It’s unlikely that you haven’t heard about the southern California wildfires that are putting Malibu in danger and forcing the evacuation of thousands of homes.
The latest news on the fires is that stars are not only being forced to evacuate their homes, but filming is being disrupted as well! If these fires continue to rage some of beloved television shows may end up having serious delays in production.
Richard Gere and John Travolta who flew into the Los Angeles area on Monday for the 11th annual Hollywood Awards got a fantastic aerial view of the fires. Gere was quoted by Access Hollywood as saying “It’s as far as you could see in both directions,” Travolta then added “The smoke was actually in the plane as we flew through. It was a large area, surprisingly large. I mean I never like to see that.”
Kelsey Grammer who was evacuated from his Malibu home told E! Online “All I see is smoke, but we’re okay.” he said of his family and pet dog.
It’s also been reported that land owned by Sean Penn has been fire blackened and two of his trailers parked on that land have been charred.
Other stars that have had to be evacuated include Mel Gibson, and Victoria Principal. Victoria was kind enough to have donated $50,000 to the Malibu evacuation center so that food and blankets could be provided to evacuees. She also donated another $10,000 to an animal shelter that rescues stray pets.
Television productions that have been affected by the fire include Big Shots which canceled a cycling sequence that was scheduled to shoot on Tuesday in Malibu; A scene on 24 with Kiefer Sutherland had to be canceled due to the smoke that was drifting in from nearby fires; and one of my favorite quirky shows, The Riches, had to rewrite a scene that was to include a real sheriffs deputy – naturally the deputies were dispatched from the set to help the fire crews and evacuation efforts.
Nobu, a famous Malibu restaurant closed it’s doors on Sunday, but it’s said that they will open again to serve meals to local firefighters.