Hannah Einbinder Defends Mark Ruffalo After Paramount Accuses Him of Antisemitic Tropes in Merger Criticism
Hannah Einbinder has become the first major celebrity to publicly defend Mark Ruffalo after Paramount accused the actor of invoking antisemitic tropes in his criticism of the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
The dispute began on a Friday when Ruffalo shared an Instagram clip of Paramount board member Safra Catz describing technologies that Oracle — the company co-founded by Larry Ellison — provided to the Israeli military following the October 7 terror attack. In the same post, Ruffalo called Ellison a "classic oligarch" and warned of the consequences if the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger proceeds, writing that the Ellisons are "crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance" (Variety).
Paramount fired back. A spokesperson said the studio was "troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute" and that applying words like "genocide" and "apartheid" to a corporate transaction was "a bridge too far" (Variety). The studio had already stated in an earlier response to Ruffalo's merger criticism that it does not "tolerate prejudice of any kind" (Variety).
Jewish advocacy groups joined the criticism. The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Creative Communities for Peace both called out Ruffalo following his initial post. Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, commended Paramount for "speaking clearly" and refusing to let prejudice masquerade as political or corporate criticism (Variety).
Ruffalo dismissed the antisemitism accusation in a lengthy post on X, calling it "appalling" (Deadline).
On Monday night, Einbinder — the Emmy-nominated co-star of the HBO Max series Hacks, who is Jewish and an outspoken advocate for Palestinians — posted a defence on her Instagram Story. She called the idea that Ruffalo spoke out only because the Ellisons are Jewish "LUDICROUS" (Variety).
Einbinder argued that noting Safra Catz sits on Paramount's board, that Larry Ellison donated tens of millions to Donald Trump's political effort, and that Ellison once offered Benjamin Netanyahu a post at Oracle are all matters of public record — not antisemitism. "Then you are the one being antisemitic," she wrote, addressing anyone who would reduce the criticism to the Ellisons' Jewish identity (Variety).
She closed with a call to action. "Those of us with a platform need to use our voices before speaking out is outlawed altogether" (Variety; Deadline).
The clash sits at the intersection of two pressure points in Hollywood: the accelerating consolidation of major studios — Paramount and Warner Bros. are two of the legacy "big five" — and the sharpening debate over how public figures talk about Israel, corporate power, and the individuals behind both. That a sitting Paramount board member's ties to military technology have become part of a merger fight is itself a measure of how wide the lens has grown.
No other major celebrity had publicly backed Ruffalo as of the reporting. The merger discussions between Paramount and Warner Bros. continue under the scrutiny Ruffalo's posts have helped intensify.
