Stars join thousands waiting to learn wildfire’s damage toll
LOS ANGELES — Rich or not, famous or not, there was no reprieve Saturday from the California wildfires sweeping through towns as different as the star-filled oceanside enclave of Malibu and the modest communities nearby and in the state’s north.
Lady Gaga, Martin Sheen and Kim Kardashian West were among the celebrities who joined thousands of others in evacuating from the affluent coastal city that is as well-known as its residents. The stars went online to share their own distress and dismay for others as the fate of many properties remained unknown Saturday.
“I am thinking so deeply for everyone who is suffering today from these abominable fires & grieving the loss of their homes or loved ones,” Lady Gaga tweeted. “I’m sitting here with many of you wondering if my home will burst into flames. All we can do is pray together & for each other. God Bless You.”
There were shout-outs as well to the firefighters struggling to contain the fires in what were described as especially difficult conditions.
“These guys are heroes,” filmmaker Guillermo del Toro posted on Twitter. His so-called “Bleak House,” which contains his collection of items too scary to be kept in the family home, was endangered.
Shannen Doherty, who’d been out of town when the fire broke out, said online that friends staying at her Malibu house evacuated safely with her dogs. It’s likely her house burned, she said, but she expressed gratitude to firefighters “putting their lives on the line for all of us” and sympathy for others affected by the fire.
Sheen (“The West Wing,” ”Apocalypse Now”), interviewed by a TV station on the beach Friday night after fleeing his home, said the fire was the worst he’s ever seen. He said he expects his house was destroyed.
The interview occurred after his son, actor Charlie Sheen, tweeted that he’d been unable to contact his father, and the Los Angeles Fox affiliate KTTV tracked him down. Martin Sheen gave a shoutout to his family to let them know he and his wife, Janet, were safe and planned to sleep in their car by the beach.
The status of Martin Sheen’s home was unknown Saturday morning.
“Beverly Hills, 90210” star Doherty said her “heart is ripped apart” by the loss of a Malibu home where she and husband Kurt Iswarienko were married in 2011, posting on Instagram a wedding-day photo of the smiling couple on a tree-lined path at the property apparently owned by a friend.