• Spencer Pratt told Us Weekly that Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx privately said to him, “Please, Mr. Mayor, we want these streets safe again” — adding, “If their reps try to deny this happened, I have multiple witnesses. It was an out-of-body experience”
• Sources close to DiCaprio told Fox News Digital and The Independent that DiCaprio has not publicly or privately endorsed any candidate in the LA mayoral race; Foxx’s representative did not respond to requests for comment
• Pratt, 42, is running as an independent in the June 2 Los Angeles mayoral primary against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and councilmember Nithya Raman; polls show Bass leading but Pratt making gains
• Publicly confirmed supporters include Paris Hilton, Kristin Cavallari, Brody Jenner, Audrina Patridge, Katharine McPhee, David Foster, Dennis Quaid, Jenny McCarthy, and Justine Bateman; Lakers owner Jeanie Buss made a financial contribution to the campaign
• On the other side of the Hollywood divide: Samuel L. Jackson endorsed Bass for reelection, calling her “someone who understands government”

Spencer Pratt has spent months collecting celebrity supporters for his Los Angeles mayoral run. This week, he added two of the biggest names yet — except neither of them appears to know they were added.

In an interview with Us Weekly, Pratt claimed that both Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx had privately expressed support for his campaign. “Usually I don’t name-drop, but I had two of my favorite people ever support me,” he said. “Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx both said, ‘Please, Mr. Mayor, we want these streets safe again.’ If their reps try to deny this happened, I have multiple witnesses. It was an out-of-body experience.”

They denied it almost immediately. Fox News Digital reported that DiCaprio has not publicly or privately endorsed any candidate in the race. The Independent reached the same conclusion independently. A representative for Foxx did not respond to requests for comment.

Pratt has not backed down. He has previously told Fox News Digital that he knows A-listers support him but that they won’t say so publicly out of career fear. “I know actual A-list stars support what I do, because I’ve been at restaurants, and they sit down at the table, and they quiz me about everything that I know for 20 minutes and thank me,” he said. “But these people know if they do that publicly, they risk losing their careers that some of them have been working for 30 years to have.”

Who’s Actually in His Corner

The confirmed public support for Pratt reads more like a Hills reunion guest list than a traditional political coalition. Paris Hilton posted “Spencer for Mayor” with a raised-hands emoji. Kristin Cavallari called his run “f—ing genius” on her podcast. Former co-stars Brody Jenner and Audrina Patridge have also voiced support, as have Katharine McPhee, David Foster, Jenny McCarthy, Justine Bateman, and actor Dennis Quaid. Lakers owner Jeanie Buss made a financial contribution to the campaign. TV producers Craig Plestis (The Masked Singer) and Jeff Jenkins (The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives) are also on board.

When Fox News asked Quaid why he was backing Pratt, he kept it brief: “Why? What are you talking about, why? Just look around, man.”

The opposition has its own Hollywood roster. Samuel L. Jackson recorded a video endorsement for incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. “These are the times we need someone who understands government, who also understands the needs of the people,” Jackson said. “Someone who will go on the streets and gather the people together. Not someone who will divide them. Karen Bass is that person.”

The Campaign, With Three Days to Go

Pratt announced his candidacy in January at a “They Let Us Burn” rally at Palisades Village — a year after the 2025 California wildfires destroyed his Pacific Palisades home. He and wife Heidi Montag now live in an Airstream trailer parked on their former property. He is running as an independent despite being a registered Republican. “I’m not either party,” he told The Independent via Yahoo News. “I’m a centrist; my party is common sense.”

With the June 2 primary three days out, polls show Bass leading, followed by councilmember Nithya Raman and Pratt in third. If no candidate clears 50 percent, the top two finishers advance to a November runoff. Pratt’s campaign has focused relentlessly on homelessness, public safety, and criticism of Bass’s wildfire response — and on turning every Hollywood jab into a campaign moment. When actress Lisa Rinna dismissed him at the American Music Awards, Pratt responded online by pivoting to Karen Bass’s early political history. When his former Hills co-star Lauren Conrad sidestepped whether she’d vote for him — noting she’s no longer an LA resident — Pratt turned that into a line too: “If I’m not gonna get elected mayor because I never apologized to LC, I’ll take that.”

The post Spencer Pratt Claims DiCaprio and Foxx Privately Backed His LA Mayor Run — DiCaprio’s Team Immediately Denied It appeared first on Cream.

• Jimmy Kimmel, 58, devoted his Wednesday monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to roasting Spencer Pratt’s bid for Los Angeles mayor ahead of the June 2 primary
• Kimmel called Pratt "another narcissist looking for attention" and compared his political rise directly to Donald Trump’s 2015 presidential run: "It’s exactly what Donald Trump did"
• A new detail from Kimmel’s monologue: Pratt has been staying at the Hotel Bel-Air at $1,500 a night while running a campaign video claiming he lives in a trailer on his burned-out Pacific Palisades lot
• Pratt lost his home in the 2025 California wildfires and entered the race against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass; polls show him at 22% support
• Pratt responded on X after the monologue aired: "When people criticize me for not having experience, I’m a lifelong Angeleno who’s seen my home city waste away under poor leadership. THAT is my experience."

Jimmy Kimmel looked out at Los Angeles on Wednesday night and saw something he wanted to talk about for a long time.

The late-night host devoted a large chunk of his opening monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to Spencer Pratt’s campaign for L.A. mayor — and didn’t hold back. Pratt, 42, entered the race against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the aftermath of the 2025 California wildfires, after he and wife Heidi Montag lost their Pacific Palisades home in the disaster. With the June 2 primary now less than a week away, Kimmel clearly felt the moment required comment.

“This city, let’s be honest, this city is a mess,” Kimmel told his audience. “That is something that became especially obvious during the fires. But the people running the city — when you say ‘This city is a mess,’ they go, ‘No, actually it isn’t and we’re doing a lot.’ And then we look around and say, ‘I’m not seeing it.'”

From there, Kimmel walked through exactly how he thinks Pratt got here. A reality star loses his house. People start agreeing with him for the first time. He enjoys the attention. He starts to think maybe he should be mayor.

“Since he’s a moderately famous person, he gets attention. He’s on the news. He’s on social media. For the first time in his life, people are agreeing with what he has to say,” per Us Weekly. “He’s angry about the same problems a lot of people here are angry about. Does he have solutions to those problems? No. But at least he’s acknowledging that they are problems.”

Polls currently put Pratt at 22% support. Kimmel noted that those same supporters have been giving him campaign money — some of which Pratt immediately spent on a $1,500-a-night room at the Hotel Bel-Air. That, while Pratt runs campaign videos claiming he lives in a trailer on his burned-out lot. “Which he is not,” Kimmel said flatly.

The Trump Comparison

The Trump parallel was the centerpiece of Kimmel’s argument. “You think this guy wants to sit through city council meetings all day talking about zoning? No, he wants to be a star again. And guess what? It’s working. He’s everywhere. People show up to see him speak. He’s doing interviews. He’s making deals for a new reality show. It’s exactly what Donald Trump did,” per Rolling Stone.

Kimmel’s read on Trump’s 2015 campaign: “Donald Trump ran for president because his TV show was going to get canceled and he wanted to be relevant again. Now, the difference between Donald Trump and this guy is Donald Trump actually had a job before he was on a reality show. He wasn’t good at the job. He got all the money for it from his dad. The only thing he was good at was promoting himself, and it turned out that was enough. And as a result, we are now going to have to spend the next three decades digging out of this giant hole he put us in. But this hole now has given birth to Spencer Pratt, who is running for mayor. Another narcissist looking for attention.”

