Paramount pushed back Saturday after actor Mark Ruffalo invoked the Israel-Gaza conflict while attacking the Ellison family’s proposed Warner Bros. Discovery merger, accusing the Marvel star of injecting “antisemitic tropes” into what it described as a corporate dispute.
“[The company is] troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” a spokesperson for the company said, according to Variety.
“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.”
The spokesperson added that the company does not “tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”
When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Ruffalo said, “The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.”
He added, “To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect. Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.”
Curtis Houck, managing editor at the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters, told Fox News Digital: “Paramount Skydance was absolutely right to respond to this actual, serious anti-Semitic smear,” Houck said.
“The left lazily cries anti-Semitism when the right criticizes George Soros, but here it’s absolutely warranted in the level of detail about Oracle seeming having mythical powers to team up with the world’s only Jewish state to supposedly commit genocide. Because Paramount Skydance is the currently one of the bad guys in the eyes of the left, there’s little chance Ruffalo will face sustained pushback from the liberal elitist press.”
Paramount’s comments came after Ruffalo took to Instagram to sound off on the potential merger that has caused a stir in some circles, including among several state attorneys general.
Ruffalo wrote of Oracle, “This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition.”
Referencing reposted video remarks of Paramount board member Safra Catz appearing to tout the “really profoundly scary technologies” Oracle used to assist the Israeli military following the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, Ruffalo continued:
“These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you. Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,” he added.
Ruffalo’s post continued, accusing Larry Ellison of wielding outsized power through the proposed deal, branding the Oracle founder a “classic Oligarch” and alleging the merger would further consolidate wealth and influence among a small group of elites.
He also said the transaction would harm workers and the film industry, pointing to an ongoing lawsuit brought by 12 state attorneys general seeking to block it. Ruffalo alleged the merger could eliminate 4,500 filmmaking jobs and another 10,000 related positions, arguing such consolidations are typically bad for workers, consumers and the industries they come to dominate.
“Really profoundly Scary people,” he said in closing.
Christian Toto, the editor of Hollywoodintoto.com and host of the Hollywood in Toto podcast, told Fox News Digital, “Mark Ruffalo went too far. It’s that simple. He’s gotten essentially a pass for some time now, blending his political activism with extreme pro-Palestinian thoughts. He kept pushing and pushing, and now Paramount, Inc. has had enough. The massive merger deal is the biggest news in Hollywood, which magnifies everything said around the subject”
Fox News Digital reached out to Paramount for additional comment.
