Celebrities Break, Sue City of Los Angeles for What It Allegedly Did with the Water
On Feb. 27, 1968, “CBS Evening News” anchor Walter Cronkite, fresh from a tour of the theater of war in Vietnam, told viewers that, essentially, the conflict was at best an unwinnable stalemate.
In a rare editorial statement to close off the newscast, he famously said, “It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”
It’s perhaps apocryphal, perhaps factual, but President Lyndon Johnson’s reaction to the broadcast has become part of American lore regarding the annus horribilis of 1968: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America,” the president is said to have declared.
I mention this not to dispute either Cronkite or Johnson’s judgment, or anything about the Vietnam War. In fact, I’m here to talk about the Southern California wildfires. But I’d like to paraphrase Johnson’s statement, because I think it’s something the Democrats in charge of managing this crisis need to hear:
If you’ve lost the celebrities, you’ve lost California.
The latest big names to turn on the progressive politicians that run the Golden State are Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag — stars of the reality show “The Hills — who are now suing the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, alleging their poor response to the blazes cost the couple their home, which was one of over 12,000 structures that have been destroyed since the fires began on Jan. 7.
“Pratt and Montag — along with 20 other residents — claim the defendants poorly managed the city’s water supply and infrastructure,” the New York Post reported Thursday.
“In the docs, the plaintiffs cite reports about the Santa Ynez Reservoir — which holds 117 million gallons of water — being inactive since February 2024 due to ongoing repairs.”
The suit states that the LADWP drained Santa Ynez as a “cost-saving measure,” meaning it was “out of commission” for firefighters who had to deal with a public water system that didn’t “have enough water pressure to fight an urban fire.”
In addition, the city’s firefighting infrastructure “presented an inherent danger and risk of fire to private property” and both Los Angeles and the LADWP took “a known, calculated risk that private property would be damaged” if a wildfire broke out.
“The Palisades Fire was an inescapable and unavoidable consequence of the water supply system servicing areas in and around Pacific Palisades as it was planned and constructed,” the lawsuit stated.
According to Variety, Pratt says both his house and his parents’ house were burned down by the Palisades blaze.
“I know people are like, ‘You’re rich, you will be fine.’ Yeah, I wish. Everything in our house was paid for by Heidi and I hustling any way we could,” Pratt wrote on social media. “Everything we have worked for was in this house… We are starting at zero now.”
Nor is he the only one filing suit against the city for its mismanagement of the firefighting.
“Several cases have been filed by victims of the Eaton fire, which broke out east of L.A. shortly after the Palisades fire and continues to burn. The lawsuits allege that poorly maintained transmission towers owned by the power company, Southern California Edison, were the origin of the fire. The cause of both fires remains under investigation.,” Variety reported.
Nor are Pratt and Montag the only stars who are lashing out at Los Angeles and California officials for their handling of the fires.
Take “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star Sarah Michelle Gellar, who posted this on social media during the evacuation, according to the U.K. Daily Mail: “City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping.”
Actress Sara Foster, meanwhile, said this: ” We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits. RESIGN. Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party.”
And that’s just a small sampling. Rest assured those voices will get louder in the weeks to come.
The Democrats have warned the rest of America, over and over again, not to play politics with the Los Angeles wildfires. (Unless, of course, you’re blaming them on climate change, then go for it.)
That may have worked for a while, until everyone outside of the California bubble noticed the gross negligence and ineptitude that plagued the response. Now, the libs have even started losing Hollywood celebrities in droves. Spencer Pratt may not be Walter Cronkite — but for Golden State apparatchiks like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, that’s an even worse augury for their political futures in a state where star power is everything.
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