Kimmel also brought up Pratt and Montag’s well-documented history of spending — the couple previously admitted to blowing through $10 million on extravagant purchases, including a crystal collection Pratt estimated at $1 million. Pratt’s current side business: selling healing crystals on a site called prattdaddy.com. “That alone should be disqualifying,” Kimmel said.

“The mayor of L.A. is in charge of a $14 billion annual budget. Spencer Pratt is not the person who should be in charge of [it],” he added. “That’s the guy 22% of you want to be mayor of Los Angeles when the Olympics come to town. You gotta be kidding me with this?”

Pratt pushed back on X shortly after the episode aired: “When people criticize me for not having experience, I’m a lifelong Angeleno who’s seen my home city waste away under poor leadership. THAT is my experience. Just like you. Vote for LA. Vote today.”

Kimmel closed by telling viewers that even if they don’t want to vote for Bass, “you better find somebody else to vote for and preferably someone who isn’t wasting our time and money to get himself back on television.”

The post Jimmy Kimmel Calls Spencer Pratt ‘Another Narcissist Looking for Attention’ Over L.A. Mayor Run appeared first on Cream.

• Chrishell Stause called Katharine McPhee an “insecure woman” in a scathing TikTok comment after McPhee backed Spencer Pratt’s LA mayoral run
• McPhee and husband David Foster hosted a fundraiser for Pratt at their Brentwood Park home, where she sang an altered version of Tina Turner’s “The Best”
• Stause also fired back on Threads, writing she’d “eye roll” McPhee’s advice on men if she’s “campaigning for Trump backed Pratt”
• Lauren Conrad, Pratt’s former The Hills co-star, also gave a notably icy response when asked whether she’d vote for him

Chrishell Stause has never been shy about her opinions, and this week she turned them squarely on Katharine McPhee — and it got personal fast.

The Selling Sunset alum dropped a pointed comment on a TikTok video examining McPhee’s relationship history, and the words landed like a grenade. “One day she will find her real inner confidence,” Stause wrote, “but it won’t come until after she is disregarded enough times by the problematic men she backs.” Then she twisted the knife: “An insecure woman will steal your man, and give the worst advice.”

She didn’t leave it there. Over on Threads, Stause made the political connection explicit: “If you’re in these streets campaigning for Trump backed Pratt, yeah, I’m gonna eye roll your advice on men Katherine.”

What Set Stause Off

The whole thing started with a TikTok from influencer Jordy Cray that unpacked McPhee’s dating history in considerable detail — from her first marriage to Nick Cokas (who was roughly 20 years her senior, and whom she wed in 2008 after meeting during her American Idol run) to her current marriage to music producer David Foster, who is 35 years older than her. McPhee, 42, married Foster, 76, in June 2019, becoming his fifth wife.

Cray’s video also revisited the 2013 cheating scandal that became tabloid fodder at the time — photos surfaced of McPhee kissing her Smash director Michael Morris while she was still married to Cokas. Morris was also married then, to actress Mary McCormack, and the two are still together. McPhee and Cokas briefly reconciled but ultimately divorced, with the split finalized in 2016.

McPhee addressed that chapter of her life in a 2016 interview with Ocean Drive magazine. “I got married really young, and then divorced,” she said. “This is what I should have been doing when I was 20 instead of planning a wedding. But I don’t have any regrets. All of the choices I made I learned from in a really deep way.”

Cray wrapped his video with a direct message to his audience: “If you got nothing from this video, let me just end by saying this: Please, if you live in Los Angeles, do not vote for Spencer Pratt.”

That’s exactly where Stause was already standing.

The Fundraiser That Started It All

McPhee and Foster hosted a fundraiser for Spencer Pratt‘s mayoral campaign at their Brentwood Park home, and the video that circulated afterward did not exactly play well online. Foster played piano while McPhee performed a rewritten version of Tina Turner’s 1989 classic “The Best” — with lyrics swapped out to declare that Pratt is “better than [LA Mayor] Karen Bass and [LA Councilmember] Nithya Raman.” At one point, she forgot Raman’s first name entirely and called her “Cynthia” instead.

The footage spread quickly, and the reactions were not kind. “This is embarrassing,” one user wrote. Others questioned why wealthy celebrities were amplifying a campaign from someone with no political experience. “What a disgusting display of wealth,” another commenter posted. “This man has done nothing to deserve a political position.” Some said the whole event was simply “not a good look for the Fosters.”

Pratt launched his mayoral bid in the aftermath of the devastating Pacific Palisades wildfires, which destroyed his own home. He’s since made homelessness and public safety the pillars of his campaign, and he’s been blunt about his motivations. “Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles,” he said when announcing his run. “And I’m done waiting for someone to take real action. That’s why I am running for mayor. But let me be clear, this just isn’t a campaign. This is a mission, and we are going to expose the system. We are going into every dark corner of L.A. politics and disinfecting the city with our light.”

Stause’s position on all of it has been consistent. Back in April, she wrote on Threads: “Can I please implore NO MORE reality star politicians PLEASE! I have nothing against Spencer! In fact I like him on TV! NOT in the government tho. CA please pull it together.”

Lauren Conrad’s Ice-Cold Non-Answer

Stause isn’t the only one keeping Pratt at arm’s length. His former The Hills co-star Lauren Conrad had her own uncomfortable moment when the subject came up during a recent appearance on NBC’s Today.

Asked point-blank whether she planned to vote for him, Conrad, 40, deflected with a simple geographic fact: “I’m not a resident of Los Angeles.” When pressed on whether the two had finally buried their long-running feud from their MTV days, her answer was just as brief.

“Sure,” she said. “You’re asking me about people I haven’t spoken to in decades.”

Meanwhile, E! News reached out to McPhee’s representatives for comment on Stause’s remarks and has not received a response. McPhee, for her part, has spoken openly about her life choices and her marriage to Foster — telling People in 2024 that neither of them dwells on their age gap. “We’re both very similar in this way,” she said. “I welcomed my 40s, and David didn’t have any conversations about, like, ‘Oh, I can’t believe I’m 75.'”

Whether she’ll have anything to say about Stause’s comments — or whether Stause is done saying her piece — remains an open question. But given how loudly the Selling Sunset star has been about all of this, don’t count on the silence lasting long.

The post Chrishell Stause Calls Out ‘Insecure’ Katharine McPhee appeared first on Cream.

• Trump endorsed Spencer Pratt for LA mayor, calling him a “Big MAGA person” — Bass says Angelenos will reject a MAGA mayor
• IATSE, Teamsters 399, AFM Local 47 and other Hollywood unions have endorsed Bass for reelection ahead of the June 2 primary
• Three DSA-backed council members, including Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez and Ysabel Jurado, have abandoned Nithya Raman to back Bass
• Bass reveals the entertainment industry itself requested a film czar with city expertise — not a Hollywood insider
• Ted Cruz has also praised Pratt’s campaign, what fans are calling the “kiss of death” for the reality star’s mayoral bid

Karen Bass is not running a glamorous campaign. She’ll be the first to tell you that. “I’m a workhorse, not a show horse,” the incumbent Los Angeles mayor told Deadline in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday, “and that’s a problem.” But with Donald Trump’s endorsement of The Hills villain-turned-candidate Spencer Pratt landing just hours before she sat down to talk, Bass looked less like a mayor on the ropes and more like one who just got handed a gift.

