Today’s Ankler Hot Seat podcast brings a special guest: six-term congresswoman and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Karen Bass. Mail-in ballots following the June 7 California primary have pushed Bass past her main rival — real estate billionaire Rick Caruso — with 43.1 percent of the vote compared to Caruso’s 36 percent. With a runoff underway, Peter Kiefer spoke with Bass about how allegiances in a local race have drawn uncharacteristically large attention from entertainment’s A-list to C-suites. What would a Bass win mean for Hollywood? (She notes that “Sony, Fox, Amazon, Apple — they are all in my congressional district”). As for Caruso’s support from pockets of the industry? “I know he is close friends with Ted (Sarandos). And I think he went to college with Bryan (Lourd). I don’t know what his relationship is with Snoop,” she says, laughing. As for purported beef with Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom’s lack of endorsement, and that Scientology speech she gave (“I would never go back again”)? We get into all of that and more. For a full transcript of today’s conversation, click here.

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