Paramount Slams Ruffalo's Ellison Attack as Antisemitic
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- Paramount issued a statement calling Mark Ruffalo's Friday Instagram post invoking 'antisemitic tropes' a 'bridge too far' that 'cheapens the very real suffering' tied to terms like 'genocide' and 'apartheid.'
- Ruffalo shared a years-old clip of Paramount board member Safra Catz discussing Oracle technology used to assist the Israeli military after Oct. 7, 2023, and labeled Larry Ellison a 'classic Oligarch.'
- The Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack killed 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals and saw 251 people abducted, per figures cited in Paramount's statement.
- Ruffalo was among the earliest Hollywood figures to oppose the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, framing the deal as dangerous in his post.
- Paramount used the response to pledge there are 'no blacklists, no exceptions, for anyone,' saying it prefers to 'lower the temperature, not raise it.'
- TheWrap first reported Paramount's statement; Deadline's headline focuses instead on Ruffalo's original attack — both outlets land on the same Ruffalo-Ellison-Oracle-merger nexus.
Why it matters: Paramount is publicly framing a celebrity-led merger critique as antisemitic, putting the company on record that opposition rooted in Israel-Palestine concerns will be treated as prejudice — a stance that could chill Hollywood figures weighing in on the deal while giving Paramount a clean 'no blacklist' defense against accusations of retaliating against critics.
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