Reliably Democratic Celebrities Turn on Their Brethren in California Government Following Los Angeles Wildfires Failures

As devastating wildfires continue to ravage Los Angeles, a number of celebrities — many of them reliably Democratic in the past — have found themselves among the thousands of residents displaced and facing the loss of their homes. In the wake of destruction, some are speaking out against state officials, criticizing their response to the deadly blazes.Most of the anger has been directed at Los Angeles’ mayor, Karen Bass, who left for a trip to Ghana after the city was warned that the powerful Santa Ana winds that fueled the flames were coming. She was thousands of miles away during the initial destruction.A journalist and former first lady of California, Maria Shriver, publicly said that city residents “deserve better.”“LA cannot go forward with the status quo. LA is no longer what it was. It has to be different,” she wrote in a post on X. “It has to prioritize the safety of its citizens, police, fire, schools. LA residents deserve better…The mayoral race presented a clear choice last time around.“Right now what’s important is getting this fire under control, getting firefighters the support they need, getting our neighbors the support they need. Once that happens, it’s time to rethink what is and imagine what can be,” she added.Ms. Shriver’s statement came in response to comments made by Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who skewered Ms. Bass during an interview on CNN by saying the mayor’s leadership hampered the department’s efforts to control the fires.“Let me be clear. The $17M budget cut and elimination of our civilian positions like our mechanics did and has and will continue to severely impact our ability to repair our apparatus,” she said. “Over the last 3 years, we have been clear that the fire department needs help. We can no longer sustain where we are.”The chief executive of the Endeavor talent agency, Ari Emanuel, a member of Hollywood’s elite and major donor to Ms. Bass’ campaign, also took issue with how she handled her responsibilities during the disaster. “If it is true that she left the country on a Saturday after the [high wind] warning came out, that is a dereliction of duty,” he told Puck News.Other celebs also have turned against the Democratic leadership in Los Angeles and the state.As the blazes reached their apex, actress Sarah Michelle Gellar took to Instagram to criticize local leadership and tag the accounts of Mayor Bass and the city of Los Angeles. “City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping,” she wrote.The daughter of music mogul David Foster, actress Sara Foster, tagged the accounts of Governor Newsom and Ms. Bass as well, with harsh comments about their leadership on X.“We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared,” wrote the democratic actress. “Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits.”“RESIGN. Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party,” she said.The comments made come from a small fraction of the scores of public figures whose lives have been upended by the wildfires.Pacific Palisades, a tony enclave near the Pacific coastline, was the hardest hit, with a score of homes in the surrounding area reduced to ash, including those of numerous celebrities. Among those was actor Joshua Jackson of the ABC series “Doctor Odyssey,” who lost the childhood home he had purchased in 2001.“First and most importantly, all the people closest to me affected by the fire are OK,” Mr. Jackson said in a statement to People Magazine. “My daughter, my family, my neighbors all made it out safely.”“Sadly, my beautiful home did not survive the fires,” he added. “But today, I feel incredibly lucky to be surrounded by the people I love.”Other celebrities who have lost their homes include Billy Crystal, Melissa Rivers, Paris Hilton, actress Anna Faris, songwriter Diane Warren, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Eugene Levy, and reality TV couple Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag.In a tragic example of life imitating art, actors Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore, who played married couple Jack and Rebecca Pearson in the family drama “This is Us” for six seasons, both lost their homes. A central focus of the television show’s plot was the Pearson family losing their home due to a fire.“It’s not lost on me, life imitating art,” Mr. Ventimiglia said during an interview with the CBS Evening News as he surveyed the damage to his Malibu home. He said he watched in real time over security cameras as the flames consumed his home.“There is a shock moment where you go, ‘This is real and this is happening,’ and then at a certain point you turn [the camera feed] off,” he said. “What good is it to keep watching? We kind of accepted the loss.”Mandy Moore said her family’s home in Altadena is “not livable” after it was scorched by the Elton Fire. “Miraculously, the main part of our house is still standing for now. It’s not livable but mostly intact,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “Everyone we know lost everything. Every house on our street is gone. My in-laws. My brother and sister in-law — 6 weeks from welcoming their first baby. Our best friends.”“Feeling weird survivors guilt. We love this community and will do everything we can to help rebuild and support.”

Reliably Democratic Celebrities Turn on Their Brethren in California Government Following Los Angeles Wildfires Failures

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