UPDATE: Ruffalo has responded, calling the antisemitism accusation “appalling and fundamentally dishonest” and demanding a national security review of the merger’s foreign money. Read his full statement and what he’s pointing at here.
The fight over the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger just got a lot uglier.
Mark Ruffalo, currently playing the Hulk in the box office smash Spider-Man: Brand New Day, went after the Ellison family on his Instagram Story Friday.
By Saturday, Paramount had answered with a lengthy statement accusing the actor of invoking “antisemitic tropes.”
Ruffalo reposted a video of Oracle executive vice chair Safra Catz, who also sits on Paramount’s board, discussing the company’s efforts to aid the Israeli military following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks. In the clip, Catz says Oracle has “some really profoundly scary technology” that it made available “for the effort.”
“This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition,” Ruffalo wrote, warning those technologies “will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you.”
Ruffalo, an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, accused Catz of reveling in “what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
He went on: “Larry Ellison will own most of ‘Para Bros’. Larry is a classic Oligarch.” He called the deal “catastrophic for our film industry,” cited the 12 state attorneys general suing to block it, and pointed to a projected loss of 4,500 direct film jobs plus 10,000 more ancillary. That figure comes from the LA County report TheWrap covered this week.
He signed off calling the Ellisons “Really profoundly Scary people.”
Paramount’s Full Response
Paramount’s statement, in full:
“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.
“This brings us to a moment to lower the temperature, not raise it. We’d rather build than further engage in such rhetoric. This simply exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction. On the other hand, our commitment to great content is matched by our commitment to acceptance – to every story, every storyteller, and no blacklists, no exceptions, for anyone.
“We understand people feel strongly about this merger and are hopeful and expect that it will be judged based on the legal merits, not underlying bias. We’re asking for the same good faith we’re extending: less rhetoric, more understanding. Paramount’s future is being written for everyone who wants to make and watch great stories.”
The Fight Just Left The Courtroom
Ruffalo has been fighting this deal from the start. Per Deadline, he testified against the merger at a Senate hearing and helped organize the open letter signed by hundreds of actors alongside the WGA.
One thing worth correcting: Ruffalo asked why “Trump pushed this illegal merger through.” Nothing has been pushed through. The DOJ and 66 governments have cleared the deal, but it sits frozen until the March 2027 trial.
The timing is what stands out. This landed one day after LA Mayor Karen Bass called for a swift resolution to protect jobs. The DGA and IATSE want a settlement. The WGA backs the lawsuit. And the deal’s loudest celebrity opponent just moved the argument from antitrust to politics.
Note Paramount’s line that the post “exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction.” The states built their case on movie output and market power. Paramount just got handed a way to argue the opposition is about something else, and it took the swing in writing.
