In addition to my own postings about DreamWorks moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg in Malibu during the fires here and here and here, I've just combed other news stories and culled this showbiz-related coverage:

Perhaps the hardest-hit entertainment company was Sony Online Entertainment, maker of computer games, which closed its 600-worker office in the Miramar area of fire-affected San Diego.

Fox's hot TV series 24 was scheduled to shoot Monday and Tuesday at a shuttered Naval air station in the Orange County city of Irvine but was forced to retreat because smoky conditions made filming impossible. The cast and crew returned to the studio.

ABC's new series Big Shots had to reschedule a shoot planned for Tuesday in the Angeles National Forest as well as a cycling sequence in Malibu.

CBS' Cold Case had a set in Simi Valley that high winds leveled.

Production on CBS' NCIS had a few crew members unable to make it to work because of fire concerns. Otherwise, there was minimal disruption even though the series shoots at a Santa Clarita studio near the so-called Magic Fire in northern Los Angeles County.

Warner Bros finance executive Tony Rodriguez and his wife returned to their house on a hill above Malibu on Wednesday knowing they would find nothing. The couple were evacuated at 5 am Sunday along with their two dogs. They were watching TV when they saw their newly renovated home go up in flames. The home’s new addition cost $800,000 and was not insured. Rodriguez credits one of his dogs with waking him and his wife during the night as the flames surged through Malibu.

At 6 am Sunday, ex-Warner Bros co-chairman Bob Daly made like Noah's Ark and evacuated a menagerie of more than 200 birds and animals to safety from his 25-acre ranch on the Malibu-Calabasas border. Three hours later, the critters -- 50 chickens, 10 ducks, 150 pigeons, 10 sheep, 10 goats, plus another one who just had two babies, two donkeys and one miniature horse -- were safely encamped at Daly's 5-acre mansion in Bel-Air across the street from the country club. He used a fenced-off sports practive area at the back of his property as a petting zoo. The neighborhood kids were thrilled, including four grandchildren of ex-Universal Studios CEO Frank Biondi Jr. On Wednesday Daly brought the barnyard back to Malibu.

Entertainment litigator Bert Fields took turns with his housekeeper hosing down his roof while his wife prayed.

ICM agent Chris Smith was in the middle of closing a deal for a client to star in a pilot when the TV executive he was negotiating with sent him a message on his BlackBerry: "Fire’s hitting. Gotta Go. Might be a few days."

Will Smith saw flames from a canyon not far away out of his windows on Sunday, but stayed safe at home for a 60 Minutes interview.

Actor Costas Mandylor injured his back while attempting to save a friend's home on Monday in Malibu.

Sitcom star Kelsey Grammer was among those evacuated from Malibu and made light of the evacuation for the sake of his 6-year-old daughter who was nervous at first. He told her to relax and assured her it would be fun. His family and dogs all got out safely and his house remained untouched Tuesday.

Actress Jane Seymour was on stage Monday at ABC's Dancing with the Stars while her husband, actor-director James Keach, protected their Malibu house. The fire was close by and, despite a mandatory evacuation, her husband stayed to fight the fire. Somehow  Seymour stayed focused on her performance. The couple's home was undamaged and didn't appear to be in any imminent danger by Tuesday.

Oxygen's Reality TV stars Tori Spelling and her husband Dean McDermott had a San Diego County bed and breakfast featured on their show. They learned Monday that the nearby small town of Fallbrook had been evacuated because of the fires.

With only seconds to flee the flames in her Malibu castle, Lilly Lawrence grabbed Elvis Presley's Army uniform. It was part of a large collection of Elvis memorabilia she owned -- most of which was destroyed. Her inventory list of gone items include Elvis' red Ford Fairlane, nearly 3 dozen of Elvis' personal movie scripts that had his notes in the margins, also original Presley song sheets for Heartbreak Hotel and American Trilogy, and Graceland souvenirs. Lawrence bought about 50 lots worth of Elvis memorabilia when Priscilla and Lisa Marie put them up for auction.

More news from Deal Beach, aka Billionaires Beach. David Geffen, whose Malibu Beach Inn recently underwent a major renovation, has opened the landmark hotel to evacuees for free as well as to firefighters who sleep there in shifts during the inferno. "Why be empty? I'd rather it go to good use," managing director Alan Goldschneider told Reuters. "They try to throw down money and their credit cards, but we're not charging a soul. They're saving our houses." What a deal, since Geffen shelled out a reported $29 million, or $617,000 for each of the 47 rooms on Pacific Coast Highway. The hotel's website informs that, despite TV and web reports, "the Malibu Beach Inn was never in danger during the recent wildfires in the city and, thus, sustained no damage. We appreciate your phone calls of concern. The hotel is currently open but priority is given to firefighters and emergency personnel fighting the Malibu Canyon fires." Meanwhile, I hear David is nervous as hell about whether his own Malibu Cape Cod-style mansion on Carbon Beach will be safe from the flames. His DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose home is also on Carbon Beach, is feeling much the same way here.

