Haim Saban, Nicole Avant & Sir Lucian Grainge join the Pratt Pack as anger grips L.A. Dems — and billionaires
By Matthew Frank
Thursday, May 14, 2026
SHOWBIZ SUPPORTERS Clockwise from top right: Brian Grazer, Haim Saban, Justine Bateman, Katharine McPhee and David Foster, Nicole Avant, Jacob Andreou and Carly Steel and Lucian Grainge are all getting behind Spencer Pratt's campaign.
Ankler illustration. Roy Rochlin/Getty Images; Craig T Fruchtman/WireImage; Noam Galai/Getty Images; Presley Ann/Getty Images for HBO; Kevin Winter/WireImage; Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images; Rodin Eckenroth/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images; Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images.
Since the mid-1990s, billionaire entertainment mogul Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl have been two of the most impactful individual Democratic donors in U.S. history. Haim Saban, whose Saban Entertainment produced and distributed Power Rangers, was the largest overall contributor to the Democratic National Committee during the 2002 race, donating over $10 million. In 2016, the couple gave a total of $6.4 million to Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, and over $16 million to Democrats running for federal office. Despite headwinds within the party, Saban remained a steady donor through 2024 and into 2025, when he donated the maximum $44,300 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Outside of one outlier contribution to George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection bid, Saban, 81, has been a Democratic Party stalwart (and a prolific philanthropist who’s especially committed to medical causes and Israel). Which makes it all the more surprising to see him support reality star and insurgent Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt. On May 8, he and Cheryl each donated $1,800 — the maximum donation.
IN THE ZONE Haim and Cheryl Saban at an L.A. Lakers game last November. Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
The Sabans may be the most unexpected entertainment names to get behind the once-quixotic campaign, but they are joining an increasingly powerful and starry Hollywood Pratt Pack as the alum of The Hills and Celebrity Big Brother raised a total of $538,000 from January through mid-April and is polling in second place at 22 percent behind incumbent Karen Bass, who brought in $497,000 over the same time period. Sir Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group, and his son Elliot, CEO of Atlantic Records, each chipped in the max amount last week. Imagine co-founder Brian Grazer, Jason Lublin — CEO at WTSL, Patrick Whitesell’s new firm — and actress/filmmaker Justine Bateman also donated four-figures to the former star of The Hills. While she hasn’t made a donation, Nicole Avant — who was Amabassador to the Bahamas under the Obama administration and is married to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos — also plans to support Pratt, the New York Times reported.
“It’s a lot of people,” says one industry-adjacent figure and Pratt fundraiser attendee, who was “shocked” to see how many from Hollywood’s highest echelons are joining the upstart’s side.
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