in the shape of a heart. A sign of how much love was in this house, so thankful for all the years and memories there with our family.”
Jennifer Grey’s daughter Stella Gregg said the Dirty Dancing star’s house had “burnt to the ground” but Grey and her dog had escaped.
Shriver, a journalist and former first lady of California when she was married to then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the destruction in the upscale enclave was devastating.
Oscar winner Curtis said “my community and possibly my home is on fire.”
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