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).”
Bounding into cinemas just in time for spring, the latest Pixar animation is a pleasingly charming tale of man vs nature, with a bit of crazy robot tech thrown in.
The star of Hoppers is Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Piper Curda), a young animal-lover leading a one-girl protest over a freeway being built through the tranquil countryside near her hometown of Beaverton.
Because the freeway is the pet project of the town’s popular mayor, Jerry (Jon Hamm), who is vying for re-election, Mabel’s protests fall on deaf ears.
Everything changes when she stumbles upon top-secret research by her biology professor, Dr Sam Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), that allows for the human consciousness to be linked to robotic animals. This lets users get up close and personal with other species.
Advertisement
“This is like Avatar,” Mabel coos, and, in truth, it is. Plugged into a headset, Mabel is reborn inside a robotic beaver. She plans to recruit a real beaver to help populate the glade, which is set to be destroyed by Jerry’s proposed road.
In the summer of 1991, Nirvana filmed the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on a Culver City sound stage. Kurt Cobain strummed the grunge anthem’s iconic four-chord opening riff on a 1969 Fender Mustang, Lake Placid Blue with a signature racing stripe.
Nearly 35 years later, the six-string relic hung on a gallery wall at Christie’s in Beverly Hills as part of a display of late billionaire businessman Jim Irsay’s world-renowned guitar collection, which heads to auction at Christie’s, New York, beginning Tuesday. Each piece in the Beverly Hills gallery, illuminated by an arched spotlight and flanked by a label chronicling its history, carried the aura of a Renaissance painting.
Share via
Advertisement
Advertisement
Irsay’s billion-dollar guitar arsenal, crowned “The Greatest Guitar Collection on Earth” by Guitar World magazine, is the focal point of the Christie’s auction, which has split approximately 400 objects — about half of which are guitars — into four segments: the “Hall of Fame” group of anchor items, the “Icons of Pop Culture” class of miscellaneous memorabilia, the “Icons of Music” mixed batch of electric and acoustic guitars and an online segment that compiles the remainder of Irsay’s collection. The online sale, featuring various autographed items, smaller instruments and historical documents, features the items at the lowest price points.
A portion of auction proceeds will be donated to charities that Irsay supported during his lifetime.
The instruments of famous musicians have long been coveted collector’s items. But in the case of the Jim Irsay Collection, the handcrafted six-strings have acquired a more ephemeral quality in the eyes of their admirers.
Amelia Walker, the specialist head of private and iconic collections at Christie’s, said at the recent highlight exhibition in L.A. that the auction represents “a real moment where these [objects] are being elevated beyond what we traditionally call memorabilia” into artistic masterpieces.
“They deserve the kind of the pedestal that we give to art as well,” Walker said. “Because they are not only works of art in terms of their creation, but what they have created, what their owners have created with them — it’s the purest form of art.”
Advertisement
Cobain’s Fender was only one of the music history treasures nestled in Christie’s gallery. A few paces away, Jerry Garcia’s “Budman” amplifier, once part of the Grateful Dead’s three-story high “Wall of Sound,” perched atop a podium. Just past it lay the Beatles logo drum head (estimated between $1 million and $2 million) used for the band’s debut appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which garnered a historic 73 million viewers and catalyzed the British Invasion. Pencil lines were still visible beneath the logo’s signature “drop T.”
Pencil lines are still visible on the drum head Ringo Starr played during the Beatles’ debut appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
(Christie’s Images LTD, 2026)
It is exceptionally rare for even one such artifact to go to market, let alone a billion-dollar group of them at once, Walker said. But a public sale enabling many to participate and demonstrate the “true market value” of these objects is what Irsay would have wanted, she added.
Dropping tens of millions of dollars on pop culture memorabilia may seem an odd hobby for an NFL general manager, yet Irsay viewed collecting much like he viewed leading the Indianapolis Colts.
Advertisement
Irsay, the youngest NFL general manager in history, said in a 2014 Colts Media interview that watching and emulating the legendary NFL owners who came before him “really taught me to be a steward.”
“Ownership is a great responsibility. You can’t buy respect,” he said. “Respect only comes from you being a steward.”
The first major acquisition in Irsay’s collection came in 2001, with his $2.4-million purchase of the original 120-foot scroll for Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel, “On the Road.” He loved the book and wanted to preserve it, Walker said. But he also frequently lent it out, just like he regularly toured his guitar collection beginning 20 years later.
Jim Irsay purchased the original 120-foot scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” for $2.4 million in 2001.
(Christie’s Images)
Advertisement
“He said publicly, ‘I’m not the owner of these things. I’m just that current custodian looking after them for future generations,’ ” Walker said. “And I think that’s what true collectors always say.”
At its L.A. highlight exhibition, Irsay’s collection held an air of synchronicity. Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics for “Hey Jude” hung just a few steps from a promotional poster — the only one in existence — for the 1959 concert Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson were en route to perform when their plane crashed. The tragedy spurred Don McLean to write “American Pie,” about “the day the music died.”
Later, the Beatles’ 1966 song “Paperback Writer” played over the speakers near-parallel to the guitars the song was written on.
Irsay’s collection also contains a bit of whimsy, with gems like a prop golden ticket from 1971’s “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” — estimated between $60,000 and $120,000 — and reading, “In your wildest dreams you could not imagine the marvelous surprises that await you!”
