Tom Hanks, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Reese Witherspoon and Adam Sandler are among the many celebrities facing the possibility of losing their luxury homes as the raging, windstorm-fueled Palisades fire roared through this tony, oceanside Los Angeles neighborhood Tuesday and Wednesday, destroying homes and forcing 30,000 residents to evacuate amid clouds of smoke and clogged roadways.
“The neighborhood I grew up in is burning to the ground,” Chet Hanks, the musician son of Bay Area-reared actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, posted on Instagram Story Tuesday evening. Chet Hanks also said, “Pray for Palisades.”
Actor James Woods documented the flames coming perilously close to his property in several posts on X, sharing photos taken from his security cameras, according to the Daily Beast. “Just letting you know that we were able to evacuate successfully,” he wrote on Tuesday afternoon. “I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing, but sadly houses on our little street are not.”
The Palisades fire broke out around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday near Piedra Morada Drive in the hills above Pacific Palides and was pushed southwest by intense Santa Ana wind gusts, some nearing 100 mph, according to the Los Angeles Times and CNN.
By the evening, the fire had expanded to 2,900 acres, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department, prompting California Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a “state of emergency.” It burned the grounds of the Getty Villa, though the building and its contents remained intact. Wide swaths of Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu remain under mandatory evacuation orders, the Los Angeles Times also reported.
Other Hollywood figures who call the area home include Bradley Cooper, Eugene Levy, Michael Keaton, Miles Teller, Michael Mann, Kathleen Kennedy and Steve Guttenberg, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Indeed, Guttenberg in fact was spotted helping clear a path for his neighbors to evacuate from the celebrity haven, the Daily Beast reported.
As the fire rapidly advanced, panicking drivers abandoned their cars on Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive, the Los Angeles Times reported, leading to bumper-to-bumper traffic jams as more people attempted to evacuate. The neighborhood is highly desirable for the rich and powerful because of its seclusion, but that seclusion carries risks when emergencies occur, the Times also said.
Guttenberg jumped into action, helping firefighters move cars abandoned on Palisades Drive, he told local station KTLA 5. The “Police Academy” star urged people who abandon their cars to leave their keys in the ignition so that he and others can easily move them to clear a path for other evacuees.
“I live right up the hill,” Guttenberg told the station, pointing towards the mountainside where flames were visible from the street. “There are families up there, there are pets up there, there are people who really need help.”
Guttenberg also said: “We’ve got a huge fire up there. We’ve got huge winds.”
Eugene Levy, the “Schitt’s Creek” star who was named honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades in 2021, told the Los Angeles Times that he was able to evacuate early on Tuesday. “I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark,” he said.
The Palisades fire and other fire emergencies in the Los Angeles area prompted Amazon MGM Studios and Universal Pictures to cancel their respective premiere events scheduled for Tuesday night, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Amazon MGM was planning to hold the premiere for its film “Unstoppable,” starring Jennifer Lopez and Jharrel Jerome, at the Directors Guild of America building in Los Angeles.
“In light of today’s safety concerns around heightened wind activity and fire outbreaks in Los Angeles, we regret to inform you that we are cancelling tonight’s premiere of ‘Unstoppable,’” Amazon Studios said. Universal also canceled its premiere for “Wolf Man,” starring Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Netflix also postponed an event for its Oscar contender Emilia Peréz “out of an abundance of caution due to the severe winds and fires currently affecting the L.A. area,” The Hollywood Reporter said. And, Sony Pictures Classics canceled a screening of “I’m Still Here,” where Guillermo del Toro was to host a Q&A with Brazilian director Walter Salles and Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres. Del Toro also had to evacuate from his home, according to The Hollywood Reporter.