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Leonardo DiCaprio joins other celebrities making donations after private jet backlash

Climate activist Leonardo DiCaprio has forked out $1 million to help Los Angeles fire victims, as a tennis star donated his winnings from the Australian Open.

Before and after images show destruction of LA fires

Hollywood megastar Leonardo DiCaprio has now joined those Hollywood stars stepping up with donations.

The actor and activist, who has 61 million followers on Instagram posted a series of panels to his Instagram stories communicating his commitment to the Los Angeles fire victims.

“The Los Angeles wildfires are devastating our city,” the Titanic star wrote.

“I am committing $1 million in partnership with @rewild’s Rapid Response Program to support both urgent needs and post-fire recovery efforts.”

Picture: Instagram
Picture: Instagram
Picture: Instagram
Picture: Instagram

DiCaprio’s cash comes on the heels of US$1 million donations from fellow actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Eva Longoria.

He also posted the names of charities to support and donation links, including for food banks and animal welfare.

Through The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation he has donated over US$80 million to work on climate change.

It comes as DiCaprio sparked anger online thanks to his response to the ongoing wildfire crisis in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County wildfires have seen almost 200,000 people displaced and multiple celebrities lose their homes including Paris Hilton, Mel Gibson, Jeff Bridges, Billy Crystal, Jamie Chung, Miles Teller and Bryan Greenberg.

Leonardo DiCaprio attends the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 07, 2024. Picture: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Leonardo DiCaprio attends the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 07, 2024. Picture: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Numerous stars such as Jennifer Garner, Beyonce, Sharon Stone and more are driving relief efforts to help fire victims with food, clothing, medicine, and animal welfare.

But DiCaprio initially fled the city on a private jet, The Mirror reported.

The Killers of the Flower Moon star was spotted arriving in Mexico with his girlfriend Vittoria Ceretti accompanied by his father George and George’s wife Peggy Ann Farrar.

The sight sparked controversy given the star’s stance on climate action.

Studies show that private jets are five to 14 times more polluting per passenger than commercial flights.

One person posted to X: “The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which has invested millions of dollars in climate change initiatives, has once again demonstrated what critics call ‘the eco-hypocrisy of the Hollywood elite’. His personal actions seem to defy his public rhetoric.”

Another said: “Really? Leonardo, put your money where your mouth is man!”

Another slammed DiCaprio: “Climate warrior. What an idiot.”

TENNIS CHAMP DONATES AUS OPEN PRIZE MONEY TO FIRE VICTIMS

American world number four Taylor Fritz said he will donate his first-round prize money from the Australian Open to help victims of the Los Angeles wildfires, calling the devastation “insane”.

Fritz, who lives in California, made the gesture after reaching the Melbourne third round by beating Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin 6-2, 6-1, 6-0.

First-round prize money is A$132,000 (US$82,000).

“I just want everyone to obviously stay safe, it’s just insane what has happened,” said the 27-year-old.

Taylor Fritz of the United States has donated his first round prize money to the victims of the LA fires. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
Taylor Fritz of the United States has donated his first round prize money to the victims of the LA fires. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“I’m going to be donating my first-round prize money to LA wildfire relief funds.

“It’s really the least I can do. Southern California is my home and LA was my home for a long time.

“I’m just doing what I can possibly do to help and I would encourage anyone else who can donate to help because a lot of people really need it.”

Several other players, including Coco Gauff, Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula, have expressed shock and praised firefighters for their efforts.

One-time LA area resident Keys donated US$20,000 to the city’s fire department “in support of the incredibly brave firefighters working tirelessly to protect the community”.

Pegula, founder of the dog rescue charity A Lending Paw, has been sharing ways to help the hundreds of animals displaced by the fires to her online followers.

Naomi Osaka, who represents Japan but lives in Los Angeles, said that wildfires were “three blocks” from her house.

BEN AFFLECK QUIZZED BY COPS

A visibly frustrated Ben Affleck was spotted speaking with police outside his Brentwood home amid the LA fires, just days after he was paid a visit by FBI officers.

Affleck appeared animated during the discussion with police, as he stuck his arm out from the driver’s side of his car.

The New York Post reported that neighbours had private security roaming the area that kept residents from going to their homes.

