Celebrities flee, Hollywood events postponed as wildfires rage

Jamie Lee Curtis, Mandy Moore, Maria Shriver and other celebrities were among the tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate their homes to escape the out-of-control wildfires burning around Los Angeles.

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The largest blaze consumed nearly 12,000 acres (4,856 hectares) in Pacific Palisades, a picturesque neighbourhood between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu that is home to many film, television and music stars.

“Heartbreaking, devastating, beyond belief,” Shriver, a journalist and the former first lady of California when she was married to former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, wrote on X on Wednesday. “Everything is gone. Our neighbourhood, our restaurants.”

“The firefighters have and are doing their best,” Shriver added, “but this fire is massive and out of control.”

The day after actor James Woods evacuated his house in Pacific Palisades, he said “Every house around us was on fire.”

“We were literally in the exact epicentre of the fire as it started,” Woods, known for roles in ‘Ghosts of Mississippi’ and ‘Any Given Sunday’, said on CNN on Wednesday. “There was so much chaos. It was like an inferno.”

The disaster disrupted several Hollywood events just as the annual awards season was kicking off. This weekend’s Critics Choice Awards was delayed by two weeks, and next week’s Oscar nominations announcement was postponed by two days, organizers said.

Strong, dry winds fanned the Palisades blaze, and the area’s narrow, winding streets combined with the rush of thousands of people ordered to evacuate created long delays and traffic jams.

“It is surreal here in Los Angeles,” actor Henry Winkler wrote on X. “It is biblical. So many people have lost everything.”

Oscar winner Curtis said she was safe but “my community and possibly my home is on fire.”

“It is a terrifying situation,” Curtis wrote on Instagram.

“Pray if you believe in it and even if you don’t, pray for those who do.”

Mandy Moore, known for the television series ‘This is Us’, said she and her family had evacuated because of the proximity of the flames.

“So gutted for the destruction and loss,” she wrote on Instagram. “Don’t know if our place made it.”

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Pacific Palisades is bordered by the Pacific Ocean and buffeted by the Santa Monica Mountains. With its median home price of $4.5 million, it is home to celebrities as well as the Getty Villa, one of the most popular museums in Los Angeles.

Several other fires – along with the Palisades blaze – were burning around the city. Film permits were revoked in Pasadena and other areas east of Los Angeles at the request of fire officials, according to permitting organization FilmLA.

Production of TV shows including ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ was halted on Wednesday, and several film premieres were called off. City authorities also blocked public access to the famous Hollywood sign in the hills above Los Angeles.

Actor Mark Hamill, known for playing Luke Skywalker in the ‘Star Wars’ films, said the blaze was the ‘most horrific’ since 1993.

He said on Instagram that he evacuated his home in Malibu on Tuesday evening with his wife and dog.

“There (were) small fires on both sides of the road as we approached,” the Pacific Coast Highway, he said.