{"id":44758,"date":"2026-08-14T17:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=44758"},"modified":"2026-08-14T17:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:05:00","slug":"rick-caruso-is-the-democrat-progressive-hollywood-loves-to-hate-hes-not-going-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=44758","title":{"rendered":"Rick Caruso Is the Democrat Progressive Hollywood Loves to Hate. He\u2019s Not Going Anywhere."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">But Caruso still won\u2019t shake Katzenberg\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The grudge dates back to the 2022 campaign, when Caruso says a pro-Bass political action committee backed by Katzenberg ran ads that compared him to Donald Trump. When Katzenberg approached him at a restaurant after the election, Caruso says, he refused the offered handshake and demanded a public apology. When Katzenberg tried again roughly a year later, Caruso says, he gave him the same answer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cI said, \u2018You know the rule. I\u2019m not going to shake your hand.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Caruso can definitely hold a grudge, but he also seems preoccupied with whether he is, in some larger sense, a good man. His Catholic faith comes up repeatedly. He attends St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, where he and his wife, Tina, were married and their children were baptized and confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">At one point I remind Caruso that, <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/rick-caruso-why-money-should-never-be-your-motivation\/id1579184310?i=1000742030291\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/rick-caruso-why-money-should-never-be-your-motivation\/id1579184310?i=1000742030291&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/rick-caruso-why-money-should-never-be-your-motivation\/id1579184310?i=1000742030291\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in an earlier interview<\/a>, he was asked which person in history he would choose to meet and he answered Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">So what would Jesus make of the career of a billionaire real-estate developer?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cI hope that he\u2019s proud of me,\u201d Caruso says. \u201cI pray to him a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">His prayers, he says, frequently circle the same questions: \u201cAm I doing as much as I can do? Should I be doing more? How can I do more? What\u2019s the best use of my life?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">It\u2019s a line of questioning other people have asked him, too. Shortly after the fires, Sam Harris pressed Caruso on his podcast to consider whether someone with his fortune could be more ambitious philanthropically. I put the proposition to Caruso more crudely: Why not write a billion-dollar check, directly transform the lives of fire victims, and guarantee yourself the first line of an extremely flattering obituary?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cI wish I could,\u201d Caruso says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">He argues that the majority of his wealth is tied up in real estate. Liquidating enough to write such a check, he says, would mean selling assets and reducing his ability to produce income and give back long term. It could also mean giving up control of his businesses. \u201cI want this company to be dynastic,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">His philanthropic work, including the Tina &amp; Rick J. Caruso Early Education Center, which provides head start tutelage to underprivileged kids on Skid Row, predates the fires, but the disaster pushed it into a more public direction. In launching Steadfast LA, he assembled a coalition that includes Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant, Amazon MGM Studios chief Mike Hopkins, Gensler co-chair Andy Cohen, Banc of California CEO Jared Wolff, and executives from firms including JPMorgan and CBRE.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"AssetEmbedWrapper-iJvQnD cOWUYC asset-embed\">\n<div class=\"AssetEmbedAssetContainer-fnduJP iaVSwI asset-embed__asset-container\"><span class=\"SpanWrapper-kFnjvc eKnjjD responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-gaAbQ hXaxHA asset-embed__responsive-asset\"><picture class=\"ResponsiveImagePicture-jKunQM gjCCFj AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-gaAbQ hXaxHA asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain Person Architecture and Building\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-dkeESL cQPiWi responsive-image__image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_120,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg 120w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_240,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg 240w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_320,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg 320w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_640,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg 640w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_768,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg 768w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_960,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg 960w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_1280,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_1600,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"100vw\" src=\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413c3bd810ec7c6f4dd4\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_07.jpg\"\/><\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"BaseText-fEwdHD CaptionText-cQpRdU klhnDX hbiMYj caption__text\">A year and a half after wildfires tore through Pacific Palisades, much of the neighborhood that used to support the shopping center is still empty.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But Caruso still won\u2019t shake Katzenberg\u2019s hand. The grudge dates back to the 2022 campaign, when Caruso says a pro-Bass political action committee backed by Katzenberg ran ads that compared him to Donald Trump. When Katzenberg approached him at a restaurant after the election, Caruso says, he refused the offered handshake and demanded a public&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a7e413b8660aa53b0e6fb54\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/VF0826_Caruso_01.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}