Some 170 notable Jewish personalities have launched an open letter defending actor and producer Mark Ruffalo, who has been accused of antisemitism for his feedback on Paramount Skydance’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Entertainers, rabbis and a doctor who’s featured in a brand new documentary about docs treating Palestinians in Gaza signed the letter launched Wednesday, which referred to as the assaults in opposition to Ruffalo a “false and harmful weaponization of expenses of antisemitism.” George Clooney additionally defended Ruffalo on Thursday.
Signatories of the pro-Ruffalo petition embody “Broad Metropolis” creators Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer; celebrated filmmakers Joel Coen, Jonathan Glazer and Todd Haynes; Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner; and actors together with Hannah Einbinder, Joaquin Phoenix and Debra Winger.
In late August, Ruffalo, the award-winning actor and progressive activist, went on social media to hyperlink Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, the chief driver of the looming Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, to tech large Oracle, which Ruffalo claimed is liable for “an apartheid system of oppression” in Gaza.
Oracle is owned by Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, one of many world’s richest males; each Ellisons are Jewish and outstanding Israel supporters. Oracle additionally owns a stake within the social media community TikTok’s U.S. operations, and has lengthy been a goal of progressives who level to the corporate’s hyperlinks to, and public help for, Israel.
“Larry Ellison will personal most of ‘Para Bros,’” Ruffalo wrote within the put up, which is not obtainable, in accordance with a screenshot reproduced by the Hollywood Reporter. The “Highlight” and Marvel star additionally referred to as Larry Ellison a “traditional oligarch” who’s “crushing employees and consolidating the wealth of the world for their very own energy and concentrated dominance.”
The $110 billion merger is below adjudication in federal court docket in California following an antitrust lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys normal and the Writers Guild of America. As backlash to the merger has steadily grown throughout Hollywood and in political and media areas, Paramount no less than since June has been pushing the concept that opposition to the merger has had an antisemitic ingredient.
The corporate seized on Ruffalo’s feedback, instantly releasing a prolonged assertion to media after his controversial social media put up that accused the actor of invoking “antisemitic tropes,” including, “This merely exposes the true motivation of some who’ve advocated opposition to this transaction.”
A number of main Jewish teams have additionally mentioned his put up stepped past professional criticism of the merger and into traditional antisemitic rhetoric about Jewish wealth and energy.
In an August assertion, the top of the Jewish Federation of Larger Los Angeles mentioned the actor’s feedback “mixed Jewish wealth, media management, secret know-how and sinister world energy,” drawing on “recognizable antisemitic tropes with an extended and harmful historical past.” Different LA-based Jewish activist teams, together with Artistic Neighborhood For Peace and the Simon Wiesenthal Middle, have additionally condemned his feedback.
Talking amid the unfolding controversy about Ruffalo and his use of the phrase genocide to explain Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza, “Fauda” co-creator Avi Isaacharoff referred to as him “a uncommon mixture” of “ignorant” and “silly.”
The Jewish Telegraphic Company has reached out to Shani Rosenzweig, Ruffalo’s agent and a outstanding Jewish leisure determine in her personal proper, for remark and a Ruffalo interview request. Rosenzweig did reply to both request.
Ruffalo has discovered help from a number of progressive Jewish figures past the leisure trade, together with IfNotNow co-founder Simone Zimmerman, Israeli Holocaust historian Raz Segal and Jewish Currents editor Peter Beinart.
Of their open letter defending Ruffalo, the progressive Jewish cohort argued the actor was proper to attract hyperlinks between Israel’s conduct and the merger.
“Stating the essential connections between what is occurring in Gaza and what’s taking place in Hollywood is the precise reverse of antisemitism,” the letter reads. “It’s, for us, the very essence of Jewish moral responsibility.” The letter factors to particular statements from Larry Ellison, and Oracle executives, describing their surveillance and artificial-intelligence technological ventures and their optimistic relationship with Israel.
Different leisure figures have tried to string a extra cautious needle. Oscar-winning filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan, who has directed Ruffalo in two motion pictures and was at one level growing an American remake of the hit Israeli TV sequence “Shtisel,” defended the actor from antisemitism expenses this week whereas additionally noting, “I disagree profoundly with a lot of his positions on the Center East, Israel, Gaza, and Iran’s constellation of fanatical Islamist fundamentalist proxies.”
“However Mark and I’ve been pals for over 30 years,” Lonergan continued in his letter to the Hollywood Reporter. “The notion that he’s antisemitic is overtly preposterous, and the accusation itself a cynical and disgusting lie.”
Ruffalo is quickly scheduled to attend the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition for the Sept. 10 premiere of the biopic “Being Heumann,” about Jewish-American incapacity rights activist Judy Heumann, wherein he co-stars.
Opposition to David Ellison’s bid to mix two historic media giants, every having not too long ago weathered smaller mergers of their very own, has grown significantly in latest months. These objections have come each from Hollywood rank-and-file involved about additional trade consolidation, in addition to from political and media figures voicing objections to Ellison’s shut ties to President Donald Trump and his intentions with Warner’s flagship information property, CNN.
The merger was initially considered on observe to be finalized this fall with Trump’s blessing. The president has publicly championed the merger, and his Justice Division authorized the deal in June. However talks have floor to a halt following the antitrust lawsuit. The destiny of the merger is now in query, with Paramount having agreed to a trial in March 2027 and on the hook for a $7-million-per-day “ticking charge” it had beforehand agreed to pay out to shareholders if the deal failed to shut by this October.
Previous to Ruffalo’s put up, Ellison himself printed a New York Instances op-ed defending his merger plans.
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