 

A foamer on the roof of Jeffrey Katzenberg's house on Malibu's Carbon Beach protects it from burning embers. "It's been very touch and go for the last 24 hours. It was literally right up to the doorsteps yesterday afternoon," Katzenberg, chief executive of Dreamworks Animation, told Reuters today. "I'm in Chicago right now, so I don't know the latest, but it's obviously very, very scary for all of us out there."

I've just heard that the area around Malibu Pier -- which includes David Geffen's hotel, the newly remodeled Malibu Beach Inn -- is now threatened by the swirling Santa Ana wind-fanned flames flowing down the hillside and jumping Pacific Coast Highway. Oracle mogul Larry Ellison owns an incredibly large amount of commercial and residential real estate there as well for a proposed project. The Malibu Colony Plaza shopping center, right near the famed Malibu Colony residences of so many Hollywood celebs and moguls, got singed today. And there continue to be evacuations from the Colony, and Pepperdine University and many other Malibu neighborhoods of big and small homes, including Sierra Estates, Malibu Crest, Latigo Canyon, Topanga Canyon, Tuna Canyon, Sweetwater Canyon, Puerco Canyon, Monte Nido, Carbon Mesa, Rambla Pacifico and Big Rock. For those who think Malibu is only populated by the rich and famous, dream on. The majority of residents are relatively average folk who bought homes there eons ago and who have most of their wealth tied up in those houses which wildly appreviated in value over the years. (Refresh for latest... Watch live here.)

The blaze began just hours after presidential candidate Barack Obama was in the area at the Malibu estate of environmentalist Kelly Meyer and Universal prez/COO Ron Meyer, who hosted a major Hollywood fundraiser for the Democrat on Saturday. Completely engulfed and burning to the ground is the Malibu Castle, home to many philanthropic events over the years and a local landmark. Also known as Hodges Castle, located at 23800 Malibu Crest Drive, it was built by a doctor from 1977 to 1979 and has been the location for two episodes of the Rockford Files TV show as well as the movie The Ring of Musketeers, starring David Hasselhoff. The worst news occurred when the fire jumped Pacific Coast Highway towards the ocean where the densest area of residential homes are located. Swirling offshore Santa Ana winds with gusts up to 60 mph are making it impossible for firefighters to determine the direction of fire, which is hopscotching around Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road. High voltage power lines fell because of high winds overnight in the area and sparked the blaze. Low humidity, and temps well over 10 to 20 degrees above normal for the next few days will put firefighters on a defensive position. Fire evacuees are being urged to go to Zuma Beach, the site of a teen beach blanket movie by the same name from 1978 starring Suzanne Somers who lost her home in the last Malibu fire. 

The Band's Visit has just swept Israel's Ophir Awards (the equivalent to that country's Oscars) so this means it should be Israel's submission for the Academy Award's Best Foreign Language Film. But even with the Kodak Theater ceremony still 5 months away, there's already controversy in this category. Rivals are claiming that the political movie, about an Egyptian police band that mistakenly ends up stranded overnight in a small Israeli town, has more than 50% English dialogue and therefore must be ruled ineligible for the nomination. Israeli film critic Yair Raveh has been following the scandal on his blog (alas, in Hebrew) and reports that The Band's Visit producers, backed by Sony Pictures Classics (who bought the Cannes award winning film's foreign rights) insist the English dialogue is less than 50%. The Israeli motion picture academy says it's the producers' call, not theirs. That has infuriated rivals who are calling on the local academy to check into the matter before the film is officially submitted. Sony Classics may also enter the pic's Israeli writer and director Eran Kolirin in the Best Original Screenplay category. The Band's Visit, of course, just had its North American premiere at Telluride and Toronto. "As someone who's been following Israeli cinema for the past 15 years," Raveh emails me, "I've yet to see a local film getting such glowing international reviews." If it does become one of Oscar's Foreign Language nominees this year, it will be the first Israeli film to do so since 1984's Beyond the Walls. To date, six Israeli films have been Oscar nominees, but an Israeli movie has yet to win. Interestingly, The Band's Visit will participate in the Middle East International Film Festival held in October in Abu Dhabi.

A "crude homemade low level device" placed in a trash receptacle at a parking lot at Disney World exploded but caused no injuries or property damage, according to the Orlando County Sheriff's Office. Terrorism is not suspected. A Disney security officer on bike patrol called deputies at about 12:30 a.m. saying he heard a noise and saw white smoke coming from a garbage can in a back lot at of Downtown Disney, a Disney spokeswoman told the Orlando Sentinel. The garbage can was in the far lot behind the Cirque du Soleil theater, going toward the golf course at the Saratoga Springs Resort. There are no attractions or shops in that area. When deputies arrived, they secured the area.
  

That arson suspected blaze ripping through tinder-dry brush in the Hollywood Hills and Griffith Park today, scorching at least 200 acres, has forced the evacuation of the Gene Autry Museum Of Western Heritage dedicated to Hollywood's beloved "singing cowboy" actor. Also emptied was Griffith Observatory, one of the most famous film and TV locations for Rebel Without a Cause (a bust of star James Dean was placed on the grounds), The Terminator, The Rocketeer and GoldenEye. The blaze started about 1:30 p.m. just east of the famed "Hollywood" sign and quickly raced into the thick brush, pushed by a roughly 10 mph wind. I'll let you know if it threatens any other Hollywood locations or landmarks.