The historic wildfires blazing across Los Angeles County this week have wiped out more than 2,000 structures, killed at least five people and left countless residents reeling in heartbreak. Given the fabric of the communities in and around L.A., celebrities are among those facing loss.
In one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in recent memory, at least 130,000 Angelenos have fled for safety as fires — stoked by worse-than-usual “life-threatening and destructive” winds — rampaged in the Pacific Palisades, Hollywood Hills and Altadena.
“We are absolutely not out of the danger yet,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said Wednesday.
From Mandy Moore to Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, stars have have been speaking out about their evacuation efforts, loss of property and efforts to help fire victims. While they, like so many Angelenos, remain displaced, firefighters continue to battle the blazes that have erupted since Tuesday.
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton said she watched her Malibu home burn on television.
Advertisement
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“Heartbroken beyond words. … 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,” the deejay, reality TV star and heiress wrote Wednesday on Instagram as the 0% contained Palisades fire continued to burn. “This home was where we built so many precious memories. It’s where Phoenix took his first steps and where we dreamed of building a lifetime of memories with London.
“While the loss is overwhelming, I’m holding onto gratitude that my family and pets are safe. My heart and prayers are going out to every family affected by these fires. To all the people who have lost their homes, their memories, and their beloved pets. My heartaches for those still in harm’s way or mourning greater losses. The devastation is unimaginable. To know so many are waking up today without the place they called home is truly heartbreaking. … Please, everyone, stay safe and follow evacuation orders. Let’s protect one another and hold onto hope that these fires will soon be contained.🙏 Sending so much love and strength to all of you. We’re in this together, LA. … Hug your loved ones a little tighter tonight. You never know when everything could change.”
Mandy Moore
Many Moore said goodbye to her Altadena home via an Instagram post.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
“I love you, Altadena,” the “This Is Us” star wrote Wednesday on Instagram as she drove through her community, which was struck by the Eaton fire. “Grateful for my family and pets getting out last night before it was too late (and endless gratitude to friends for taking us in and bringing us clothes and blankets). Honestly, I’m in shock and feeling numb for all so many have lost, including my family. My children’s school is gone. Our favorite restaurants, leveled. So many friends and loved ones have lost everything too. Our community is broken but we will be here to rebuild together. Sending love to all affected and on the front lines trying to get this under control.”
Billy Crystal
Janice Crystal and Billy Crystal lost their Pacific Palisades home of 45 years.
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
“Words cannot describe the enormity of the devastation we are witnessing and experiencing,” Billy Crystal and his wife, Janice, said in a joint statement to the Associated Press about their Pacific Palisades home. “We ache for our friends and neighbors who have also lost their homes and businesses in this tragedy. Janice and I lived in our home since 1979. We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away. We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this.”
Advertisement
Steve Guttenberg
Interviewed on TV while evacuating from Pacific Palisades, Steve Guttenberg urged people not to abandon their cars without leaving their keys behind.
(Richard Shotwell / Invision / Associated Press)
In what might be the most viral celebrity interview of the fire news cycle, the “Police Academy” star told a KTLA reporter on Tuesday that he had been working to clear abandoned cars on Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive in his neighborhood to make a path for fire trucks and emergency vehicles. He did not indicate the condition of his home, but said later on the “Today” show that he would go back soon to see what was left.
“What’s happening is people take their keys with them as if they’re in a parking lot. This is not a parking lot. We really need people to move their cars,” the longtime Pacific Palisades resident said. “If you leave your car behind, leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there.”
Cameron Mathison
Cameron Mathison showed footage of his burned home.
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)
Advertisement
“General Hospital” star Mathison shared footage from his street showing the destruction that overtook his block in the Pacific Palisades, noting on Instagram stories that “the last property is where our house was.” Mathison said he and his family are safe but showed footage of “what’s left of our beautiful home.”
In an appearance on “Cuomo,” the soap star said his family is safe but the losses have been devastating.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it. It just doesn’t feel real and I know I’m not alone. I know there’s hundreds, if not thousands of people out there and getting affected by these fires, and it’s very cool to see you kind of touching base with a lot of them to share their stories too,” Mathison said, adding, “That video was taken early in the morning … we’d been up, we’d been watching the news, and then I got up around 5, and they were reporting from our block, and I could see houses going down, and it looked insane, but I couldn’t see if our house was OK, and I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I got my car, and I just kind of drove in through the streets. … I kind of made my way up almost in the dark, and the cloud, like, it was, it was an insane scene. And as I came around the corner, you know what used to be, my house, our house was, was no longer and it is, it doesn’t, doesn’t seem real.”
