"Paramount" attacked Mark Ruffalo and accused him of antisemitism

Paramount Pictures harshly attacked actor Mark Ruffalo, calling his statements against the studio merger with Warner Bros. antisemitic. In an official statement, the company said that using terms like 'genocide' and 'apartheid' in a business context crosses a red line. The attack comes after Ruffalo posted on Instagram against the deal valued at $111 billion, criticizing Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, who serves as a financial backer for his son, Paramount's CEO.

Paramount Pictures issued an unusual and unprecedented statement attacking actor Mark Ruffalo and calling his remarks against the merger deal with Warner Bros. antisemitic. The statement said that using terms like 'genocide' and 'apartheid' in the context of a business dispute crosses a red line and trivializes the real suffering those words are meant to describe. The attack comes in response to Ruffalo's activism against the deal valued at approximately $111 billion. In a post shared on Instagram with his 20.5 million followers, Ruffalo focused his criticism on Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, who serves as a key financial backer for his son, Paramount CEO David Ellison. In the post, Ruffalo shared a video from a conference of the Israeli-American Council showing former Oracle CEO Safra Catz discussing the company's technology in the context of Israel's war effort in Gaza. Ruffalo claimed that the war in Gaza is a genocide built on a system of apartheid oppression powered by Oracle. Paramount added that the actor's words reveal the true motives of some opponents of the deal, and clarified that they expect the merger to be evaluated based solely on legal considerations.