Mel Gibson joins the ranks of celebrities whose home has been destroyed in the catastrophic Los Angeles fires.
The Oscar winner revealed the loss of his home earlier this morning (Friday morning Los Angeles time). He spoke about it during a telephone interview with NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
Gibson revealed he and his girlfriend had already evacuated the Malibu property. She remained in California, while he travelled to Austin, Texas to appear on the Joe Rogan podcast.
Gibson said he was “ill at ease” during the podcast with Rogan because he was aware that his neighborhood was on fire.
“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 any more’.”
Mel Gibson’s Malibu home in 2024.Credit: Top Ten Real Estate Deals
Gibson said he had never seen a place so perfectly burned. “You could put it in an urn,” he said.
However, his chickens survived in their coop – “they weren’t roast chickens”.
Gibson said it seemed like a fire threatened his home every time he went away, but last time it came from the other direction.
“Obviously, it’s kind of devastating. It’s emotional,” he said. “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.”
Mel Gibson at a special screening of Monster Summer in Los Angeles in September 2024.Credit: AP
The Pacific Palisades wildfires also torched the home of This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia, perhaps most poignantly destroying the father-to-be’s newly installed crib.
CBS cameras caught the actor walking through his charred house for the first time, standing in what was once his kitchen and looking at a neighbourhood in ruin. “Your heart just breaks.”
Mandy Moore, who played Ventimiglia’s wife on This Is Us, nearly lost her home in the Eaton fire, which scorched large areas of the Altadena neighborhood. She said Thursday that part of her house is standing but is unlivable, and her husband lost his music studio and all his instruments.
Other stars who have lost their homes include Billy Crystal, Paris Hilton, Jeff Bridges and Cary Elwes and R&B star Jhené Aiko.
With AP