Diane Warren
Diane Warren lost her beach house in Malibu.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
“This is the last pic I took of Leah’s rock from my beach house,” the Grammy-winning songwriter wrote Wednesday on Instagram, sharing a photo from a Malibu beach amid the Palisades fire. “I’ve had this house for almost 30 years. It looks like it was lost in the fire last nite. There’s a rainbow shining on it which I’m taking as a sign of hope for all creatures who have been affected by this tragedy. The animals and the rescue ranch are OK tho which is the most important thing. Stay safe everyone.”
Melissa Rivers
Melissa Rivers fled her Palisades-area home with important documents and irreplaceable items connected to her late mother, Joan Rivers.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Rivers, a TV personality and the daughter of famed comic Joan Rivers, told CNN that she fled her Palisades-area home on Wednesday and took whatever she could, including her mother’s Daytime Emmy Award for “The Joan Rivers Show.”
Advertisement
“Luckily, my office which is in — was in — my home… [I grabbed] whatever was there,” Melissa Rivers said. “In my personal situation, that’s it, that’s the end of everything that belonged to my family and the history of it. To be 100% honest, I grabbed my mom’s Emmy, a photo of my dad, and a drawing that my mother had done of me and my son … It’s amazing what you grab, it’s amazing what you take. I went for a drawing of my mother’s rather than a photo because I know I can find the photos. [But a drawing of hers] I can’t replace.”
Cary Elwes
Cary Elwes said he lost his home in the Palisades fire that also affected Malibu.
(Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press)
“Update from the fire. Firstly, myself and my family are all safe, thank God,” “The Princess Bride” star wrote Wednesday on Instagram after the Palisades fire broke out. “Sadly we did lose our home but we are grateful to have survived this truly devastating fire. Our hearts go out to all the families impacted by this tragic event and we also wish to extend our gratitude to all the firefighters, first responders and law enforcement who worked so tirelessly through the night and are still at it. We want to thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of support. It really means a great deal to us.”
Ricki Lake
Ricki Lake lost her “dream home” overlooking Malibu in the Palisades fire.
(Amy Sussman / Getty Images)
Advertisement
“It’s all gone. I can’t believe I am typing these words,” the former talk-show host wrote Wednesday on Instagram, sharing the loss of her “dream home.” “After a valiant and brave effort by our friend and hero @kirbykotler_ Ross and I lost our dream home. This description ‘dream home’ doesn’t suffice. It was our heaven on earth. The place where we planned to grow old together. We never took our heavenly spot on the bluff overlooking our beloved malibu for granted, not even for one second. I shared our sunset views almost daily with all of you.
“This loss is immeasurable. It’s the spot where we got married 3 years ago. I grieve along with all of those suffering during this apocalyptic event. Praying for all of my neighbors, my friends, my community, the animals, the firefighters and first responders. More to share soon of how we escaped with Dolly and not much else. For now I grieve.”
James Woods
James Woods lost his newly renovated Pacific Palisades home.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
Advertisement
The Emmy-winning actor fought back tears on air with CNN while discussing his newly renovated Pacific Palisades home and its evacuation during the Palisades fire. He said he and his wife, Sara Miller-Woods, had returned to the home last month after fixing up the property,
“I took this from the deck of our beautiful and much beloved home in the Palisades last night,” Woods wrote Wednesday on Instagram. “Now all the fire and smoke alarms are going off on our iPhones. It’s truly heartbreaking.”
Leighton Meester and Adam Brody
Leighton Meester, left, and Adam Brody reportedly lost their Pacific Palisades home.
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)
The “Gossip Girl” alumna, who is married to the “Nobody Wants This” actor, reportedly lost the Pacific Palisades home that they purchased in 2019, according to TMZ and the Daily Mail. The couple has not yet commented publicly on the fires.
Advertisement
Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins reportedly lost his Pacific Palisades property.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Hopkins lost his $6-million Pacific Palisades home, the Daily Mail reported. The Oscar winner bought the home in 2001, and photos showed the four-bedroom, five-bath property reduced to rubble.
