Paramount is pushing back against Mark Ruffalo after the actor criticized the company’s proposed merger and, according to the studio, used language that echoed “antisemitic tropes.”
The media company released a sharply worded statement Friday in response to Ruffalo’s social media posts about Paramount’s planned $110 billion combination with Warner Bros.
“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,” the company said in a statement, initially reported by CNN’s Brian Stelter.
“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 statement concluded.
Ruffalo, 58, shared a years-old video on his Instagram Stories featuring former Oracle CEO Safra Catz discussing what she described as “profoundly scary technology.”
“There’s a few things that we did that I really can’t talk about to advance the agenda for the Israeli military. But we have some really profoundly scary technology at Oracle and we wanted to make sure that it was available for the effort,” Catz said in the clip, which was viewed by Variety.
The “Zodiac” actor reacted to the video in a now-expired post, writing: “This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition.
“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,” the “Shutter Island” performer wrote.
“Larry Ellison will own most of ‘Para Bros.’ Larry is a classic Oligarch. They are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance,” wrote the “Poor Things” actor.
Representatives for Oracle, Warner Bros and Ruffalo did not immediately return requests for comment.
The spat comes days after Paramount Skydance asked a federal judge to require the dozen states challenging its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery to post a $1.88 billion bond to address the costs of delay to the corporate marriage.
Paramount is required to pay a fee of $7 million per day if the $110 billion merger does not close by Sept. 30.
The states challenging are California, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington.
The attorneys general in those states have argued that the acquisition would violate the Clayton Antitrust Act, which prohibits anticompetitive mergers.
