During the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, Mandy Moore was a prominent actor on the picket line. She was extremely vocal about how actors were being screwed over by streaming companies, specifically in regards to the residuals issue. It was an eye-opening moment for me – Mandy Moore has been around for years, working as a singer and actress on some bigger projects. She’s worked on Disney films and she had a long-running, award-winning gig on a network drama for years. People thought she had millions in the bank, but the SAG strike showed that a lot of well-known actors have nowhere near the kind of money they should have.
Well, Mandy just lost much of her home in the Southern California wildfires. While her property hasn’t been reduced to ash and cinder, it is uninhabitable. Her brother-in-law and sister-in-law lost their home in the fires too, as did many of Mandy’s friends and former coworkers. Last week, she shared some information on her social media, including a GoFundMe to help her in-laws. She was criticized for being a “rich actress” and asking for people to donate to her family, because people are ridiculous, cruel and stupid. She ended up clapping back on those critics:
Mandy Moore is one of the many celebrities who suffered extensive damage in the L.A. fires. Amid documenting the fire’s ravages on her Instagram page, she shared a GoFundMe page for her in-laws whose home burned down. The campaign initially sought to raise $60,000 but has since raised $176,000 and counting.
“Yesterday, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law Griff & Kit lost their home and everything they own in the Eaton Fire,” Moore wrote in the caption. “With their first baby on the way in a matter of weeks, they need our support now more than ever. Griff is a touring musician and also lost his entire arsenal of drums/percussion he uses to make a living. It’s all so much. So many have asked how to help during this unimaginable and stressful time…Please consider donating and sharing to help them rebuild.”
Moore’s decision to share the GoFundMe campaign resulted in backlash from critics claiming the “This Is Us” star should just donate her own money to support her in laws. Social media users began sharing a Celebrity Net Worth statistic claiming Moore’s net worth is $14 million as proof that she allegedly has more than enough money to help her in laws without asking for help. Moore addressed the backlash in her caption.
“People questioning whether we’re helping out our own family or attributing some arbitrary amount of money Google says someone has is NOT helpful or empathetic,” Moore wrote. “Of course we are. Our buddy Matt started this GoFundMe and I’m sharing because people have asked how they can help them. We just lost most of our life in a fire too. Kindly F OFF. No one is forcing you to do anything.”
Moore shared that although the main part of her home was still standing, it wasn’t livable and the property’s studios, garage and guest house were lost. Billy Crystal, Miles Teller, Paris Hilton, Jeff Bridges and more lost their properties in the blazes, as did Moore’s longtime “This Is Us” co-star Milo Ventimiglia.
I brought up the issue at the heart of the SAG strike for a reason – just because “Celebrity Net Worth” says Mandy Moore is worth $14 million, doesn’t make it so. She made it clear during the strike that while she’s grateful to have had some good-paying jobs in her career, she’s just a jobbing actress, like most actors. Her biggest asset was probably her house, and it just went up in smoke. I wish people would stop trying to armchair-gatekeep a horrific tragedy like this, a tragedy which has affected a huge swath of people in many different tax brackets.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.
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- HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – MAY 25: American singer/actress Mandy Moore arrives at NBCUniversal’s FYC House Closing Night Music Event held at the NBCU FYC House on May 25, 2022 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 694613531, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Mandy Moore, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- SANTA MONICA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JANUARY 14: Mandy Moore wearing a Chanel dress, shoes and jewelry arrives at the 29th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards held at The Barker Hangar on January 14, 2024 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 837225778, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Mandy Moore, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
The media, esp the Demonic Daily Mail, spun this as HER having set up a gofundme for HER house, which would of course enrage ppl who live paycheck to paycheck.
This whole tragedy has really highlighted that society has lost the ability to comprehend that more than one thing can be bad at once. People with less resources can lose their home and so can famous/wealthy people.
Also- lost the ability to comprehend two things can be true. Some people have good financial stability, insurance etc AND lost priceless irreplaceable memories and belongings in a traumatic way.
I’m finding this a bit difficult to reconcile. Yes, it’s tragic and challenging for everyone who has lost their homes. Yes, it’s important to have community support. And it’s important to recognize when you have a much greater amount of access, connections, and privilege than many others. Right now, several folks I know in the movie industry and art world who just lost their houses have shared online fundraisers that their friends or family set up for them, and they’re successfully raising tens of thousands of dollars in 24 hrs because they’re very well connected. I hope some of them start sharing fundraising links to help those who are far less well resourced and connected. It’s not really about optics, it’s about values and practicing the values you supposedly espouse.