Evacuations
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend left their Hollywood Hills home and took their four children and pets to a hotel Wednesday.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
Advertisement
“This is surreal. I’m very scared now. packing,” Teigen wrote on Instagram stories as the Sunset fire erupted late Wednesday in the Hollywood Hills. “4 dogs. 4 kids and a bearded dragon walk into a hotel,” she added.
Mark Hamill
“Star Wars” star Mark Hamill said on social media that his area was being evacuated.
(Rich Fury / Getty Images)
“Personal Fire Update: 7pm-Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH. 8:15 pm- Marilou, Trixie & I arrive at Chelsea’s house in Hollywood Most horrific fire since ‘93 … STAY SAFE! … ” the “Star Wars” star wrote Tuesday on Bluesky, later clarifying that “there ‘were’ small fires (gimme a break- we were fleeing for our lives).”
A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.
Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.
As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.
Advertisement
He is seeking $35 million in damages.
Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.
Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”
Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.
Advertisement
Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.
Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”
In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.
Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”
At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.
When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.
After more than two and a half years of research, planning and construction, Dataland, the world’s first museum of AI arts, will open June 20.
Co-founded by new media artists Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç, the museum anchors the $1-billion Frank Gehry-designed Grand LA complex across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Its first exhibition, “Machine Dreams: Rainforest,” created by Refik Anadol Studio, was inspired by a trip to the Amazon and uses vast data sets to immerse visitors in a machine-generated sensory experience of the natural world.
The architecture of the space, which Anadol calls “a living museum,” is used to reflect distant rainforest ecosystems, including changing temperature, light, smell and visuals. Anadol refers to these large-scale, shimmering tableaus as “digital sculptures.”
“This is such an important technology, and represents such an important transformation of humanity,” Anadol said in an interview. “And we found it so meaningful and purposeful to be sure that there is a place to talk about it, to create with it.”
The 35,000-square-foot privately funded museum devotes 25,000 square feet to public space, with the remaining 10,000 square feet holding the in-house technology that makes the space run. Dataland contains five immersive galleries and a 30-foot ceiling. An escalator by the entrance will transport guests to the experiences below. The museum declined to say how much Dataland, designed by architecture firm Gensler, cost to build.
Advertisement
An isometric architectural rendering of Dataland. The 25,000-square-foot AI arts museum also contains an additional 10,000 square feet of non-public space that holds its operational technology.
(Refik Anadol Studio for Dataland)
Dataland will collect and preserve artificial intelligence art and is powered by an open-access AI model created by Anadol’s studio called the Large Nature Model. The model, which does not source without permission, culls mountains of data about the natural world from partners including the Smithsonian, London’s Natural History Museum and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This data, including up to half a billion images of nature, will form the basis for the creation of a variety of AI artworks, including “Machine Dreams.”
“AI art is a part of digital art, meaning a lineage that uses software, data and computers to create a form of art,” Anadol explained. “I know that many artists don’t want to disclose their technologies, but for me, AI means possibilities. And possibilities come with responsibilities. We have to disclose exactly where our data comes from.”
Advertisement
Sustainability is another responsibility that Anadol takes seriously. For more than a decade, Anadol has devoted much thought to the massive carbon footprint associated with AI models. The Large Nature Model is hosted on Google Cloud servers in Oregon that use 87% carbon-free, renewable energy. Anadol says the energy used to support an individual visit to the museum is equivalent to what it takes to charge a single smartphone.
Anadol believes AI can form a powerful bridge to nature — serving as a means to access and preserve it — and that the swiftly evolving technology can be harnessed to illuminate essential truths about humanity’s relationship to an interconnected planet. During a time of great anxiety about the power of AI to disrupt lives and livelihoods, Anadol maintains it can be a revolutionary tool in service of a never-before-seen form of art.
“The works generate an emergent, living reality, a machine’s dream shaped by continuous streams of environmental and biological data. Within this evolving system, moments of recognition and interpretation emerge across different forms of knowledge,” a news release about the museum explains. “At the same time, the exhibition registers loss as part of this expanded field of perception, most notably in the Infinity Room, where visitors encounter the 1987 recording of the last known Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō, a now-extinct bird whose unanswered call becomes part of the work.”
“It’s very exciting to say that AI art is not image only,” Anadol said. “It’s a very multisensory, multimedium experience — meaning sound, image, video, text, smell, taste and touch. They are all together in conversation.”