For the second day in a row, police were seen outside Ben Affleck’s home. The star’s son, Samuel, arrived by bike from his mother Jennifer Garner’s house to pick up some clothes. Picture: BACKGRID Australia
For the second day in a row, police were seen outside Ben Affleck’s home. The star’s son, Samuel, arrived by bike from his mother Jennifer Garner’s house to pick up some clothes. Picture: BACKGRID Australia

Affleck was “talking to the police about that situation,” but was eventually able to go to his residence, the Post reported.

The additional police presence comes after the FBI went to the movie star’s residence for a separate issue.

Ben Affleck has been spotted talking to police amid the LA fires chaos. Picture: Getty Images
Ben Affleck has been spotted talking to police amid the LA fires chaos. Picture: Getty Images

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office told the New York Post its deputies were there Sunday “assisting with a grid search for unauthorised drones” in the area.

A source told Page Six at the time: “FBI agents were at Affleck’s home to see if he had CCTV footage of a private drone which damaged a super scooper, one of the firefighting aircrafts.”

STAR SLAMS CELEBS FOR USING FIRES AS ‘PHOTO OPS’

Kelly Osbourne called out celebrities for using a natural disaster as a “photo op” in the aftermath of the disastrous fires that have ravaged southern California.

Taking to social media, the daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne slammed stars who made public appearances in recent days in a desperate bid to “get attention.”

“Is it just me being my usual cynical self or is it really disturbing to see all of these celebrities using other people’s pain and suffering as a photo op to say, ‘Look I’m helping, I’m doing this, I’m doing that?’” she said in a since-deleted Instagram video, which was reposted to TikTok.

Kelly Osbourne criticised celebrities who used the LA fires to “get attention.” Picture: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Live Nation
Kelly Osbourne criticised celebrities who used the LA fires to “get attention.” Picture: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Live Nation

“I don’t believe you help so that you can get attention for helping,” she added. “I believe you just help because you want to.”

Osbourne, 40, said she disagreed with how some A-listers have handled their response to the fires.

“I’m so confused. I think it’s so wrong,” she said. “No one asked you to come out and give hugs. Go home.”

MIRANDA KERR’S HUSBAND REACTS TO CHILDHOOD HOME BURNING DOWN

In a poignant “love letter” to his city of Los Angeles, Snapchat CEO and husband to Australia’s Miranda Kerr wrote about his childhood home burning down in the wildfires.

“Dear Los Angeles, I love you. I grew up in Pacific Palisades. I covered street after street on my Razor scooter. I knew the tall, old trees by heart and had my favourites,” he wrote.

“My Mom lived on Alma Real, my Dad on Toyopa. Mom’s house is miraculously still there, covered in ash. Dad’s is gone, burned to the ground on live TV. And we were the lucky ones. Everyone is safe.”

The CEO wrote that more than 150 Snapchat team members have been displaced.

Evan Spiegel has written a love letter to LA. Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty Images
Evan Spiegel has written a love letter to LA. Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty Images

“We are not the first community to face a megafire. We will not be the last. But we will use our strength, our ingenuity, and our love to create again and anew. Our city of great artists will add a new layer of paint to this beautiful canvas we call home,” Mr Spiegel wrote in a rallying cry.

He wrote that “Snap, Bobby [Murphy, Snapchat’s Chief Technology Officer], and I have already disbursed $5 million in immediate aid and we will do more. We are feeding evacuees and first responders and offering free space.

“We’re listening to experts on megafire recovery and learning every day what more we can do and how we can rise to the challenge. We want to collaborate and build together with you.”

Ms Kerr shared the letter to her Instagram Stories.

TYLER PERRY SLAMS INSURANCE COMPANIES

Billionaire movie mogul Tyler Perry has slammed American insurance companies for making policy changes before the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

“Watching a daughter use a garden hose to try and protect her 90-year-old parents’ home because their insurance was cancelled was just gut-wrenching to me,” Perry wrote in a an Instagram post.

“Does anyone else find it appalling that insurance companies can take billions of dollars out of communities for years and then, all of a sudden, be allowed to cancel millions of policies for the very people they became rich on?” Perry wrote.

Tyler Perry, with friend Meghan Markle, has slammed insurance companies who cut coverage just prior to the Los Angeles fires. Picture: Getty Images
Tyler Perry, with friend Meghan Markle, has slammed insurance companies who cut coverage just prior to the Los Angeles fires. Picture: Getty Images

“People who have paid premiums all of their lives are left with nothing because of pure greed.”

Perry, who is close to Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, concluded his message by writing, “As I am in the process of trying to figure out what steps to take to do all I can to help as many as I can, I am keeping everyone in my prayers.”

