Hollywood queen Nicole Avant has endorsed Rick Caruso as Los Angeles’ next mayor after her mother was killed in a home invasion – and crime and chaos continue to rise in the city.
Avant, 54, served as President Obama’s US Ambassador to the Bahamas and is married to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.
But she has thrown her weight behind newly defected Democratic billionaire and real estate mayor Caruso — after her mother, Jacqueline Avant, was shot and killed at her home in an exclusive Beverly Hills enclave after a night out with her husband, legendary music executive Clarence Avant.
Avant told Bari Weiss’ substack, Common Sense, that she found it “very insulting” when people told her to vote for Karen Bass in the upcoming midterms just because she’s also a black woman — despite her old boss Obama this also endorsed candidate.
Instead, Avant said LA’s skyrocketing crime problem required a new mayor to solve the city’s problems.
“It’s like a breaking point. Who is responsible here? How does this happen?” she told Common Sense.
“It’s the drug addicts outside people’s houses, it’s the people standing naked in the street — there’s so much chaos and Rick is the opposite of that and we just have to catch up and do things differently.”
Nicole Avant (left) with her husband Ted Sarandos, CEO of Netflix. She endorsed Rick Caruso
Many believe that billionaire businessman and LA mayoral candidate Rick Caruso will solve the city’s rampant crime and homelessness problems
Jacqueline (left) was taken to hospital after the attack, but died shortly afterwards from her injuries. She is survived by a 54-year-old daughter, Nicole (second from left). Nicole, a former United States Ambassador to the Bahamas, is currently married to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos (third from left). Nicole’s father (center) is a legendary music executive
Avant said she never votes on race or gender.
“I am a freethinker. People told me not to support Barack Obama and support Hillary Clinton for the same reason because she is a woman. You can’t win.”
Avant, who was an ambassador to the Bahamas from 2009 to 2011, is also a film producer whose work includes a 2019 Netflix documentary about her father, The Black Godfather.
Rick Caruso is a billionaire businessman who identified as a Republican, an Independent, and now a Democrat. On February 11 of this year, he announced his candidacy for mayor.
And Avant isn’t Caruso’s only high-profile supporter. He’s received a slew of endorsements, from Kim Kardashian to Gwyneth Paltrow, who believe he’ll effectively solve LA’s plethora of problems.
The city’s progressive prosecutor George Gascón has consistently been at the forefront of criticism for being lenient in sentencing criminals – when LA’s homicides hit a 15-year high in 2022.
He was recalled after consistently failing to pursue felony charges. He has been vocal about his belief that the criminal justice system needs to focus more on intervention and rehabilitation, calling the “hard crime” policy racist and a failure.
Jacqueline Avant was shot in the back when a repeat offender robber broke into her $7 million Beverly Hills home 11 months ago. Arariel Maynor has since been sentenced to at least 150 years in prison after it was revealed he had bragged about the sentence over the phone to friends following his arrest.
In January, UCLA graduate Brianna Kupfer was stabbed to death in a random attack in the middle of the afternoon while she was working at a luxury furniture store in town.
According to LAPD data, homicides in the city of Angeles rose 52 percent last year from 2019, and shootings rose 59 percent.
Shocking photos obtained by show the sliding glass door being smashed in by intruders who killed the wife of legendary music executive Clarence Avant
Aariel Maynor, who confessed to fatally shooting 81-year-old philanthropist Jacqueline Avant during a botched raid on the couple’s $7 million Beverly Hills gated community mansion in December, was sentenced to at least 150 years in prison, after it did revealed that he had bragged about the prison murder to friends after his arrest
Avant isn’t Caruso’s only high-profile supporter. He’s received a ton of endorsements from Kim Kardashian to Gwyneth Paltrow
Karen Bass, Democratic mayoral candidate of Los Angeles
Nicole’s father Clarence (right) was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016 with his wife by his side
In December 2021, shocking photos from showed the sliding glass door being smashed in a home invasion that led to the killing of legendary music executive Clarence Avant’s wife in their elite, unguarded Los Angeles neighborhood.
Avant’s mother, Jacqueline Avant, died on December 1, 2021 from a gunshot wound in the brutal crime, but police specifically declined to confirm robbery was the suspected motive, saying all possibilities are being considered .
Officers who arrived at the scene discovered one victim, Jacqueline Avant, suffering from a gunshot wound. Clarence Avant, 91, was in the home at the time but was not injured.
According to police, there were no suspects at the scene when they arrived.
Jacqueline was taken to a local hospital but died later in the morning. She was 81 years old.
In a statement to , the victim’s family said at the time: “The entire Avant and Sarandos families would like to thank everyone for their love, support and heartfelt condolences to Jacqueline Avant.”
Jacqueline, wife of legendary music executive Clarence Avant, was shot dead by robbers during a home burglary in an elite Los Angeles neighborhood. Avant, 91, seen here alongside his wife in February, was at home during the attack
“Jacqueline was an amazing woman, wife, mother, and philanthropist, and a 55-year-old Beverly Hills resident who has made an immeasurably positive impact on the arts community. She will be missed by her family, friends and all the people she has helped throughout her amazing life,” the grieving family said.
Jacqueline Avant was a local philanthropist who was president of the Neighbors of Watts and served on the board of directors of the International Student Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.
According to IMDb, she was also chair of the NOW membership and entertainment chair of the NOW benefit auction and dinner dance in 1975.
Her husband, Clarence Avant, is known as the “Godfather of Black Music” and was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris were among those who paid tribute to him in a video filmed for the induction ceremony in October.
Clarence Avant – who has an estimated net worth of $50 million – is a Grammy-winning executive, concert promoter and manager who has overseen the careers of artists such as Bill Withers, Little Willie John, LA Reid, Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and supported .
He founded Sussex Records and Tabu Records in the 1960s and 1970s and was chairman of Motown Records in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, more than 20 percent of homebuyers living in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles are trying to escape the Dems-run crime cities.
There are homeless camps and RVs on the west side of Los Angeles
A man packs up his tent as the City of Los Angeles clears Toriumi Plaza in Little Tokyo
Residents have argued that homelessness is the county’s top problem, with 94 percent of voters viewing it as a serious or very serious problem
A new Redfin migration report shows that about 9,072 San Francisco homebuyers are looking to relocate to either Sacramento, California, or Seattle.
In LA, about 6,720 homebuyers are looking for homes in San Diego and Las Vegas, and in New York City, 6,372 homebuyers are hoping to ditch the Big Apple for Miami.
Dem-led cities, which have all seen spikes in violent crime this year, are leading the latest exodus as Redfin reports that nearly 24 percent of homebuyers in the US are trying to leave major cities amid the cost-of-living crisis.
The report also shows that Sacramento moved in the most new residents and gained about 8,700 new homeowners in the third fiscal quarter.
Miami followed with a net influx of 8,000 people, followed by Las Vegas in third place with 7,000 new homeowners.
The latest report supports the findings of the American Housing Survey, which found that Dem-led cities accounted for the majority of the top 15 metro areas from which residents moved.
Homeless camps have spread to virtually every neighborhood in the City of Angels, while the number of homeless has risen to an estimated 70,000 people.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is up for re-election this year, has budgeted record sums to tackle homelessness, which permeates all major cities in the state as well as many smaller communities.
The state allocates approximately $12 billion to homelessness programs over a two-year period.
Still, the government’s inability to clear streets, parks and sidewalks of encampments has left voters angry and frustrated.