Filmmaker Charles Curran posted a cinematic campaign ad for reality TV personality Spencer Pratt’s 2026 LA mayoral bid, with the tagline “LA is worth saving.”
The 98-second video uses dark, action-movie style visuals — including burning City Hall, DSA-clad figures, satirical politician depictions, and a Hugh Jackman cameo — to dramatize urban chaos and position Pratt as the hero LA needs. The post went massively viral (over 4.9 million views and 61k likes), tapping into widespread frustration over wildfires, crime, and governance failures.
Grok: Charlie Curran (also known as Charles Curran, @charliebcurran on X) is a New York-based filmmaker, director, editor, and creative director.
Key Highlights:
He’s best known for directing the documentary See Know Evil (2018), about 1990s fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti.
His work often blends avant-garde culture, contemporary storytelling, fashion, and experimental media. He has collaborated with major brands including Nike, Google, Spotify, Marc Jacobs, Telfar, Maybelline, and others.
He runs Menace Studio and has recently been experimenting heavily with AI tools for filmmaking, creating high-production viral videos (including the Spencer Pratt LA mayoral campaign ad you asked about).
He’s active in the intersection of internet culture, memes, and film, with recent projects featured in outlets like Spike Art Magazine, Paper Magazine, Artforum, and Dazed.
Here I am, in NEPa, about as far away as I can get from LA and still be in the same country, yet I know more about this mayoral race than I do about Philadelphia politics. There’s no such thing as “local politics” any more.
We must hope the votes of living US citizens are sufficient to overcome the cold, dead, non-English-speaking, non-resident, non-citizen, democrat hands (and to overcome those millions of Biden ‘votes’ which simply appear out of thin air, as in 2020).
One teeny-weenie, itsy-bitsy, little problem: the video misspells basura as bassura. Nothing says Latino! like spelling your Spanish slogan wrong. This is a Learing-Center-level screwup. Maybe Somalis helped Pratt with the video.
Gee, I can’t imagine why that ad would backfire. Who doesn’t want more bums in his neighborhood? And doesn’t everybody think more social workers are the solution to increased crime? Man, these Republicans are totally clueless!
Spencer Pratt, running for LA mayor in 2026 as a celebrity challenger after losing his home in the Palisades fire, attacks councilmember Nithya Raman by claiming her staff leaks reveal internal hatred and that she fabricates endorsement stories to boost fundraising after a widely panned debate performance.
The post references Raman’s earlier comments feeling “strange” about celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death under Obama, tying it to her appearances on podcasts with guests who have made extreme statements like America deserved 9/11.
This fits Pratt’s campaign strategy of aggressive personal jabs against Raman and incumbent Karen Bass in a competitive three-way race, where recent polls show him surging as a surprise contender ahead of the June primary.
Add:
Grok…
Yes, she did say that.
In a May 3, 2011, personal blog post (shortly after the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden), Nithya Raman wrote that while she was “very affected by the news,” it felt “strange to be celebrating the death of a man in this way.” She also expressed worry about potential backlash or consequences.
Screenshots of the post have circulated widely during the LA mayor’s race (including in Spencer Pratt’s attacks), and the quote matches what’s been shared across platforms like Threads, X, and Reddit. The original blog appears to no longer be online, but the archived excerpts are consistent.
Context
This was a common reaction in some progressive/left-leaning circles at the time — discomfort with public celebrations of any death, even of a terrorist responsible for 9/11 (which killed nearly 3,000 people). Many others viewed it as legitimate relief and justice after bin Laden’s role in al-Qaeda attacks.
Raman has not said “America deserved 9/11” herself. That’s a reference to comments by streamer Hasan Piker (whom she’s appeared on podcasts with), not her own words. Critics are linking her through associations and her broader DSA-aligned politics.
Her 2011 comment is real and has become a flashpoint in the campaign because it contrasts sharply with the widespread American reaction to bin Laden’s death.