This is where I am at as well. One can only donate so much. That’s the problem with relatively well-off or well-connected folks using their connections for private fund-raising. It does actually take away from others. But people do have a choice, and I personally donate to organizations known to do the most with their money and to use their money to help those in greatest need.
Are the optics great? Not really. But we should all give the survivors of this tragedy some grace. Optics aren’t top of mind for them. She was trying to help her family, not scam on the public. I can’t imagine how devastating this has been. It’s going to be years or recovery, long after the news cycle has moved on to other things.
Why are the optics “not great.” She is an employee just like the rest of us. That 14 mln net worth was likely invested in her home that we find out insurers have been refusing to insure.
Why do pedestrians this new worth equals cash or liquid investments? It’s does not.
She lost me at “Grif and Kit”.
Soooo….thousands of houses destroyed, lives demolished and you get ‘lost’ at someone’s use of a nickname? That’s some empathy right there.
@anonymous – grow up.
Why don’t you? It was obviously a joke. And yes, even amid heavy topics, one can provide a little bit of humor.
She was asked how people could help. If you don’t want to donate, don’t.
Reports indicate it could take several weeks to YEARS for insurance to come through because of the number of claims this devastation has caused. Go Fund Me donations will enable people to get pay for the basic necessities now.
And a whole lot of people lost their fire insurance last year when the insurance companies canceled them. Just flat out canceled them, because of where they live.
If she is supported by private donations, then would that mean more FEMA funds available for others? BTW, this would be a great time for all those billionaires who pay no taxes to donate to public disaster charities.
No. That is not the way it works. If you are getting private donations you can still collect on insurance and whatever assistance the government ends up providing (the latter is usually done by formula). It does get the money more quickly in your hands though.
I know that there were many people affected by these devastating fires but, somehow, I never thought about children’s schools being affected for some reason. So, now the kids won’t have their regular times at school to distract them from their damaged homes.
Just realized that too-we don’t have kids so wasn’t at top of my mind. And those are the same kids already traumatized going to school each day scared of a mass shooter and doing drills for that. So much trauma for the children.
I think people underestimate how much of an entertainer’s or athlete’s paycheck is out the door before it gets to their bank account. Between taxes, managers, agents, publicists, they are left with a fraction of the paycheck that we hear about.
I don’t think she’s wrong, but the “ f “ off probably won’t endear her to people. I guess she got the message across though.
The smears seemed like a wingnut bot compaign. Loads of fake/false informational have been flying around about these fires in yet another coordinated wingnut campaign. In any situation when those nutters rise up to cause chaos and spread misinformation hatred instead of helping in ANY meaningful way, each and every one can fuck all the way off. By the time celebrities pay for all their hangers on (agents, PR, security, lawyers, family members, etc) and their lifestyle, most of them aren’t as rich as we think, especially in expensive California.
I see this happening as well. A friend sent a link to a Faux ‘News’ story on the Pasadena Fire, and made sure to point out the ‘$10 million homes’ on fire. As though the cost of the homes were the significant part of the story. Hundreds & thousands of people’s lives have been affected–not just homes destroyed, but schools as noted above, churches, grocery stores, the works. This is Lahaina all over again, but on a much larger scale.
I applaud her for not allowing the uninformed opinions of others to deter her from sharing hers and her in-laws personal struggles and pains from the overwhelming destruction these fires have caused. People are so quick to presume a persons personal wealth and how they should or shouldn’t spend it. None of these people criticizing her know what her financial situation is or what she has or hasn’t done with the money she’s earned. We purchase insurance for our homes, cars and possessions to pay the exorbitant costs that come with having to replace any of those things if something horrible were to happen. That is no different for a person who is worth thousands or millions, so to attack someone we have no idea of her actual worth for doing what we all would do in such a situation, is wrong. Especially considering that none of the people complaining are forced to fund the goFundme and they have the option to just ignore the posts. At a time when people are still suffering and lives are being lost, complaining about someone who is in the middle of that struggle, seems like these people have lost the ability to show compassion.
Did they manage to get donations? Just curious.