The Trump endorsement — expected but still striking — arrived Wednesday morning, the former president calling Pratt a “Big MAGA person” and throwing his support behind the self-styled outsider. In a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a massive margin, the backing may have done Pratt more harm than good. Bass didn’t hide her read on it. “No surprises here,” she said flatly. “Both Trump and Pratt want ICE to invade our city and kidnap our neighbors. L.A. doesn’t want a MAGA Mayor, so I think Angelenos will reject him.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz piled on too, praising Pratt’s viral campaign ads during a Capitol Hill interview with TMZ and calling them “awesome,” saying they “speak to a real truth” about LA’s decline. Whether that helps Pratt is another question — Cruz has become so reliably associated with losses that fans and internet culture have coined the “Ted Cruz kiss of death,” the idea that his endorsement of a team or candidate tends to precede embarrassing defeat. Pratt may want to read the room.

The political math is stark. Bass is polling around 30%. Pratt is in the mid-teens. If the two end up in November’s runoff — which Bass says is a real possibility — the dynamic could mirror what happened in France in 2002, when Jacques Chirac cruised to a joyless landslide over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen simply because the alternative was unthinkable to most voters. A win by default is still a win.

Hollywood Is Backing Her — and So Is the Left She Didn’t Expect

The day of the interview also brought a significant endorsement: IATSE, one of Hollywood’s most powerful crew unions, formally backed Bass for reelection. The California IATSE Council’s statement didn’t mince words: “Karen Bass has been fighting for film and television workers her whole career. She wrote California’s original film and television production tax credit while she was speaker of the California Assembly, and as Mayor she’s done more to bring our jobs back to Los Angeles than anyone in city government.”

Teamsters 399 and the American Federation of Musicians Local 47 came in the same day. AFM Local 47 president Marc Sazer called Bass “a champion of issues of direct concern to musicians, whether we perform on film and TV scores, make music played on AM/FM radio or play in live music venues.” The union endorsements matter in a low-turnout primary — labor organizations bring the organizational muscle to actually move votes.

Bass herself traces the relationship back decades. “I have worked with IATSE, I have worked with SAG, I have worked with the unions and the entertainment industry for over the last two decades,” she told TheWrap Tuesday, the day before the IATSE announcement. “Before I ever thought of running for office, I was involved in starting a program at West LA College to deal with diversifying the below-the-line crafts.” She also noted that as Assembly Speaker she passed California’s first film and television tax credit — mid-recession — and that her family has been connected to the industry for three generations.

The union support joins a broader celebrity coalition that includes J.J. Abrams, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Magic Johnson and Yvette Nicole Brown. Pratt, meanwhile, has attracted a different kind of Hollywood money — Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, Saban Entertainment founder Haim Saban and music executives Lucian and Elliot Grainge. And Nithya Raman has her own progressive Hollywood contingent, with Natalie Portman, Adam Conover and producer David Mandel among her backers.

But Raman’s broader progressive coalition is fracturing in a way that could seriously damage her chances. Three members of the City Council’s DSA-backed bloc — Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez and Ysabel Jurado — have all broken ranks to endorse Bass, leaving Raman politically stranded among her own ideological allies. Soto-Martinez was first, announcing in February. Hernandez and Jurado followed Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Political consultant Michael Trujillo put it bluntly: “These endorsements suggest they don’t believe Nithya Raman has the chops to run the city. The four DSA council districts all touch each other geographically. This is the movement’s base in Los Angeles, and for them to tell supporters to stay with Bass matters.” He added: “Every vote matters, and losing votes in your base is especially hard to make up somewhere else.”

On the Paramount-WBD Deal, the Film Czar, and What a Mayor Can Actually Do

Bass is unusually direct about the limits of her own power — which is either refreshing honesty or a political liability, depending on who you ask. On the $111 billion Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger, which is widely expected to bring layoffs and industry pain, she was candid: “I don’t have the ability to unilaterally stop Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery merger, but that’s why I meet with the industry to say, what is it you want?”

She made a point of distinguishing between what’s in her lane and what isn’t. Federal tax credits? Advocacy. The cap on state credits? A Sacramento decision, but again, advocacy. Permitting, red tape, filming fees at city locations? That’s hers. “When it comes to what I can do here in terms of the permitting process, I’m in charge,” she said. “I can go through the red tape.”

The revelation about her film czar appointment was one of the more surprising moments in the conversation. When Bass appointed Department of Public Works Commissioner Steven Kang — a city infrastructure expert with no Hollywood background — to the role, it drew criticism from some corners of the industry. But Bass says the choice came directly from the industry itself. “I basically left it up to the industry as to who they wanted,” she said. “They came to the conclusion that they didn’t want an industry person. They wanted a person who knew the intricacies of the city. That’s why we went with Steve Kang.”

The idea, she explained, was concierge service: when a production hits a bureaucratic wall, Kang can call the relevant department heads and make things move. “He literally, when anybody hits a bump in the road, will make the general managers or departments do what’s needed to facilitate.”

She also took a pointed shot at Raman on the industry front. “My opponent has been on the city council, or been in city hall, twice as long as I have,” Bass said, “and she has never initiated one thing for the industry, and has recused herself from everything. She has not shown any leadership at all while being on council, so it’s hard for me to understand how, then you show major leadership as mayor.”

The Fires, the Feds, and the Limits of Local Power

The January 2025 Palisades Fire remains the biggest wound on Bass’s record. Pratt, who lost his own home in the blaze, has made it a central campaign issue. Bass doesn’t deflect — she goes straight to what she’s done since. “First of all, not if I get reelected, but now,” she said when asked about fire preparedness going forward.

She described overhauling fire department leadership as her first move, followed by aggressive brush clearing — including on state land she technically doesn’t control. “I actually don’t care anymore. I’m going to clear brush. I don’t care if it’s on the state.” She says over 400 homes are now actively under construction in fire-affected areas, and that the biggest remaining obstacles are the insurance and banking industries, not the city.

On ICE and the LAPD, Bass was equally direct about what she can and can’t do — even when the answer isn’t what her supporters want to hear. Asked why LAPD wasn’t actively confronting federal immigration agents, she didn’t spin it. “At the end of the day, the power of the federal government supersedes all power, state power, local power,” she said. “You’re not going to have police agencies fighting each other. That’s not going to happen.”

She described the Trump administration’s immigration raids in LA as an experiment — a test run before a broader national crackdown. “I’ve been in contact with all the other mayors. We share policies, we share strategies.” On her own Oval Office visit, she was unapologetic: “The reason I was in the White House is because I need $8 billion to rebuild the infrastructure of the Palisades.” She pushed back on the optics directly: “I know how to fight with you one day and work with you the next, because the reality is there is no city that can function without federal support. Period.”

The LAPD union endorsement came up too. Bass has spent decades in criminal justice reform — she started in the Coalition Against Police Abuse before she ever ran for office — and she rejected the idea that union support compromises her. “One thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other,” she said.

The Olympics, Casey Wasserman, and an Already-Stretched Budget

LA28 looms over everything. The city is on the hook for the first $270 million in any losses, with the state covering the next $270 million and the city again responsible for the following $540 million — a potential $810 million exposure for a budget that’s already under strain. Bass acknowledged the risk but pushed back on the framing. “What I hear from LA28 is that the fundraising is way, way, way ahead of schedule. They should not go into a deficit.”

