Actor Mel Gibson Responds After Loss Of Malibu Home To Wildfire
Mel Gibson has disclosed that his Malibu home was destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires while he was in Austin, Texas, recording a podcast with Joe Rogan.
The Oscar-winning actor and director shared the news during a phone interview on NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports. Despite the loss, Gibson said he is coping well with the aftermath.
“Obviously, it’s kind of devastating. It’s emotional,” he remarked. “You live there for a long time, and you had all your stuff. You remember [comedian] George Carlin talking about your stuff? I had my stuff there, and it’s all like, I’ve been relieved from the burden of my stuff because it’s all in cinders.”
Gibson also admitted feeling “ill at ease” during his appearance on Rogan’s podcast, as he was aware of the rapidly spreading wildfire threatening his neighborhood.
“When I got home, sure enough, [the house] wasn’t there,” he told Vargas. “I went home and I said to myself, ‘Well, at least I haven’t got any of those pesky plumbing problems anymore.’”
According to WBAL-TV, Gibson and his girlfriend had evacuated before the fire, with her staying in California while he traveled to Texas for the podcast.
“I have never seen a place so perfectly burned,” Gibson said, describing his destroyed home. “You could put it in an urn.”
Other celebrities have also shared their experiences of losing their homes in the wildfires, including Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Billy Crystal, Jeff Bridges, Paris Hilton, and Ricki Lake.
In a statement to CNN, Crystal expressed the immense pain caused by the destruction. “Words cannot describe the enormity of the devastation we are witnessing and experiencing. We ache for our friends and neighbors who have also lost their homes and businesses in this tragedy.”
Crystal, who lived in his home with his wife, Janice, since 1979, said, “We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away.”
He added, “We are heartbroken, of course, but with the love of our children and friends, we will get through this. We pray for the safety of the firefighters and first responders. The Pacific Palisades is a resilient community of amazing people, and we know that in time, it will rise again. It is our home.”
Jeff Bridges’ family beach house was also destroyed in the fires. According to his representative, Bridges and his family are safe.
Actor and former talk show host Ricki Lake shared on Instagram that she lost her “dream home” in the fires, writing, “It’s all gone.”
“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,” she wrote. Lake added that she is mourning the “immeasurable” loss of the home where she married her husband three years ago, WBAL-TV reported.
Meanwhile, Lois & Clark actor Dean Cain revealed to Fox News Digital that all the homes he once lived in within Malibu and Pacific Palisades were destroyed in the recent wildfires.
“I ended up having three different houses in Pacific Palisades, one that I owned, two that I rented and lived in,” Cain shared. “The three of those Pacific Palisades’ [homes], all of those burned, gone. Pacific Palisades looks like someone dropped a nuclear weapon on top of it and just flattened everything. I’ve never seen anything like that. Also, three of the houses that I lived in in Malibu are gone.”
Cain also reflected on the Woolsey Fire in 2018, which burned his backyard but spared his house. “We’re used to this in Malibu,” he explained. “We get the wind, we get the fire, so we know how to deal with it. But when you have all the… tools taken away from you, no money, no brush clearance, no controlled burns, all of those things, you end up with a catastrophic situation like this.”
He noted that his fire insurance was canceled after the Woolsey Fire, which contributed to his decision to leave California for Henderson, Nevada, later that year.