“Let them drink dust!”
As these aerial photos from The Post prove, Hollywood celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Lopez continue to suck up water to keep their gardens fresh and lawns green, while Southern California withers from a devastating drought.
Experts predict California reservoirs have less than a year’s worth of drinking water left. An emergency law passed last week forces local cities to conserve water immediately. The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which supplies many of these elite enclaves north of Los Angeles, will have four weeks starting next month to cut water use by a staggering 36 percent. But the mandate is toothless, with the maximum fine a paltry $100.
“We’re right up there with Beverly Hills,” said one official who estimates 70 percent of the district’s water is going to the lawn maintenance of about 100 manicured estates. “And that means we have to get the A-listers on the bus.”
The Hidden Hills estate of Kim Kardashian/Kanye West is so lush, even their wealthy neighbors are outraged.
“The Kardashian flowers and hedges are right in our face,” one resident told The Post. “It’s disgusting. You walk by and you can smell the freshness.”
The opulent garden of Jennifer Lopez is also drawing Bronx cheers, along with the water-mooching estate Jessica Simpson bought from Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne for $11.5 million two years ago.
“They’re just as bad. And because of all their money, they can just pay the extra rates for water and let the city be damned.”
Khloe Kardashian, Kim’s sister, is also on the neighborhood hit list. She bought Justin Bieber’s nearby Calabasas estate last year and photos reveal her landscaping has been lushly maintained. “It’s green and it simply shouldn’t be,” said one neighbor.
Ten miles away in Malibu, Barbra Streisand — the lefty diva who’s lectured fellow Californians and even US presidents on energy conservation — seems oblivious to the fact the Golden State is turning into a dried-out raisin. Her pampered sprawl sticks out like a green thumb in aerial photos.
Babs spokesman Ken Sunshine said: “She has cut down her water usage by over 50 percent in the last several months and she is going to take further steps to conserve water.” When pressed about The Post’s photographic proof of Streisand’s pampered lawn, he refused further comment.
Even more wasteful is the spread owned by British Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone, who bought “the Manor” — considered to have one of the plushest, most narcissistic gardens in Los Angeles — from Candy Spelling for $85 million in 2011. Despite the fact she hardly spends time there, the castle’s grounds sparkle like an emerald.
Hugh Hefner’s place in Holmby Hills, meanwhile, is still decked out with koi ponds, hidden grottos, streams and waterfalls.
Kardashian spokesman Ina Treciokas said the reality star and her rapper husband just moved into their renovated estate last month. “I don’t know about it being the lushest in Calabasas,” she said. “Kim takes this drought seriously and has made some amendments to the property. She has no problem letting her grass go brown.”
Simpson, Khloe Kardashian, Eccelstone and Hefner did not return calls seeking comment.
A source says Lopez, who put her estate on the market a few weeks ago, has been approached several times by neighbors over the years about amending her opulent garden and lawn.
“She has been pretty dismissive,” said the source. “She has said, ‘Oh, so I’ll just pay some fines, what are they going to do?’”
According to photos, it seems some celebs are trying.
Back in Malibu, Cher has impressive green grass and well-watered and trimmed hedges.
The singer, however, has planted indigenous water-saving palm trees in her front yard and drought-resistant succulents in her backyard.
Up the road, Julia Roberts has a sprawl of well-watered grass, but photos reveal a clear effort to switch to hardscape and native plants.
It takes 30 gallons of water to make one glass of wine, so “The Good Girl” actress Jennifer Aniston tore out the vanity vineyard of her newly purchased Bel-Air estate and replaced it with drought-resistant plants and wood.
“She actually doesn’t have much of a lawn,” Aniston rep Stephen Huvane said. “Her entire front courtyard is mostly stone and trees.”
See the most opulent celebrity lawns:
