By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Actor Jamie Lee Curtis, one of many Hollywood celebrities who lived in the California neighborhoods ravaged by wildfires this week, said on Thursday her family would donate $1 million to relief efforts.
The Oscar winner said she and her husband, actor and director Christopher Guest, and their children had pledged $1 million to support “our great city and state and the great people who live there.”
Curtis said she was in contact with officials about “where those funds need to be directed for the most impact.”
Her post featured a picture of smoke billowing above the famed Santa Monica Pier.
On Wednesday night, Curtis choked back tears as she described the devastation in the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades during an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
“Where I live is on fire right now, literally the entire city of Pacific Palisades is on fire,” she said. “This is literally where I live – everything, the market I shop in, the schools my kids go to. Friends, many, many, many, many, many friends, now have lost their homes.”
“It’s just a catastrophe,” Curtis said.
Other celebrities such as Billy Crystal, James Woods, Paris Hilton and Mandy Moore said their homes had been destroyed.
The Palisades fire, and another to the east of Los Angeles, was still burning on Thursday.
CORE, an aid organization co-founded by Sean Penn, said it was distributing masks and other supplies to help people in areas with poor air quality because of wildfire smoke.
“Hacks” star Jean Smart called on TV networks to drop plans to televise upcoming Hollywood awards shows and instead donate to wildfire relief and first responders.
“ATTENTION,” the Emmy winner wrote on Instagram. “With ALL due respect during Hollywood’s season of celebration, I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have garnered to victims of the fires and firefighters.”
One upcoming show, the Critics Choice Awards, was postponed by two weeks because of the fires, and next week’s Oscar nominations were delayed by two days. Several film premieres have been canceled, and some TV productions have been paused.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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