As Los Angeles voters head to the polls Tuesday, the mayoral primary election between Democratic front-runners U.S. Rep. Karen Bass and billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso has deeply divided Hollywood, setting entertainment industry mogul against mogul over which candidate can best tackle issues like crime and homelessness.
The face-off may be surprising. On the one hand, some diehard liberals like Gwyneth Paltrow, UTA partner Jay Sures and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and his producer wife, Nicole Avant, are backing Caruso, a former Republican with deep Catholic beliefs who has switched parties to make his mayoral play.
Meanwhile, Bass — a former social worker who served as speaker of the California Assembly before winning election to Congress in 2010 — has drawn high-wattage Hollywood supporters include Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, Jeffrey Katzenberg, writer-director JJ Abrams and his wife producer Katie McGrath, show runner Shonda Rhimes and Norman Lear.