Advertisement
Another fan-favorite is the “Wilson” volleyball from 2000’s “Cast Away,” starring Tom Hanks, estimated between $60,000 and $80,000, Gibson said.
Historically, such objects were often preserved by accident. But as the memorabilia market has ballooned over the last decade or so, Gibson said, “a lot of artists are much more careful about making sure that things don’t get into the wrong hands. After rehearsals, they tidy up after themselves.”
If anything proves the market value of seemingly worthless ephemera, Walker added, it’s fans clawing for printed set lists at the end of a concert.
“They’re desperate for that connection. This is what it’s all about,” the specialist said. It’s what drove Irsay as well, she said: “He wanted to have a connection with these great artists of his generation and also the generation above him. And he wanted to share them with people.”
In Irsay’s home, his favorite guitars weren’t hung like classic paintings. Instead, they were strewn about the rooms he frequented, available for him to play whenever the urge struck him.
Advertisement
Thanks to tune-up efforts from Walker, many of the guitars headed to auction are fully operational in the hopes that their buyers can do the same.
“They’re working instruments. They need to be looked after, to be played,” Walker said. And even though they make for great gallery art, “they’re not just for hanging on the wall.”
“Trying to find your niche as a movie star isn’t easy,” said Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter. Take Glen Powell. A year ago, the Twisters and Anyone but You star was being talked about as possibly the next Tom Cruise. But he “stumbled badly” when he tried to play a macho action hero in November’s remake of The Running Man, and he’s now turned in a second straight box office flop. He took a risk with How to Make a Killing, playing a guy cheated by fate who we’re supposed to root for as he begins murdering off the seven rich relatives standing between him and an enormous inheritance. But c’mon. “Powell is charming, but he’s not that charming.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Advertisement
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The movie “needed to pick a side,” said Jacob Oller in AV Club. It could have been “a clownish class comedy” or “bitter sociopathic satire,” but it winds up being neither, and “at the center of it all is Powell, making the same face for an hour and 45 minutes, too unflappable to root for, too smug to magnetize as an inhuman American Psycho.” I’m not ready to give up on him, said Nick Schager in the Daily Beast. To me, he and co-star Margaret Qualley, who plays the femme fatale who eggs on the killing spree, come across as “such alluringly nasty delights” that this reworking of the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets “ survives its potentially lethal missteps and works on its own limited terms.” Though its teeth aren’t as sharp as they should be, “it’s smart and spiky enough to leave a pleasurably painful mark.”
‘Pillion’
Directed by Harry Lighton (Not rated)
Advertisement
★★★★
While this gay BDSM rom-com from a rookie director “might sound niche,” said Amy Nicholson in the Los Angeles Times, “free yourself to see it and you’ll discover it’s a universal romance.” Former Harry Potter side figure Harry Melling stars as a shy singleton who’s figuring out what he wants in a relationship when he happens into a submissive-dominant entanglement with a tall, handsome biker played by Alexander Skarsgard. Soon, Melling’s Colin is obeying his lover’s every order, including by shaving himself bald and sleeping like a dog on the floor. But the “kinky-funny” screenplay, which won a prize at Cannes, makes sure we see that Colin is not stuck but growing.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
While the movie’s sex scenes are “refreshingly graphic,” they’re “never used or shock value,” said Odie Henderson in The Boston Globe. “The real shock comes from how emotionally involved the characters become within the construct of their kink.” And when Colin brings his new lover home to meet the parents, Skarsgard and Lesley Sharp, as Colin’s suburban London mom, do memorable work because “neither of them approaches the scene in a way you’d expect.” Until the ending, which “feels a little neat,” said Zachary Barnes in The Wall Street Journal, the movie “proceeds with an assurance of tone that’s especially impressive for a first-time filmmaker handling material like this.” Harry Lighton’s debut “could have been simply shocking, revving its engine in sexed-up style. Instead, Pillion purrs.”
‘Midwinter Break’
Directed by Polly Findlay (PG-13)
Advertisement
★★
Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds “would be appealing to watch just fumbling for their reading glasses,” said Natalia Winkelman in The New York Times. Unfortunately, this “staid” drama about an aging Irish couple puts that claim to the test. A “slow-moving film with a sappy score and mellow mood,” Midwinter Break opens with Manville’s Stella surprising Hinds’ Gerry by arranging a spur-of-the-moment trip to Amsterdam. Alas, “precious little conflict occurs until long afterward.”
But while Polly Findlay’s adaptation of a Bernard MacLaverty novel is a “delicate” film, said Lindsey Bahr in the Associated Press, its impact can be profound “if you can get on its level.” Stella, a devout Catholic, has an ulterior motive for dragging Gerry abroad, and when she nervously proposes how she’d like to live more purposefully in retirement, “it feels earth-shattering.” This is a couple accustomed to leaving much unsaid, including how the violence of the Troubles led them to flee Belfast years earlier for Scotland. Manville and Hinds give the movie everything they’ve got, said Caryn James in The Hollywood Reporter. In a scene in which Stella pours out her heart to a stranger, “Manville delivers one of her most magnificent performances, which is saying a lot.” Alas, the script lets them down, “not because it needs more action but because this ordinary couple’s problems seem so unsurprising, their inner lives so veiled.”
