Paramount Fires Back at Mark Ruffalo Over Ellison Merger Attack, Calling His Rhetoric Antisemitic
Paramount has accused Mark Ruffalo of invoking antisemitic tropes after the actor attacked the Ellison family's proposed combination of Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery, calling the deal "disastrous" and linking the Ellisons to Palestinian "genocide."
A Paramount spokesperson said the company was "troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute," according to Variety Variety. The statement added that words like "genocide" and "apartheid" applied to a corporate transaction are "wrong" and "cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe." Paramount also said it "doesn't tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone."
The fight centres on David Ellison, who now runs Paramount, and his father Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder. Ruffalo referred to the elder Ellison as a "classic Oligarch" and warned of the danger posed by his son David's bid to merge Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery — a deal that would combine two of Hollywood's major studios under one ownership group Variety.
Ruffalo's criticism went well beyond media consolidation. He posted on Instagram a years-old clip of Paramount board member Safra Catz discussing "profoundly scary technologies" that Oracle, the company Catz co-leads, used to assist the Israeli military following the October 7, 2023 attacks, in which Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups killed 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals and abducted 251 people Variety. Ruffalo publicly accused the Ellison family of complicity in Palestinian "genocide" through those business ties Variety.
Paramount's response was sharp on that point. The company said it would "rather build than further engage in such rhetoric," and that the rhetoric "exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction" Variety.
Ruffalo has been campaigning against the merger for months. In May, he posted video reels on his official Instagram account speaking out against the Ellisons' media takeover and calling the deal "disastrous" Instagram. Nearly 5,000 people signed an open letter opposing the combination, though Ruffalo said many were afraid to add their names Deadline.
The merger, if completed, would fold Warner Bros. Discovery's film and television assets — including the Warner Bros. studio, HBO, and the Max streaming service — into the Paramount corporate structure already controlled by David Ellison through his Skydance Media operation. For Hollywood, the combination would join two studios whose libraries, production slates, and streaming platforms currently compete against each other and against Disney, Universal, and Netflix.
What gives the exchange its edge is the collision of two rarely connected debates: who controls the screens, and what those owners do with their money outside the industry. Ruffalo has aimed at both. Paramount has chosen to answer only one.
