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Ricky Lake is grateful to her old friend.
In January, the tragic wildfire that ran through Los Angeles claimed a Pacific Palisade home that 56 actress and former talk show host share with her husband, Ross Berningham. The loss of the “dream house,” where the couple tied the knot in 2022, was “immeasurable,” Lake wrote on Instagram at the time.
“It was our heaven on earth,” she wrote about their LA home. “The place we were planning to grow older together.”
With his home, Lake, which later moved to New York City, has lost everything in it, including memorabilia that had accumulated throughout his acting career. Among the items was a 1988 hairspray t-shirt, which marked the star’s film debut. Additionally, it marks the beginning of a personal and professional relationship with writer-director John Waters.
Lake loved vintage tees. This featured her own heart-shaped graphic as Tracy Turnblood and the late Devine as her on-screen mom, Edna Turnblood. She previously promoted selfies on Instagram. “I’ve put out the OG #HairsPray shirt since around 1987 for a chat with #Johnwaters,” she wrote in 2022.
Less than three years later, the shirts were gone along with the entire collection of lake memorabilia. She then received a message from her “old friend.”
On August 5th, the actress shared a post thanking her longtime companion, James Bagguette. James Baggett said he first met the year before the release of Hairspray. Baggett, a former editor of Teen Magazine Splice, not only sent Lake a new hairspray T-shirt, but also “a promotion” shirt from another Waters film, “Lake” by Cry-Baby (starring alongside Johnny Depp in the 1990 musical and camp classic).
“Ricky – I finally mailed these to you so you can add them to the archives,” the former magazine editor said in a handwritten letter that Lake photographed next to her shirt.
“These mean the world to me, because I lost all my memorabilia in the Palisade fire,” the star wrote along with a photo of the vintage tee. “Thank you James,” she added. “And it’s a bonus that the shirt is xxxl and big enough to fit my biggest fan, my huge husband.”
And Burningham fits the shirt, it’s okay – Lake shared his snap of rocking a big smile with hairspray tee in her post.
After the Palisade fire, the lake moved to New York, where she then opened on Instagram about the various “blessings” she experienced afterwards, from rebuilding her art collection to spending more quality time with her children. She shares her ex-husband Rob Sussman, 28-year-old Milo and 24-year-old Owen.
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“Since I recently returned to New York, I am very grateful to have been able to spend more quality time together,” she wrote in a June tribute to Owen’s birthday. “One of the many blessings that came out of the fire.”
