Hollywood Pushes Back Against Interview Magazine's Spencer Pratt Profile

A wave of celebrity criticism has swept across social media following Interview Magazine's decision to profile Spencer Pratt amid his bid for Los Angeles mayor.

The feature, helmed by the publication under the direction of Mel Ottenberg (formerly Rihanna's stylist), presented Pratt touring meaningful locations throughout the city. The article, titled "Spencer Pratt Takes Us Around the City He Thinks He Can Save," included photography at USC, his alma mater, Don Antonio's restaurant, and Dodger Stadium.

Interview Magazine framed the piece with commentary stating: "Love him or hate him, Spencer Pratt is having a moment. We asked him to take us around the city he wants to run and share the places that made him fall in love with it."

The publication, which was co-founded by Andy Warhol in 1969 and has historically featured major celebrities interviewing one another, faced immediate backlash on Instagram.

On Mel Ottenberg's post, reactions ranged from dismissive to scathing. Andy Cohen questioned the decision with "This is for INTERVIEW???", while Sophia Bush posted "EW." Other responses included brief rejections from Aly Michalka ("No"), Tinashe ("Gross"), and Aquaria, who suggested "we could have brainstormed a handful of more suitable concepts here." Sally Hershberger called it a "downgrade for Interview Magazine."

The response to Interview Magazine's own post proved equally pointed. Sophia Bush expanded on her concerns, writing: "WHY are you platforming a grifter who is taking mostly out of state money, and using AI Angelenos in his ads because no locals want to be in them!? He's pitching a reality show about this for gods sake, he wants to profit off of office, and not serve a damn soul but himself. Shame."

Other commenters included Alexandra Shipp, who responded with five tomato emojis, while Tyler Oakley wrote "this sucks." Tinashe demanded the post be deleted, and Justin Tranter posted "No no nope nah." Additional critics included Ella Emhoff, Clayton Hawkins, Mia Moretti, Harry Lambert, Hunter Abrams, and Ira Madison III, who stated "You guys suck for this."

Andy Maher, a producer on CBS series All Rise and East New York, shared his perspective in a separate Instagram post: "for Interview Magazine to platform someone like Pratt in a lighthearted feature designed to humanize him and make this campaign feel amusing or unserious seems like a reckless lapse in judgement. There are real world consequences to treating a dangerous political opportunist as content. But Angelenos are the ones who will live with the consequences of normalizing this nonsense."

BuzzFeed senior editor Brian Galindo added context specific to Los Angeles, noting: "As an Angeleno, I second a lot of these feelings. While the city has many serious problems to resolve, having someone with no experience and a possible ulterior motive is only going to make things worse."