Unlike other Pacific Palisades residents, Ben Affleck could breathe a sigh of relief after he briefly returned home Wednesday to find that his recently purchased, $20 million property had thus far survived one of the destructive, wind-whipped wildfires tearing throughout the Los Angeles area since Tuesday.
The Daily Mail reported that the 52-year-old actor and filmmaker was spotted driving up to his home Wednesday. Meanwhile, Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Anthony Hopkins, Eugene Levy, Miles Teller, James Woods and others in the neighborhood were not so fortunate and were mourning the loss of their homes and family memories.
“Janice and I lived in our home since 1979. We raised our children and grandchildren here,” Billy Chrystal said in a statement released to the media. “Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away.”
A burned building on Sunset Boulevard during the Palisades Fire on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, CA. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Los Angeles County Fire Department estimated that more than 1,000 homes and other structures have been destroyed in the upscale celebrity enclave since the fire broke out in the hills there Tuesday morning, the Southern California News Group reported. More than 17,000 acres have burned, with 0% containment.
Elsewhere, five people were reported to have died in the Eaton fire, which is raging through Altadena and nearby Pasadena, with 0% containment. More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed in those communities.
Affleck made the trip back to his home even though his address still appears to be in a mandatory evacuation zone, the Daily Mail reported. The “Argo” star had been photographed evacuating the night before, wearing a grim expression on his face, as he drove away from his house, heading to the home of his ex-wife Jennifer Garner in nearby Brentwood, according to TMZ.
The Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church during the Palisades Fire on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, CA. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Affeck was spotted later Wednesday, smiling, as he met up with a friend at undisclosed location, the Daily Mail also reported.
However, Affleck’s relief may be short-lived, as fire officials warned that the unprecedented Santa Ana windstorm that fueled the Palisades fires and others throughout the area would continue at least through Thursday.
“We are absolutely not out of danger yet,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said at a press conference Wednesday. Red flag warnings remain in effect through Thursday.
Affleck has only been living in Pacific Palisades for a short time after he bought a five-bedroom, six-bathroom home there following his separation from Jennifer Lopez.
FILE – Billy Crystal accepts the lifetime achievement award at the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards on March 13, 2022, at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
In his statement to the media, Chrystal also said, “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.”
Other stars coming to terms with their losses include Melissa Rivers, the daughter of the late comedian Joan Rivers. In an interview with CNN, Rivers said she had time to save a few precious items before her Pacific Palisades home was destroyed — including her mother’s Emmy and a hand-drawn portrait her mother drew of Melissa and her son before her death in 2014, Entertainment Weekly reported.
“I kind of had a mental checklist,” Melissa Rivers told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins. “I made sure that we got passports, birth certificates, medication, clothing. … It started to hit me, we literally just had what was on our backs.”
Levy, the “Schitt’s Creek” star and one-time honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, also lost his home, multiple outlets reported. He earlier described being trapped in gridlocked traffic with thousands of other residents who were trying to evacuate.
“The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon,” Levy said. “I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark.”
His son Dan Levy later wrote on social media: “Heartbroken for my family, my friends and the people of LA affected by the catastrophic fires.”
Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh Sperry were newcomers to Pacific Palisades, having purchased their $7.5 million in April 2023, the Daily Mail reported.
But now that home is gone, the Daily Mail reported. So are the homes of Goodman, Woods, Anna Faris, and Adam Brody and Leighton Meester. Former talk show host Ricki Lake also confirmed that her “dream home,” which she and husband Ross Sussman purchased in 2014, had been destroyed.
‘I can’t believe I am typing these words,” Lake wrote on Instagram. “Ross and I lost our dream home.”
