Hollywood Celebrities Clear Their Closets for Fire Aid

 Sharon Stone attends the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Sharon Stone attends the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
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Hollywood Celebrities Clear Their Closets for Fire Aid

 Sharon Stone attends the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Sharon Stone attends the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, January 5, 2025. (Reuters)

When wildfires destroyed parts of Los Angeles this week, real estate agent Jenna Cooper started asking friends for clothing and other items to help people in need.

Her request spread quickly through a network of powerful women. Actors including Sharon Stone and Halle Berry responded, providing sweaters, shoes, clothing, handbags, belts, pajamas and more pulled from their own collections.

"I'm packing up my entire closet," Berry wrote on Instagram. "If you live in the Southern California area, I urge you to do the same. This is something we can do right now."

Cooper, who also runs a home goods store called +COOP, cleared half the space to create a pop-up shopping experience for displaced people to take what they need. Many Angelenos lost entire homes in the fires, which were still burning on Friday.

Stone circulated information about the donations on social media, which helped attract publicity. She and her sister, Kelly Stone, contributed clothing, bedding and more, and Kelly volunteered to assist shoppers.

"The first thing they need when they come in the store is a hug," Kelly Stone said. She then said to shoppers, "Show me pictures of yourself, how do you dress?" so she could direct them to sweaters or trench coats that reflected their style.

At the store on Friday, a therapy dog named Jackie Robinson greeted people at the door. Inside, they looked through racks of dresses and coats, stacks of denim, shelves of shoes and baskets of handbags.

Offerings ranged from packages of fresh underwear from Target to new or lightly used Zara dresses and some Gucci and Ferragamo shoes in the mix.

Cooper said she received donations and volunteer support from power players across Los Angeles, including actors, executives, lawyers, restaurant owners and moms. Her network of real estate agents in New York was sending gift cards, she said.

One Hollywood stylist came with two large bags of items from her closet and was enlisted to help organize the store for shoppers over the weekend.

"I know people who have lost everything, and even people I don't know I'm devastated for," said Lisa Cera, who has worked for celebrities including the Kardashians and Lenny Kravitz. "I decided I'm just going to bring whatever I can."

Ellen Bennett was choosing items for her 72-year-old mother, who lost her home in the Eaton fire on the east side of Los Angeles. Bennett said she selected "the basics," including socks, sweaters, pants, a jacket and a pair of running shoes.

"She left her house with her dog and a bag and just a few things. She thought she would come back," Bennett said of her mother, adding, "It's so special and beautiful that in this time of tragedy, people are rising up and helping each other."

Store owner Cooper said she helped a man find a pair of sneakers so he could run on the beach, something he had not done since the fires erupted. She said she was overwhelmed by the response to her idea to help.

"This is a city of love, and everybody wants to support each other," Cooper said.



Raspy-voiced Hit Machine Rod Stewart Turns 80

Singer Rod Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s. Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL/AFP/File
Singer Rod Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s. Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL/AFP/File
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Raspy-voiced Hit Machine Rod Stewart Turns 80

Singer Rod Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s. Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL/AFP/File
Singer Rod Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s. Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL/AFP/File

Singer Rod Stewart, who helped British rock conquer the world with a string of megahits, turns 80 on Friday -- with no plans to slow down.
Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s with hits like "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and "Young Turks", notching up more than 250 million record sales worldwide.
He also made headlines for a prolific love life that included relationships with a string of models and actresses including Britt Ekland.
Despite his landmark birthday, Stewart says he has no plans to retire.
"I love what I do, and I do what I love. I'm fit, have a full head of hair and can run 100 meters (330 feet) in 18 seconds at the jolly old age of 79," he wrote last year.
The star will play the legends slot at the famed Glastonbury music festival this summer.
Although his forthcoming European and North American tour dates will be his last large-scale project, he has said he plans to concentrate on more intimate venues in the future.
He will headline a new residency in Las Vegas from March to June.
A tour is also slated for 2026 for Swing Fever, the album he released last year with pianist and ex-Squeeze band member Jools Holland.
As he has approached his ninth decade, Stewart has also made headlines for quirkier reasons such as his passion for model railways and his battle with potholes that have prevented him from driving his Ferrari near his home in eastern England.
The singer, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2016, has been married three times and has fathered eight children. His third wife is model and television personality Penny Lancaster.
From London to global star
Stewart's story began in north London on 10 January 1945, when Roderick Stewart was born into a middle-class family.
After a "fantastically happy childhood", he developed a love of music when his father bought him a guitar in 1959, and he formed a skiffle band with school friends a year later.
He joined the band Dimensions in 1963 as a harmonica player, exploring his love of folk, blues and soul music while learning from other artists such as Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in London's blossoming rhythm and blues scene.
Stewart's career took off in 1967 when he joined the renowned guitarist Jeff Beck's eponymous new band, which also included future Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, allowing him to develop his raw and soulful vocal style and stagecraft while exposing him to a US audience.
He and Wood took up the offer to join mod pioneers Small Faces following the departure of their singer Steve Marriott in 1969 -- the band soon changing its name to The Faces -- shortly before Stewart released his debut solo album.
It was his 1971 third solo release, "Every Picture Tells a Story", that confirmed him as one of the world's most successful artists, reaching number one in Britain, Australia and the United States, where it went platinum.
The album helped define Stewart's rock/folk sound, featuring heartfelt lyrics and heavy use of unusual instruments such as the mandolin, particularly prominent on the album's standout hit "Maggie May".
"I just love stories with a beginning, middle and end," he once said.
'I had the last laugh'
Focusing on his solo career after 1975, Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" released in 1978 was not to everyone's taste.
"Once the most compassionate presence in music, he has become a bilious self-parody -– and sells more records than ever," Rolling Stone magazine said in 1980.
Never one to be cowed by the critics, Stewart defended this phase, telling an interviewer that audiences "absolutely love it, so I had the last laugh".
Richard Houghton, author of the book "Tell Everyone -- A People's History of the Faces" said that Stewart had "possibly the most distinctive voice in rock music".
The singer had successfully combined writing classic songs of his own such as "Maggie May" or "You Wear It Well" with taking other people's songs -- from Bob Dylan to Tom Waits -- and making them his own .
More recently, there had been four albums of the "classic songs of the 1930s from his Great American Songbook catalogue".
Houghton said audiences could expect to see plenty more of Stewart.
"He's like any entertainer. He loves the spotlight. He's not going to sit at home watching the television when somewhere around the world there's a crowd wanting to hear him sing 'Mandolin Wind' or 'First Cut Is The Deepest' one more time.
"Rod will keep singing until the day he drops," he added.