If something is posted publicly, I think you might have to expect people will ask questions. They deserve sympathy, but I don’t think it’s wrong to question where money might go if a public posting for donations goes up. I would ask questions about anybody, even my neighbour.
Lots & lots of people are posting Gofundme pages for folks affected by these fires. It’s how things are done anymore.
Yes, I know loots of people post ago Fund Mes. I have contributed to those of people I know through that platform (non-famous people).
That said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with questioning where money might go, regardless of whether you’re average person X or very famous celebrity Y.
The people that want to contribute will. But if other people might question it, I think that’s just something you have put up with if you publicly post asking for a request, regardless of whether you’re an individual or a charitable organization. Even if a charity asks for something, I wouldn’t necessarily go in blind giving money to them – I’d ask questions first.
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Part of the problem is that the need to raise money through things like “go fund me” means that the government is failing at helping its people and the insurance companies are getting away with not paying out their policies. Just like this is used to pay for healthcare.
Mandy Moore isn’t the issue here, but the elites have too many of the resources and the rest not enough.
But idiots elected a grifter and a tech bro so none of this will get better soon.
Agree.
People fail to understand how expensive houses are in LA. Someone’s million-dollar home there would cost a fraction of that in, say, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
A lot of middle- and working-class people are losing their homes to these terrible fires.
The fact that the rich have lost their homes too, tells us just how big this disaster is. A new or remodeled mansion is more likely to conform to fire code than that crapbox from the 1950s most Californians rent.
I cannot believe that people are still believing celebrity net worth estimates in the year 2025.
I was just thinking that 🤣🤣🤣
This! People Google a celebrity’s net worth and think that’s how much money that person has in the bank 😭
THIS. They really think this is the dollars amount in the bank. And if you click on any site that lists their “net worth” there’s no original source as to where this number came from.
An extended member of our family works in private wealth management. High earner people use their incomes to invest in businesses, real estate, th market, etc. With a few notable exceptions, not many high earners have the cash on hand to replace their homes without insurance and many also have mortgages that still need to be paid off despite the house being burnt to the ground.
The crab mentality is really showing during times of disaster. It shows a lot of envious people in this world – God forbid these people don’t ever have to witness their livelihoods/families destroyed or will one day face severe emergency. Much of LA and LA county is a working community- people work very hard to get to where they’re at. And many home owners have had their home for so many years it’s been paid off(my auntie and uncle bought their house in San Diego many years ago for $19k for goodness sakes!) . I wish people outside of LA would be able to tune in to our local affiliates/news here to see real stories. Mandy doesn’t deserve the hate she’s getting just because she Worked for her home. Yeah you see many of these beautiful sprawling homes in CA(in the hills/mountains/the coast), well that’s the result of these homeowners Working for it.
I don’t care who set up the gofundme. I find it a bit crass. I believe Mandy got a very generous divorce settlement from her ex-husband. What happened to that 7 mil? (Her ex often discusses this in concert. Yes, I am undeniably a Ryan Adams fan. He has worked hard to mend his ways, so please do not come at me.)
I do feel for everyone because this level of devastation is tough to comprehend. I will do my part, donating, maybe not to this particular gofundme.
Keep in mind you pay taxes for those settlements so she prob got half. Then exclude her legal fees and you’re looking at maybe 2-3M at most and a good portion went into buying her home that went up in smoke. People need to remember many of those ‘net worths’ on Google are false. They link to shady webpages that has no source whatsoever. Many of the things you see celebs wearing are either “gifted” or borrowed for that moment. Most celebs make maybe on average what a reputable lawyer/doctor makes and while that’s not nothing that’s not enough to replace your house plus your family’s hence why she shared it. Now are there far more impoverished? Absolutely and you’re not forced to donate but don’t think many of these celebs live lavishly. Never forget that Redman’s episode of Cribs. That’s how many actually do live and ‘acting’ is literally just a job.
One of the many things highlighted in this tragedy is that many people really think anyone with more money than them is “rich”.Many ppl who live in Altadena were “middle class” b/c their families were lucky to buy homes in that area due to redlining. Was it cheap back then? Heck no, while the amount may sound dirt cheap to us in 2025, I assure you it was expensive back then for those families too who were scrimping and barely getting by and were lucky their homes increased in value over the years. That’s it. And they just lost it somehow that means they have enough to rebuild a brand new home. Social media has truly devoid people of empathy on all sides of the spectrum and that is truly horrifying.