On Casey Wasserman — who weathered scrutiny after his name appeared in Ghislaine Maxwell emails — Bass was measured. She confirmed she called for him to step down, then acknowledged it wasn’t her call to make. “A lot of people think that I run LA28 or that I’m in charge of LA28. I’m not. LA28 is an independent nonprofit organization. The deal for the costs was cut years before I was even thinking about being mayor.”

She’s leaning into the pre-Olympic events as a dry run — the World Cup arrives in LA in a matter of weeks, with the US Open for golf following shortly after the June 2 primary. “I’m going to take full advantage of those events,” she said. “Make sure our neighborhoods benefit economically.”

And she’s not done making the broader case. “I don’t care what city it is, I don’t care what year it is. There is always anxiety and criticism and reticence over the Olympics. And then they happen and everybody goes, oh, it was so amazing. I was here in 1984. I remember everybody was freaked out. 42 years later, we’re still celebrating 1984.”

The June 2 primary is two weeks out. Bass leads in the latest polling, with Pratt and Raman fighting for the second spot that determines who faces her in November. Whether the city rewards her workhorse approach or decides it wants a show horse — that’s the question LA is about to answer.

The post Karen Bass on Trump, Pratt, Hollywood Jobs and LA’s Future appeared first on Cream.

• Spencer Pratt released an AI-generated campaign ad styled like a Star Wars trailer, featuring deepfake versions of Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass
• Pratt is currently polling in second place in the L.A. mayoral race behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass ahead of the June 2 election
• The ad is part of a string of viral campaign content, including a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air parody and a video set to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”
• Pratt presents himself as a nonpartisan community advocate, but city filings and public records show Republicans are quietly steering his campaign
• Political commentators say Pratt’s social-media-first strategy could reshape how candidates — especially conservatives — run for office

Spencer Pratt just made a campaign ad that looks like it cost $200 million — and it probably cost a fraction of that, because AI did the heavy lifting.

The Hills alum and Los Angeles mayoral candidate dropped a blockbuster-style AI-generated video this week that has people genuinely talking — not just about the race, but about what political advertising is going to look like from here on out. The clip features Pratt soaring through a burning, destroyed Los Angeles on a futuristic vehicle ripped straight from the Star Wars universe, while AI-generated versions of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass deliver villain monologues about the city’s decline.

“You didn’t finish burning the city to the ground in your first term. Make sure you finish the job in your second,” the AI Newsom says with a grin. AI Bass gets her own line — “The only thing that can stop us is someone telling the truth. As long as they don’t have any hope, the city’s ours” — before the two face off in a lightsaber duel, with the citizens of Los Angeles eventually pulling out their own lightsabers to fight back.

It’s absurd. It’s slick. And it’s working.

A Campaign Built for the Scroll

The Star Wars video is just the latest in a run of viral campaign content from Pratt that has turned a long-shot celebrity candidacy into something the political world is actually paying attention to. A few weeks ago he uploaded a video set to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” contrasting the untouched properties of Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman with the charred ruins where his own Pacific Palisades home once stood — and the trailer he’s been living in since the 2025 wildfires tore through the neighborhood.

Now he’s added a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air parody to the mix. TMZ caught the new ad, which shows a truck towing Pratt’s now-famous Airstream trailer through the streets and pulling into Bel-Air, while Pratt raps about losing his home in the fires and relocating — taking shots at Bass along the way. It’s a wink at the earlier controversy over where exactly Pratt was actually sleeping: he’d declared “This is where I live” while standing in front of the trailer on his burned lot, before it emerged he’d been staying at the ritzy Hotel Bel-Air. Rather than run from it, he leaned in and made it content.

BlazeTV hosts Pat Gray and Keith Malinak reacted to the Star Wars ad with something close to awe. “If you don’t have a lot of money in your campaign, you just let AI take over,” Malinak said. Gray went further: “I think we’re seeing a complete change in the political advertising world from now on. There’s going to be a lot of that kind of stuff, AI-generated things.”

“I hope it works out for Spencer Pratt,” Malinak added. “If they were ever going to get Republican leadership, it’s this cycle.”

The Nonpartisan Candidate With a Republican Backbone

Pratt has been careful to present himself as something other than a party candidate. “All my supporters in Los Angeles are Democrats,” he told CBS. “Everyone I know, my family, are all Democrats.” To NBC, he was even more direct: “When you vote for Spencer Pratt on your ballot today or tonight, it’ll say Spencer Pratt, community advocate because that’s how I identify. I do not represent a party. I don’t have a campaign manager. I don’t have campaign consultants. There’s no political party backing me.”

But a closer look at his campaign infrastructure tells a different story. According to city disclosure filings reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, Pratt’s campaign headquarters is a boutique tax service agency in Imperial Beach, San Diego County, run by the wife of former GOP congressman Brian Bilbray. Their daughter — a former Republican Party delegate — serves as Pratt’s treasurer, with a listed email tied to an entity called “BB Campaigns” that has no public footprint to speak of.

His fundraising events, including intimate April gatherings in Beverly Hills and Mandeville Canyon, were organized in part by Pluvious Group, an L.A.-based political consulting firm with a distinctly right-wing client list: Donald Trump, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, and California Rep. Mike Garcia, among others. Pluvious also helped elect Nathan Hochman as Los Angeles D.A. in 2024 — Hochman ran as an independent after previously losing as a Republican. The firm has its own baggage: California’s Fair Political Practices Commission found it had set up illegal campaign donations and was aware of a money laundering scheme during a state-level race.

Pratt’s spokesperson — who has worked with him and wife Heidi Montag long before the campaign launched in January — didn’t respond to THR’s questions about the campaign’s key staffers and consultants.

Incumbent Mayor Bass still leads in the latest polls heading into the June 2 election. Pratt and progressive City Councilmember Nithya Raman are competing for the second spot that would get them into the November 3 runoff. Raman has called him a “MAGA Republican.” He’s called her a “Ramanchurian Candidate.”

Why the Political World Is Taking Notes

Whatever happens on June 2, Pratt has stumbled onto something real. His campaign is almost entirely built around emotional, high-energy social media content aimed directly at Angelenos who are exhausted by homelessness, the fentanyl crisis, mismanaged city services, and the raw grief of the wildfires. He’s not holding town halls — he’s making videos that people actually watch and share.

About 51% of Gen Z teenagers get their news primarily from social media, and adult consumption of social media news is climbing steadily. The candidates who figure that out first have a real advantage — and Pratt, who spent years building a reality TV persona on The Hills, understands the camera and the audience in a way most politicians simply don’t.

Commentators have drawn a direct line from Pratt’s approach back to Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns — the entertainer-as-candidate model, where the message lands through feeling rather than policy papers. “Make America Great Again” worked because it was simple and visceral. Pratt’s trailer-on-the-burned-lot imagery works for the same reason. You don’t need a speechwriter when you have a charred foundation and a camera.

The Star Wars ad, though, is something new. It’s not just emotional — it’s cinematic, shareable, and cheap to produce in a way that would’ve been impossible even two years ago. If it helps Pratt punch through in a city that hasn’t elected a Republican mayor in nearly three decades, campaigns everywhere will be paying attention.

“I think we’re seeing a complete change in the political advertising world from now on,” Gray said. He might not be wrong.

The post Spencer Pratt’s AI ‘Star Wars’ Ad Is Changing Campaign Playbooks appeared first on Cream.

• Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag were photographed having breakfast in Carpinteria, CA, with no security present
• Pratt has cited death threats as the reason he’s been staying at the Hotel Bel-Air rather than his fire-damaged Pacific Palisades property
• A new Emerson College poll shows Pratt at 22% — just behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass at 30% — ahead of the June 3 primary
• Chelsea Handler publicly slammed Pratt’s candidacy, and he clapped back by sharing a clip of Shane Gillis roasting her at the Netflix Kevin Hart roast
• Heidi Montag’s two-word tweet — “Wake up” — racked up nearly 188,000 views and over 9,500 likes over the weekend

Spencer Pratt has apparently found his version of a safe haven — and it’s about two hours north of the city he’s trying to run.

Photos obtained by TMZ show Pratt and his wife, Heidi Montag, wrapping up breakfast Monday morning at Corazon Cocina Sur in Carpinteria, California — a small, laid-back seaside city in Santa Barbara County that bills itself as the “World’s Safest Beach.” The couple appeared relaxed and in good spirits, with no security detail in sight. Pratt wore a black Heidiwood t-shirt, shorts, and a hat. Montag kept it equally casual. The restaurant looked mostly empty.

The low-key outing comes as Pratt’s Los Angeles mayoral campaign has become anything but. He’s previously told TMZ that he’s been staying at the ritzy Hotel Bel-Air — not the Airstream trailer prominently featured in his campaign ads — specifically because of death threats, and because the hotel has its own armed security. His campaign dropped a new ad Monday morning, right around the time the Carpinteria photos were taken, leaning directly into that controversy rather than running from it.

If Carpinteria feels like a dry run for something more permanent, that might not be accidental. Pratt told The Adam Carolla Show this weekend that he’s ready to walk away from LA entirely if things don’t go his way: “If Karen Bass gets reelected or Nithya [Raman] gets elected, I will be done with trying to live in LA.”

The Race Is Tighter Than Anyone Expected

For all the noise around the hotel-vs.-trailer story, the actual polling numbers are the real headline. A new Emerson College survey shows incumbent Mayor Karen Bass leading with 30% support — but Pratt is right behind her at 22%, with Councilmember Nithya Raman at 19%. The top two finishers in the June 3 primary advance to a November runoff, which means Pratt is genuinely in contention.

He’s also raised serious money. The latest financial disclosures show Pratt has pulled in more than $538,000 — just edging out Raman’s $530,000, though Bass, who started fundraising for reelection back in 2024, sits on a $2.3 million war chest.

The celebrity backing has been notable. Grammy-winning producer David Foster and his wife Katharine McPhee hosted a fundraiser at their Brentwood home, where McPhee performed a customized version of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” for the campaign. Paris Hilton — who, like Pratt, lost her home in the Palisades fire — has also publicly endorsed him. And rumors have been circulating in conservative circles that a Trump endorsement could be coming. When asked about it, Pratt responded in classic form: with a GIF of himself.

Bass, for her part, has raised concerns about the tone of the race, saying Pratt’s messaging has turned “violent” on social media. AI-generated ads — many made by supporters, not the official campaign — depict her as a fictional villain being pelted with blood-red tomatoes. She’s called it a “dangerous trend” that risks provoking unstable individuals.

Chelsea Handler Steps In, and Pratt Fires Back Hard

The campaign got another jolt of drama over the weekend when Chelsea Handler posted a TikTok taking direct aim at Pratt. Glass in hand, she delivered her verdict: “Oh, hi, if you’re seeing this video, this is a reminder that a straight, white male former reality star that has no previous experience in government should not be a legitimate political candidate.” The video was captioned “Have we not learned anything?”

Pratt’s response was swift and pointed. He shared a clip from the Netflix Roast of Kevin Hart, hosted by Shane Gillis, in which Gillis roasted Handler over her attendance at a 2010 dinner party hosted by Jeffrey Epstein — by then already a convicted sex offender and registered for trafficking minors. The party was organized by publicist Peggy Siegal. A year later, Epstein received an invitation to Handler’s book launch through Andre Balazs, her then-boyfriend and owner of the Chateau Marmont, who had planned to host the event at his Boom Boom Room venue in New York’s Meatpacking District.

The Chateau Marmont itself got pulled into the orbit of the story this week — an X account for the hotel posted a message of support for Pratt after news broke about his Hotel Bel-Air accommodations.

Heidi’s Two Words That Broke the Internet

While her husband was trading blows with Handler and campaigning through Silver Lake and the San Fernando Valley, Heidi Montag was busy going viral all on her own — with just two words.

On Saturday, Montag posted to X: “Wake up.” That’s it. No context, no explanation. But the post, sent to her more than one million followers, exploded almost immediately — racking up nearly 188,000 views in hours, over 9,500 likes, and hundreds of comments. Fans and observers flooded her replies with interpretations, many reading it as a quiet signal of support for Pratt’s campaign, others just marveling at the chaos a two-word tweet from a former Hills star could still generate in 2026.

It didn’t mention politics. It didn’t have to. In the Pratt-Montag universe, the subtext does the work.

The primary is June 3. Spencer Pratt is eating breakfast in a small beach town two hours from Los Angeles, his campaign dropping ads, his wife breaking the internet with two words, and a polling position that would have seemed absurd six months ago. Whatever happens next, he’s made sure no one is looking away.

The post Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag Spotted Dining Out Amid Death Threats appeared first on Cream.

• Spencer Pratt fired back at Chelsea Handler after she compared him to Donald Trump in a profanity-laced Instagram video
• A new Emerson College poll shows Pratt in second place with 22%, just eight points behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass
• Pratt’s team flatly denied reports from TMZ and Deadline that his campaign is being filmed as a reality series for Boardwalk Pictures
• Billionaire donors including Dan Loeb, Bobby Kotick, the Winklevoss twins, and Jeanie Buss have poured money into his campaign
• The L.A. mayoral primary is set for June 2, with a runoff possible if no candidate clears 50%

Spencer Pratt’s run for Los Angeles mayor has officially become one of the most chaotic, compelling, and genuinely hard-to-look-away political stories in the country right now — and that was before Chelsea Handler got involved.

On Friday, May 15, Handler posted a video to Instagram pouring herself a drink and delivering a pointed message about Pratt’s political ambitions. “If you’re seeing this video, this is a reminder that a straight, white male, former reality star that has no previous experience in government should not be a legitimate political candidate,” she said, as photos of Pratt flashed on screen — followed by a goofy shot of Donald Trump. “Have we learned anything yet? The bar is on the f—— floor, people, and I need you to jump over it.”

Pratt, who has never once in his public life backed down from a fight, responded quickly. He posted a clip on X from comedian Shane Gillis’ set at the recent Netflix Kevin Hart roast — specifically the part where Gillis cracks a joke about Handler having attended a dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house in 2010, with Prince Andrew and Woody Allen also at the table. The Epstein card. He played it.

Their tension isn’t new. Handler spent years taking shots at Pratt and his wife Heidi Montag on her late-night show Chelsea Lately back in the late 2000s, so this particular feud has been simmering for over a decade. The Handler-Gillis dynamic had already been heating up after an onstage confrontation at the Netflix Is A Joke festival finale at the Kia Forum on May 10, and Pratt clearly saw an opening.

The Polls Are Not Laughing Anymore

What makes this feud genuinely newsworthy — beyond the obvious entertainment value — is that Pratt is no longer a punchline in this race. A new Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey conducted May 9-10 among 1,000 likely primary voters shows incumbent Mayor Karen Bass at 30%, with Pratt right behind her at 22% — more than doubling his support from 10% back in March. L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman sits third at 19%.

