Ruffalo, Clooney and 180 Jewish Entertainers Escalate Pressure on Bonta as Paramount-Warner Settlement Talks Continue

Since Paramount and California Attorney General Rob Bonta's settlement talks accelerated on September 18, the fight over the $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger has turned into a full-blown Hollywood street fight, with Mark Ruffalo at the center of it.

Ruffalo posted directly at Bonta on X: "Don't you dare @AGRobBonta, do not cave." He said he was hearing Bonta was "about to cave" and called on Bay Area supporters to show up outside Bonta's Oakland office. According to TheWrap, Ruffalo cited 5,670 filmmakers who have publicly opposed the merger and pointed to a petition at No Paramount Concessions that has topped 75,000 signatures, urging the 12 states suing Paramount to reject the deal outright.

The Block the Merger Coalition, which includes Jane Fonda alongside Ruffalo according to the Los Angeles Times, argues any settlement built on promises rather than enforceable structural remedies is worthless. "An agreement based only on unenforceable concessions is a win only for David Ellison. It is an L for everyone else," the coalition said. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has separately warned that caving would risk creating what she calls another Trump-controlled media conglomerate.

Clooney weighs in from Venice

George Clooney, accepting the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement, defended Ruffalo's right to keep fighting the deal even as he distanced himself from taking a side on the antisemitism dispute. "I worry when a big company swallows up another company," Clooney said, according to The Guardian. "I support Mark Ruffalo's ability to speak freely. I like him. He's a good man." Clooney also said he doubts the deal makes financial sense: "I don't know how this goes through. There are so many issues involved."

The antisemitism fight nobody has resolved

Ruffalo's activism didn't start as a straightforward antitrust argument. In late August he linked Paramount CEO David Ellison's father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, to what Ruffalo called "an apartheid system of oppression" in Gaza, citing Oracle's technology work with Israel after October 7. Paramount responded by accusing Ruffalo of invoking "antisemitic tropes," telling media it exposed "the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction," according to the Forward.

Paramount isn't alone in raising the charge. Several Jewish organizations have said Ruffalo's comments crossed a line beyond legitimate criticism of the merger.

More than 180 Jewish entertainers, including Joel Coen, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Tony Kushner, signed a letter calling the antisemitism charge a "false and dangerous weaponization," arguing, according to WFMD, that "the assault on the Palestinian people and the assault on our liberties at home are deeply interconnected." No neutral body has ruled on whether Ruffalo's statements were antisemitic or legitimate criticism of Oracle's business ties. That remains a factual dispute between named parties.

The deal has critics who aren't buying the activist framing either

Not everyone backing the merger's opponents is doing it for ideological reasons, and not everyone opposing Ruffalo's campaign is doing it to defend Paramount. Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt accused Ruffalo of ignoring the industry's rank and file: "He's got his millions, and he's willing to f–k the rest of the industry for petty politics," Pratt wrote on X. That's a fair complaint if the merger fight drags out and jobs bleed away regardless of who wins the antitrust case.

The numbers on both sides of the jobs question are contested. Los Angeles County's Department of Economic Opportunity estimates the merger itself would erase at least 4,500 jobs through redundancies, according to the Los Angeles Times. Separately, economists cited in Paramount's own materials claim a full Paramount departure from California, prompted by an unresolved legal fight, could cost Los Angeles as many as 58,000 jobs. Those are two different scenarios with two different causes, and neither has been independently verified.

What happens next

David Ellison wants this done before October 1, when Paramount's obligation to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders jumps by $7 million a day on top of the $81 billion already agreed, according to the Los Angeles Times. Bonta's office says it "cannot confirm or deny" whether settlement talks are occurring or their substance. Ellison has also floated moving Paramount's operations out of California, with Nashville, Austin and Georgia named as possible destinations if the legal fight continues.

The antitrust case was brought by 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America, and a trial has been scheduled, though the exact date is unclear from available reporting. The two sides have agreed to sit down for court-mandated settlement talks in mid-October. Whether Bonta settles before then, and whether that settlement includes the structural remedies like forced divestments that Bonta has previously said he wants rather than behavioral pledges like Paramount's promise to release 30 films a year in theaters, is still an open question with the clock running down to Ellison's self-imposed deadline.