With one line—"appalling and fundamentally dishonest"—Mark Ruffalo turned the spotlight back on Paramount. The dispute traces back to the $111 billion merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, with Ruffalo standing as one of the few actors in Hollywood who has consistently spoken out against it.
The controversy erupted after Ruffalo shared a video on his Instagram Stories featuring Paramount board member Safra Catz discussing Oracle's technical cooperation with the Israeli military following the October 7, 2023 attacks. Ruffalo called Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison "the prototypical oligarch," criticizing these corporate giants for "exploiting workers and consolidating the world's wealth to cement their own power." He further wrote on X that the merger would hand control of CNN, HBO, and Warner Bros. to a single family, "funded in part by foreign money that has never been fully disclosed to the public."
In response to these accusations, a Paramount spokesperson told Variety the company is "troubled by the invocation of antisemitic tropes in a business dispute," saying Ruffalo's use of terms like "genocide" and "apartheid" to describe a corporate transaction "has crossed a line, diluting the real suffering these words are meant to describe." The statement also emphasized that the company "does not tolerate bigotry of any kind."
Ruffalo responded directly on X Saturday: "The accusation that I'm antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military tech contract, or the executives supplying that technology is not the same as criticizing Jewish people." He continued: "This necessary critical dialogue is being deliberately twisted into anti-Israel sentiment. My position comes from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people—I hold deep love and respect for the Jewish community. Everything I've learned about acting, activism, and humanitarianism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have walked alongside me."
This clash comes as the merger itself remains unresolved. The U.S. Department of Justice approved the deal this past June, and Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approved the acquisition in April, but both sides have now agreed to delay the merger until June 2027 pending the outcome of an antitrust lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general. Donald Trump, who is close with the Ellison family, publicly praised Larry Ellison as "an amazing man" back in May. The deal has also prompted more than a thousand Hollywood industry figures to sign an open letter voicing their opposition.