Just as striking: the number of undecided voters collapsed from 51% in March to just 16% now. People are making up their minds, and a lot of them are landing on Pratt.

Prediction markets are tracking the shift too. Both Polymarket and Kalshi currently give Bass roughly a 58-59% chance of winning, with Pratt at 25% and Raman at 17-18%. That’s a real number for a guy who got his start as a reality TV villain on MTV.

Bass herself, in a one-on-one interview with ABC7’s Josh Haskell, acknowledged the obvious. “I think he’s tapping into the anger and frustration that people have,” she said. “I think we’re a celebrity-driven culture.” When asked directly whether she thought Pratt knew what it takes to run the second-largest city in the country, she was blunt: “I don’t think he has a clue.”

Pratt launched his campaign in January, one year after the Palisades Fire destroyed his Pacific Palisades home along with more than 18,000 other structures. “We are standing here amongst the ashes of our once beautiful town because the state and local leaders let us burn,” he said at the time. “They all stood by while our community became a tinder box.” Since then, he’s turned that fury into a full anti-establishment campaign targeting Bass, homelessness, public safety, and government corruption — and, apparently, attracting some very serious money along the way.

Billionaires, Fundraisers, and a Katharine McPhee Performance

The donor list that’s coalesced around Pratt would raise eyebrows in any political race. According to the New York Times DealBook, among those backing him financially are hedge fund billionaire Dan Loeb of Third Point Capital, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, crypto moguls Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, entertainment mogul Haim Saban (estimated net worth: $3.3 billion), Lakers governor Jeanie Buss, Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge, his son Elliot Grainge of Atlantic Music Group, and Hollywood producer Brian Grazer.

Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo put it plainly: “Unfortunately, my entire life is talking to people in the industry, but I can report that everyone was pleasantly — or unpleasantly — surprised by Spencer Pratt’s debate performance.”

The debate in question had 79% of NBC viewers declaring Pratt the winner, according to polling cited in reports. His dismissal of Raman as a “random city council member” went viral almost immediately. “All the unions support Mayor Bass,” he said afterward. “You think it’s easier to run against the incumbent mayor with all the unions, or a random city council member who has been a failure for six years?”

Earlier this week, Katharine McPhee and David Foster hosted a fundraiser at their Brentwood mansion that drew a crowd of entertainment industry heavyweights. McPhee performed a modified version of Tina Turner’s “The Best” with Foster on keys, singing, “You’re simply the best / Better than all the rest / Better than Karen Bass / And Nithya Raman.” She accidentally called Raman “Cynthia” at one point, laughed it off, and Pratt just shrugged.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising development on the donor front: Nicole Avant — Hollywood scion, wife of Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, and former Obama-era ambassador — has reportedly indicated she plans to support Pratt. The reaction in Democratic circles was immediate. “What the f-k?” said one veteran political consultant, per Page Six Hollywood. “She’s crossing a line she won’t be able to come back from. She’s done as a Democratic donor.”

Avant had previously backed Rick Caruso in the last mayoral race, which Bass won by nearly 10 points.

The Reality Show That Isn’t (Or Is It?)

The week also brought a wave of reports — from both TMZ and Deadline — claiming Pratt had signed a deal with Boardwalk Pictures (the Santa Monica production company behind Netflix’s AKA Charlie Sheen and FX’s Welcome to Wrexham) to document his campaign and, potentially, his time in office. “It’s both familiar and uncharted territory, isn’t it?” a production source told Deadline. “That’s part of Spencer and Heidi’s appeal, right?”

Pratt’s team moved fast to shut it down. “This is inaccurate,” a spokesperson told TheWrap. “There is no series in production and cameras have not been following the campaign. He does not have any signed contract. No contract exists related to this because it isn’t true.” A rep also told Us Weekly he has “no plans to do so” going forward.

Boardwalk Pictures did not respond to requests for comment. Separately, the couple had been in talks with Hulu about a show documenting their life after the fires, but that project has not been greenlit.

The denial hasn’t stopped the chatter. One insider told Radar Online that regardless of whether cameras are officially rolling, “Spencer may have denied he is shooting this campaign for a reality show, but it is still a reality show-style circus of a campaign. He has spent years watching how celebrity culture and politics have merged together, and he genuinely believes the old rules no longer apply.”

Hotel Bel-Air, Airstreams, and Where He Actually Lives

Another controversy hit when TMZ reported that Pratt had been staying at the Hotel Bel-Air — where rooms start at $1,500 a night — rather than the Airstream trailer parked on the lot of his burned-down Pacific Palisades home, which featured prominently in his campaign ads. The clip, in which he stands in front of the trailer saying “This is where I live,” has drawn over 13.8 million views.

Pratt’s response on X was pointed: “Hey guys, why don’t they wanna talk about why I need a hotel in the first place? Karen Bass let my home burn down. Also 6,000 of my neighbors. NBD.”

On TMZ Live, he elaborated. “I don’t live at the Hotel Bel-Air. I don’t live in the Airstream. I don’t live in Santa Barbara. I don’t have a house. They burned it down.” He said the Airstream had become unsafe for security reasons — citing “vantage points for a would-be sniper” — and that the Hotel Bel-Air was simply the safest option available. His wife Heidi and their sons Gunner, 8, and Ryker, 3, have been staying in Carpinteria, California.

“That is where I live, period,” he said of the Palisades property. “I don’t need to sleep there every night. I don’t need to go number two on that toilet. That is where I live.”

The Obama Comparison and The View’s Reaction

If there’s one moment that crystallized the absurdity of this whole situation, it might be Pratt’s recent interview with NBC Los Angeles, in which he compared his experience to Barack Obama’s pre-political career. “I have two awards from my community,” he told anchor Conan Nolan. “President Obama actually didn’t even have awards when he was a community organizer. He was able to become a senator and then a president for eight years. So, I feel like him, and I have the same experience.”

The View addressed it Wednesday. Joy Behar’s response was immediate: “What? Snapchatter of the Year is not the same thing as head of the Law Review at Harvard?” Sunny Hostin pointed out that Obama graduated from Harvard Law School and served in the U.S. Senate before the White House. Behar also noted that Bass holds a JFK Profiles in Courage Award, while Pratt’s standout credential is winning Snapchatter of the Year at the 2018 Shorty Awards.

To be fair, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin both pushed back slightly, arguing that Ivy League credentials don’t automatically translate to effective governance — but the audience was mostly laughing.

Not everyone in Pratt’s orbit is cheering him on, either. His sister Stephanie Pratt wrote on X in February: “Spencer has done great work for the Palisades. But LA does not need another unqualified and inexperienced mayor. A vote for him is a vote for stupidity.”

Pratt, for his part, has leaned into the outsider framing. “I’m no longer a reality star,” he’s insisted. “I’m the only candidate living in reality, too.” His campaign has run AI-generated videos depicting him as a Batman-style vigilante fighting a dystopian Los Angeles, with Bass cast as the Joker. He’s also posted a clip using Khloé Kardashian screaming “liar” from an old episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, spliced over footage of Bass from the recent debate.

The June 2 primary is now just days away. If no candidate clears 50%, the top two vote-getters advance to a November runoff — which, given the current numbers, looks increasingly likely. Whether Pratt makes it to that stage, or whether Bass pulls away as undecided voters make their final calls, the race has already done something remarkable: it’s made people outside of Los Angeles pay attention to a city council election.

