Latest in Montecito

Less than two months after storm-driven mudslides pummeled the fire-ravaged celebrity enclave of Montecito, the city again is under a mandatory-evactuation order. A 6 PM deadline to get out looms as a flash-flood warning is in effect for the tony burg with a winter storm bearing down. Although officials peg the…

Ellen DeGeneres shares a heart-to-heart with her audience on Thursday, addressing the catastrophic damage in her Montecito, CA neighborhood caused first by the largest wildfire in state history, and now mudslides and flash flooding. The show will check-in with Ellen’s Montecito neighbor, Oprah Winfrey, who will update…

Just days after her powerful Golden Globes speech stole that glittery evening, Oprah Winfrey has posted video of the devastation of the Santa Barbara County mudslides that have claimed at least 15 lives and destroyed much of the neighborhood Winfrey calls home. (Watch it below). “Thanks everyone for your prayers and…

The Thomas Fire is now the largest wildfire in California’s recorded history, burning 273,400 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire. Despite more than 2,500 firefighters still battling the blaze, it remains only 65 percent contained. However, firefighters…

Firefighters continued struggling today against the massive Thomas Fire, now the third-largest in California history. Nearly 8,500 firefighters continue to battle the blaze, which has destroyed more than 1,000 structures and burned 269,500 acres so far. That’s an area larger than New York City. The fires are…

Santa Barbara County and the celebrity haven of Montecito are under new evacuation orders this morning, as winds picked up and spread the Thomas fire throughout the region. The 404-square-mile Thomas Fire was reportedly cresting Montecito Peak, just north of the unincorporated Santa Barbara County community of…

3RD UPDATE, 12:39 PM: The Los Angeles Fire Department said this morning that the Skirball Fire that destroyed homes in Bel-Air last week was caused by an illegal cooking fire. “LAFD investigators have determined the fire was caused by an illegal cooking fire at an encampment in a brush area adjacent to where Sepulveda…

EXCLUSIVE: Another day, another big material sale. Joe Ballarini has made a deal with Walden and Montecito Pictures for A Babysitter’s Guide To Monsters, a children’s book by Ballarini, best known for scriping My Little Pony. Ballarini will write the script. After closing a six-figure, three-book deal from the…

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures just closed a mid- against high-six-figure deal to acquire the spec script Bastards by Justin Malen. It seems to be a case of good timing for the R-rated comedy, coming on the heels of the success of Bridesmaids and The Hangover Part II, and the promiscuous misbehavior by high-profile…

EXCLUSIVE: Jeffrey Clifford, the former creative exec at Disney and Warner Bros who ran Montecito for Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollock for the last four and one-half years, will move back to the Warner Bros lot to run Heyday Films for David Heyman. The deal isn't done but Clifford will be set in the president post this…