Don't Worry DARLING

The most compelling feud in Tinseltown this year isn't behind the scenes of a blockbuster. Instead, L.A.'s mayoral race is dividing dining rooms all over the city. Could yours be next?

- CHLOE MALLE

The remains of the drunken shrimp had just been cleared, and three couples awaited their dessert at Mr. Chow Beverly Hills when "it got a little tense, recalls one member of the group, a philanthropist and fifth-generation Angelena. The talk had turned to November's Los Angeles mayoral election, between six-term Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass and billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso. The philanthropist and her husband are ardent Caruso supporters he'd had dinner at Caruso's home earlier in the week and tempers flared when another member of the party, an old-guard agent, cited supposed sins of Caruso's, such as having wanted to get rid of the Original Farmers Market when building the Grove in 2002.

"You don't want to say, "You're wrong. You want to keep it social," says the philanthropist. "Also, should everyone be held responsible for their past sins? I wanted to tell him, 'I know you worked with Harvey Weinstein. You found your moral compass now?"

Today in Los Angeles, the upcoming election is a showdown fit for the screen, with each candidate representing David to the other's Goliath, depending on the storyteller: Caruso, the media-besmirched political outsider who has dedicated his life to the betterment of the city, and Bass, the lifelong public servant who would be the first woman and second Black mayor of Los Angeles, who has to contend with Caruso's self-funded media blitz.

"There is definitely a hesitancy to discuss your mayoral choice in social settings," says a local elected official who hasn't yet endorsed either candidate. "If you're at a dinner party and you're a Karen supporter, people may think you're soft on crime and too woke. If you support Rick [people may think] you're a dilettante. There's a resistance to say which side you're on because of the disdain from the other camp.