“Funny how they never attack my policy ideas,” Pratt posted on X this week. “They can only try to assassinate your character. I’m in the arena, son.”

The post Spencer Pratt’s Mayor Run: Chelsea Fight, Poll Surge & More appeared first on Cream.

• Katharine McPhee and David Foster hosted a fundraiser for Spencer Pratt’s LA mayoral campaign at their Brentwood Park home
• McPhee sang a rewritten version of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” targeting opponents Karen Bass and Nithya Raman
• Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer was among the guests; Lakers minority owner Jeanie Buss has donated the maximum $1,800 to Pratt’s campaign
• New polling shows Bass leading at 30%, Pratt at 22%, and Raman at 19% ahead of the June 2 primary
• Pratt launched his campaign after losing his Pacific Palisades home in the 2025 wildfires

Spencer Pratt’s Los Angeles mayoral campaign just got its most Hollywood moment yet. Over the weekend, Grammy-winning producer David Foster and his wife Katharine McPhee opened up their Brentwood Park home for a lavish backyard fundraiser — and McPhee didn’t just show up. She performed.

Footage posted to Instagram by One America News Network anchor Alicia Summers shows Foster, 76, at the keyboard while McPhee, 42, belts out a custom rewrite of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” — renamed, effectively, as a campaign anthem. “He is simply the best, better than all the rest, better than Karen Bass and Nithya Raman,” she sang as Pratt, also 42, looked on. “He’s going to fix this broken LA.”

There was one small hiccup. At one point McPhee blanked on Raman’s first name, calling the LA city councilmember “Cynthia” instead of Nithya. When she caught herself and pointed it out, Pratt just shrugged — apparently not entirely sure of the name either.

“You know the tide is turning in California when David Foster and Katharine Foster open their home and write a song for Spencer Pratt,” Summers wrote in her caption. “La La Land is ready for a plot twist.”

A Hollywood Night With Real Political Weight

The guest list carried some serious industry weight. Vanity Fair confirmed that Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer — the man behind Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code — was in attendance, with a photo reposted to Pratt’s Instagram story. Grazer, notably, is no stranger to Hollywood controversy himself: he recently acknowledged there was “blowback” from colleagues after his vote for President Trump became public.

The Foster connection runs deeper than just a favor between neighbors. During an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience in April, Pratt recalled that Foster — who he affectionately calls “the Fos Man” — once gave him a piece of advice that shaped his entire reality TV career: “You got to be like Simon Cowell.” Pratt credits that nudge with helping him lean into his villain role on The Hills. Now, years later, the same man whose daughters Erin and Sara Foster created Netflix’s Nobody Wants This was helping legitimize Pratt’s political ambitions from his own backyard.

Publicly backing a candidate who has been labeled “MAGA” and “Trumpian” by critics still carries reputational risk in Hollywood circles. But the Fosters hosting this fundraiser suggests that stigma may be softening — at least among some corners of the entertainment world.

Growing Momentum and a Crowded Celebrity Corner

The fundraiser is the latest sign that Pratt’s unconventional campaign is drawing real traction. Los Angeles Lakers minority owner Jeanie Buss donated the maximum allowable $1,800 to his campaign. Former View co-host Meghan McCain has endorsed him. So have reality TV veterans Kristin Cavallari, Jax Taylor, Brody Jenner, Audrina Patridge, and Jonathan “FoodGod” Cheban — who went so far as to say he’ll move back to Los Angeles if Pratt wins. “I miss the LA energy, and only Spencer could bring it back,” Cheban said.

Paris Hilton, Jamie Kennedy, DJ Kaskade, podcaster Nick Viall, former Millionaire Matchmaker star Patti Stanger, actor James Woods, and former Hills co-star Doug Reinhardt round out a supporter list that reads like a 2000s pop culture reunion. Entertainment producer Jeff Jenkins and businessman Rick Salomon are also among his donors.

His campaign has leaned hard into viral social media content, podcast appearances, and meme culture — framing Los Angeles as a city in freefall under the current leadership. And it appears to be working, at least in terms of visibility. A recent Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey shows incumbent Mayor Karen Bass leading the field at 30%, with Pratt climbing to 22% and city councilmember Nithya Raman at 19%.

Pratt has also reportedly overtaken Bass in campaign fundraising — a notable benchmark for a candidate many initially dismissed.

The Fire That Started It All

Pratt’s entire candidacy traces back to January 2025, when the Palisades Fire tore through his Pacific Palisades neighborhood, destroying his home along with roughly 6,000 others. He launched his campaign shortly after, centering it on what he calls Bass’s failed wildfire response, along with promises to address homelessness and crack down on crime.

When news broke recently that Pratt, his wife Heidi Montag, and their two sons had moved from a temporary trailer into the Hotel Bel-Air, some critics questioned the optics. Pratt didn’t take that quietly. On X, he fired back: “Hey guys, why don’t they wanna talk about why I need a hotel in the first place? Karen Bass let my home burn down. Also 6,000 of my neighbors. NBD.”

Bass and Raman’s campaigns did not respond to requests for comment on Pratt’s growing celebrity support or fundraising momentum.

GOP strategist Mike Madrid sees a tactical angle in all of this for Bass. “I think the chances of Bass making the runoff are considerably higher than they were before the debate,” he said. “She’s been trying to elevate Pratt. That’s the best way that she can survive.” A Pratt-Bass runoff, Madrid argues, benefits both candidates — and cuts Raman out of the picture entirely.

The June 2 primary will determine whether it comes to that. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two advance to the general election on November 3. One thing is clear: Spencer Pratt is no longer just a punchline. And Katharine McPhee just made sure everyone in Brentwood — and beyond — knows it.

The post McPhee Serenades Spencer Pratt at Star-Studded Fundraiser appeared first on Cream.

• Magic Johnson publicly endorsed LA Mayor Karen Bass for reelection, citing a 30-year friendship and her record on homelessness and crime.
• The endorsement drew immediate backlash online, with critics calling Johnson “out of touch” since he lives in Beverly Hills, not within LA city limits.
• Trump official Richard Grenell called the endorsement “beyond pathetic” and a “selfish move” given the city’s struggles.
• Lakers owner Jeanie Buss has thrown her support behind challenger Spencer Pratt, donating the maximum $1,800 to his campaign.
• The LA mayoral primary is less than a month away, with Bass, Pratt, and Councilmember Nithya Raman among the top candidates.

Magic Johnson has officially picked a side in the Los Angeles mayoral race — and it’s costing him some goodwill. The basketball legend publicly endorsed incumbent Mayor Karen Bass for reelection on Monday, praising her record on homelessness and public safety. But instead of giving Bass’s campaign a clean boost, the move has unleashed a wave of criticism directed at both of them.

Bass posted the video endorsement on her social media, in which a visibly enthusiastic Johnson laid out his case. “She sustained the first ever consecutive decrease in homelessness. Homicide rate is down, new housing units, 40,000. I mean, she’s doing a tremendous job,” he said. When Bass walked into the frame, Johnson told her, “You took on a tough job here and you’ve done a fabulous job and all of us appreciate your effort and what you’re doing. We look forward to helping you continue your mission.”

Bass welcomed the support warmly. “Magic Johnson has been my friend for over 30 years. His belief in how I’m changing Los Angeles means everything to me,” she wrote on X. “Magic has poured his heart into this city long before anyone asked him to — through investment, through community, through showing up. I am deeply honored to have his endorsement.”

