David Foster and Katharine McPhee Foster held a Brentwood backyard fundraiser for Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, drawing major entertainment figures as Pratt’s campaign gains viral attention.
For a Los Angeles mayoral campaign that has long been treated like a punchline, the night David Foster opened his Brentwood backyard and turned it into a mini performance space carried a clear message: the stigma may be starting to thin.
Footage posted to Instagram by One America News Network anchor Alicia Summers shows Spencer Pratt facing guests as Foster played and his wife. Katharine McPhee Foster. sang in a backyard setting on Monday night.. The pair performed a “timely rendition” of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best. ” rewritten for Pratt’s campaign. with lyrics referencing rivals in the race: “better than Karen Bass… and Nithya Raman.”
The moment was also presented as a kind of poetic callback to a relationship Foster had with Pratt long before politics entered the conversation.. Pratt has said that Foster encouraged him to lean into the role of a villain while he was still best known as a reality-TV figure. advice Pratt credits for shaping his persona as one of the defining antagonists of 2000s television.
Pratt reiterated the origin story during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience in April. recalling that Foster told him. “You got to be like Simon Cowell.” Foster’s orbit. like Pratt’s. has always straddled entertainment and notoriety.. Foster, a Grammy-winning producer, was previously married to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid.. He is also known for producing Nobody Wants This. a Netflix hit in which his daughters Erin and Sara Foster appear.
This week’s fundraiser was designed to do more than capture attention.. It helped “legitimize” Pratt’s candidacy for mayor of Los Angeles. according to Summers and in line with the public backing Pratt has received from increasingly prominent figures.. A photo reposted to Pratt’s Instagram story indicated that Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer was also in attendance.
The Fosters and Grazer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Vanity Fair can confirm that the event took place.
Summers, who said she attended, framed the night as evidence of shifting attitudes in California’s public life. “You know the tide is turning in California when David Foster and Katharine Foster open their home and write a song for Spencer Pratt,” she wrote. “La La Land is ready for a plot twist.”
For many in Hollywood, even public association with a political candidate can carry reputational risk.. Grazer himself previously said he faced “blowback” from Hollywood colleagues after his support for President Donald Trump became public.. Pratt. for his part. has frequently suggested that some of the people he would bring into his administration have not been named because they fear retaliation.
Yet the Fosters’ willingness to host a backyard fundraiser for Pratt suggests some donors and entertainment figures may be concluding that the risk is changing with Pratt’s growing visibility.. As Pratt’s campaign accumulates viral attention and rises in the public eye. some Los Angeles entertainment and donor circles appear more comfortable treating his mayoral bid as something more than cultural noise.
Support has come in measurable ways. Jeanie Buss, the minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, donated the maximum $1,800 to Pratt’s campaign. Malibu’s Most Wanted star Jamie Kennedy is also a supporter, frequently cheerleading the campaign on X.
Even outside traditional donor channels, the rhetoric has turned personal. Social media influencer Jonathan Cheban, known for Kardashian-era fame, said he would move back to Los Angeles if Pratt wins mayor. “I miss the LA energy, and only Spencer could bring it back,” Cheban said.
David Foster Spencer Pratt Los Angeles mayoral race Katharine McPhee Foster Brian Grazer fundraiser Tina Turner tribute