The devastating wildfires raging through Los Angeles have unleashed unprecedented destruction, obliterating more than 1,000 homes and compelling thousands of residents to evacuate, including well-known figures such as Paris Hilton, Miles Teller, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody.
The intense blazes, exacerbated by powerful winds, have quickly surged across the landscape, with the Pacific Palisades area suffering some of the heaviest damage. Once an idyllic neighborhood, famous for its luxurious hillside mansions and ocean vistas, has been ravaged by the flames, which have escalated from several hundred acres to an astonishing 15,000 acres in merely a few days.
Paris Hilton watched her Malibu beach house burn to the ground on television and has been left heartbroken to lose the family home where she and her husband Carter Reum and their two children, son Phoenix and daughter London, had made so many happy memories.
Sharing footage of the destroyed property on Instagram, she wrote: “I’m standing here in what used to be our home, and the heartbreak is truly indescribable.
“When I first saw the news, I was in complete shock – I couldn’t process it. But now, standing here and seeing it with my own eyes, it feels like my heart has shattered into a million pieces.
“This house wasn’t just a place to live – it was where we dreamed, laughed, and created the most beautiful memories as a family.”
Spencer Pratt and his wife Heidi Montag also lost their home in the Pacific Palisades fire, despite Spencer’s dad trying his best to save the house.
Mel Gibson discovered his California home had burnt down whilst he was away in Austin, Texas, recording an appearance on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast.
The ‘Lethal Weapon’ star has lost personal items and photographs that are irreplaceable.
He said: “Obviously, it’s kind of devastating. It’s emotional.
“I was doing the Rogan podcast… And [I was] kind of ill at ease while we were talking, because I knew my neighbourhood was on fire, so I thought, I wonder if my place is still there.
“But when I got home, sure enough, it wasn’t there … I had a lot of personal things there that, you know, I can’t get back … All kinds of stuff, everything from photographs to files to, you know, you know, just personal things that I had from over the years.
“These are only things. And the good, the good news is that, you know, those in my family and those I love are all well, and we’re all happy and healthy and out of harm’s way.”
Jeff Bridges lost his ancestral home in the wildfires.
The ‘Big Lebowski’ actor primarily lives in Santa Barbara with wife Susan Geston, but a four-bedroom house he shares with his siblings in Malibu was destroyed by the Pacific Palisades blaze.
The house had been in the Bridges family for generations and was inherited by Jeff, his actor brother Beau Bridges, and sister Lucinda.
Other stars to have lost their homes due to the fires include Billy Crystal, Miles Teller, Milo Ventimiglia, Anna Faris, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester.
In response to the ongoing catastrophe, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to postpone the much-anticipated announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations by two days. Originally scheduled for Friday, January 17th, the reveal will now occur on Sunday, January 19th.
To accommodate the challenges posed by the situation, the voting period for the nearly 10,000 Academy members has also been pushed back by two days, now concluding on Tuesday, January 14th. The extension is intended to ensure that all members can participate in the voting process and cast their ballots without undue stress from the ongoing crisis.