The Beverly Hills Problem

The problem, critics were quick to point out, is that Johnson doesn’t actually live in Los Angeles. He resides in Beverly Hills — a separate city not among the 114 LA neighborhoods whose residents can cast a vote in the mayoral race. That detail became a rallying point almost immediately.

“Magic is a fool who lives in a guarded compound. The rest of us live in the real world,” one commenter wrote on X. “Oh wow! An endorsement from an out of touch millionaire athlete. Not really an endorsement for the Los Angeles citizens,” said another. A third cut even more directly: “He and you don’t have to live next to homeless junkies like the rest of us.”

Others used the moment to take aim at Bass’s record. “You’ve made L.A. WORSE. Some said it couldn’t be done. Congratulations,” one user wrote. Another accused her of misusing public funds: “Karen you keep stealing from the taxpayers and giving the money to your allies in the unions.”

The pile-on extended beyond social media. Richard Grenell, a Trump administration official, went after Johnson directly on X, calling the endorsement “beyond pathetic” and questioning his motivations. “Los Angeles is in terrible shape and you want Karen ass to be re-elected because she’s your friend?!” Grenell wrote, tagging Johnson and calling it “a selfish move.”

A Lakers Split That’s Hard to Ignore

What makes this particularly striking is who Johnson is now publicly standing against — his former Lakers boss, Jeanie Buss. The two spent decades together building one of the most storied franchises in sports. Johnson served as the team’s president of basketball operations in the late 2010s. Now they’re on opposite sides of a city election.

Buss quietly made her position known last month when she donated $1,800 to Spencer Pratt’s mayoral campaign — the legal maximum. She hasn’t made a formal public endorsement, but the money speaks clearly enough. And over the weekend, Pratt was spotted sitting next to Buss at Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals between the Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, making the optics even harder to ignore.

Pratt, best known from his reality TV days on The Hills, has built his campaign largely around attacking Bass over her handling of the 2025 wildfires — a catastrophe that killed at least a dozen people and caused billions in damage across the region. His campaign has also hammered her $300 million homeless program, pointing to data suggesting 40 percent of participants have returned to the streets. Only 30 of roughly 16,000 structures destroyed in the fires have been rebuilt, according to activists backing Pratt.

Johnson conspicuously avoided the wildfire issue entirely in his endorsement video. Whether that was a strategic calculation or a genuine blind spot, his critics noticed the omission.

More Than a Former Athlete

To dismiss Johnson as just a celebrity endorser would be to miss the weight he carries in LA civic life. With an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion as of 2026, he holds ownership stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Sparks, Los Angeles FC, the Washington Commanders, and the Washington Spirit. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025. He’s been investing in underserved communities in Los Angeles for decades, long before it was fashionable for athletes to do so.

Bass acknowledged exactly that in her response: “Magic has poured his heart into this city long before anyone asked him to.”

But in a race defined by voter frustration over fires, homelessness, and the cost of living, the question isn’t whether Magic Johnson loves Los Angeles. It’s whether an endorsement from someone who doesn’t live within city limits — however beloved — can actually move voters who do. The primary is less than a month away, and the city is watching.

The post Magic Johnson’s Karen Bass Endorsement Draws Fire appeared first on Cream.

• Spencer Pratt accused CBS of giving his interview footage to Karen Bass’ PR team to use against his L.A. mayoral campaign
• CBS denies any footage handoff occurred and says the full interview aired
• The accusation came after a heated mayoral debate in which Pratt called Bass “an incredible liar” over her handling of the 2025 Palisades fire
• A CBS News fact-check sided with Pratt on two key debate claims — wind speeds during the fire and Bass’s whereabouts in Ghana
• Pratt, who lost his Pacific Palisades home in the fires, says he’ll freeze CBS out if elected mayor

Spencer Pratt is done with CBS — and he wants everyone to know it. The Hills alum and longshot Los Angeles mayoral candidate took to X on Saturday to accuse the network of handing footage from his recent on-camera interview to incumbent Mayor Karen Bass’s PR team, claiming they used it to turn his campaign into a political “sideshow.”

The interview was filmed at Pratt’s scorched Pacific Palisades lot — the site of his home, destroyed in the devastating January 2025 fires that leveled nearly 7,000 structures and killed 12 people. For Pratt, it wasn’t just a backdrop. It was the reason he’s running.

CBS pushed back hard. Sources told TMZ that no footage handoff occurred and that the network planned to air the full interview. Whether viewers found it to be the “Hills demo reel and hit piece collab” Pratt described is another question — but his frustration clearly runs deeper than a single segment.

Pratt declared he’ll never speak to CBS again — not even if he wins the mayor’s office and serves two full terms. That’s eight years of silence, should the stars align.

The Debate That Started It All

The CBS accusation came hot on the heels of a combative Los Angeles mayoral debate, where Pratt went after Bass directly over her handling of the Palisades fire — and specifically over what he called her lies about the conditions on the ground that day.

“A lot of people talk about climate change and hurricane-force winds,” Pratt said during the debate. “The winds in the Pacific Palisades never reached higher than 40 mph. For those first six hours, they didn’t go above 27 miles per hour.”

Bass fired back: “He talked about the winds — that is just completely inaccurate. If that were accurate, then the planes would have been able to fly. And so if the winds reached close to 100 miles an hour and the planes were unable to fly.”

Pratt didn’t let it go. “She is referencing the Altadena fire,” he shot back. “She is an incredible liar. Everyone on their phones, Google it. 40 weather stations in the Pacific Palisades. It never went above 40 miles per hour.” When a moderator tried to cut him off for name-calling, Pratt responded: “Yeah, but no name calling? She just lied though… No more lying. We need the truth.”

It was a chaotic moment — but then came the fact-check.

CBS’s Own Reporting Backed Pratt Up

In a notable turn, CBS News fact-checked the exchange and landed squarely on Pratt’s side. “Weather modeling reviewed for my reporting shows winds in the Palisades during those first several hours of the fire were, in fact, under 40 miles per hour,” the CBS reporter noted. “Planes could and did fly. Stronger winds intensified later in the evening. And that distinction matters because the earliest hours of a wildfire are often the most critical for containment.”

According to CBS’s own reporting, the fire was first logged at 10:30 a.m. Helicopters were dropping water within 15 minutes. Planes arrived within the hour. Bass’s claim about 100 mph winds grounding aircraft simply didn’t hold up.

The second fact-check hit even harder. Bass had argued during the debate that her being in Ghana when the fires broke out “didn’t matter” — that she managed the crisis just as effectively from overseas. CBS’s reporting told a different story: Bass left for Ghana knowing dangerous fire weather was forecast. Her office described her to emergency managers only as being “out-of-state.” While she was abroad, her team continued posting social media content that made it appear she was in Los Angeles — creating confusion during the fire’s critical opening hours. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley didn’t initially know the mayor was even out of the country. And after Bass was briefed on the growing disaster, she still attended a cocktail reception in Ghana and went more than an hour without responding to messages from L.A. officials asking for help.

For Pratt, who has been living with the wreckage of the fires both literally and politically, the fact-check felt like vindication. Whether it translates to votes is a different matter entirely — but it’s not nothing.

The full CBS interview has aired. The fact-checks are out there. And Spencer Pratt, reality TV’s most committed villain-turned-candidate, is still standing in the rubble of his old neighborhood, making his case.

The post Spencer Pratt Accuses CBS of Handing Interview Footage to Karen Bass Camp appeared first on Cream.