Thousands of people in the Los Angeles area have lost their homes due to the devastating wildfires.

According to the LA Times, State Farm General announced in March 2024 that it would not renew 30,000 homeowner and condominium policies — including 1,262 in Pacific Palisades, the area hit hardest by the fires.

Chubb Insurance reportedly stopped writing policies for high-value homes with higher wildfire risk in 2021.

Allstate, Tokio Marine America Insurance Co. and Trans Pacific Insurance Co. similarly made policy changes in California before the 2025 wildfires, according to the LA Times.

It’s been estimated by AccuWeather that the fires have caused between A$220 billion and A$245 billion in damages to Los Angeles.

JILLIAN MICHAELS

Meanwhile, former Biggest Loser Australia trainer Jillian Michaels’ A$16 million Malibu mansion miraculously survived the fires while all the homes around it were destroyed.

The beachfront home, which reportedly features three bedrooms and three bathrooms, sustained minor damage in the blaze.

Jillian Michaels’ Malibu home was the last one standing as destroyed homes surrounded it. Picture: Getty Images/AFP
Jillian Michaels’ Malibu home was the last one standing as destroyed homes surrounded it. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

Michaels, who has long been a vocal critic of California governor Gavin Newsom, said that she is “personally outraged” by the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, placing the blame on California’s government.

“People are dead, homes have burned, it is not your first rodeo,” she told the Daily Mail. “It is not.

“And when you know that you have a state that is prone to fire and — I’m going to give it to you — you’ve got global warning, you have literally have a tinderbox,” Michaels said.

Michaels slammed Newsom, saying the National Guard should have been called in much earlier to help fight the fires.

The charred remains of the iconic Sunset Boulevard street sign in Los Angeles. Picture: Supplied
The charred remains of the iconic Sunset Boulevard street sign in Los Angeles. Picture: Supplied

“I’m sorry, and the reason for me this is super serious is because this guy wants to be your president. This now goes from a California problem to a countrywide problem,” Michaels said about Newsom.

Michaels also took to X to share her thoughts, calling it “pure incompetence”.

“I’m so-so upset for the people of California,” she wrote.

“My family who stayed. My lifelong friends who live there. Our brave firefighters. This is not a partisan issue it’s pure incompetence and misprioritisation.”

O’NEAL AND FAWCETT’S HOME DESTROYED

Ryan O’Neal’s daughter, Tatum O’Neal, has revealed that the house her late father once shared with actress Farrah Fawcett has burned down in the Los Angeles fires.

“It’s the saddest ever so sad I could cry,” O’Neal said via social media. “My father’s house is gone Malibu gone.”

O’Neal, who starred opposite her father in the hit 1973 film Paper Moon, said the house was “gone, gone, gone”.

Ryan O'Nea outside his Malibu home in 2004. The beachfront home has been destroyed. Picture: Supplied
Ryan O'Nea outside his Malibu home in 2004. The beachfront home has been destroyed. Picture: Supplied

“It’s so scary. I am so freaking sad,” she said.

Damage to the Hollywood star’s home comes just two years after he died from congestive heart failure at age 82 in December 2023.

Fawcett died from cancer in 2009 at 62.

Tatum O'Neal said she was “so freaking sad” after the Malibu home of her late father, Ryan O’Neal, was destroyed. Picture: Getty Images/AFP
Tatum O'Neal said she was “so freaking sad” after the Malibu home of her late father, Ryan O’Neal, was destroyed. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

FBI AGENTS SEEN AT AFFLECK’S HOME

It comes as FBI agents were seen at Ben Affleck’s Brentwood home, calling over the gate, although no one appeared home at the time.

Affleck’s A$30 million estate has so far escaped undamaged from the fires, even though the Brentwood estate is on the border of Pacific Palisades, which has been devastated by the inferno.

Affleck was previously seen returning home, despite his house apparently being under a mandatory evacuation order.

The Oscar-winner’s ex-wife Jennifer Garner said in an interview on US TV that her home had escaped the blaze, but revealed that the losses from the fire had hit close to home.

“I did lose a friend who did not get out on time,” she said during an emotional interview on MSNBC in the US.

Originally published as Leonardo DiCaprio joins other celebrities making donations after private jet backlash

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Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/pure-greed-tyler-perry-slams-appalling-act-amid-la-fires/news-story/63e2c8cb65d9fb6a2e39225e328459bb