{"id":474089,"date":"2026-05-08T02:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T02:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/474089\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T02:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T02:58:12","slug":"mark-ruffalo-actors-fear-paramount-warner-bros-blacklist-if-they-slam-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/474089\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Ruffalo: Actors Fear Paramount-Warner Bros Blacklist If They Slam Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMark Ruffalo<\/a> revealed in a new op-ed for The New York Times <\/a>co-written with American Economic Liberties Project research director Matt Stoller that many Hollywood stars declined to sign the recent open letter <\/a>that\u2019s fighting to block the Paramount<\/a>\u2013Warner Bros<\/a>. merger.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe most revealing thing about that letter wasn\u2019t the people who signed. It was the people who didn\u2019t. Not because they disagreed \u2014 because they were afraid,\u201d Ruffalo and Stoller write. \u201cThere are many reasons to block this deal, but we now believe the most fundamental one is what we encountered when asking artists to use their voices: fear. A deep, ugly and pervasive fear of speaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe open letter started circulating in April and has since amassed more than 4,000 signatures from Hollywood talent, including high-profile actors such as Florence Pugh, Pedro Pascal and Edward Norton and acclaimed directors like Yorgos Lanthimos, Sofia Coppola and Denis Villeneuve.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe heard time and time again from artists, when asked to sign this letter, that they supported it but were afraid of retribution. Their fear is not unjustified,\u201d Ruffalo\u2019s op-ed adds, citing two recent examples of blacklisting that occurred in relation to the Paramount-WB merger.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen the editorial director of The Ankler, one of the last independent trade magazines, who also founded the publication and serves as one of its columnists, was seen at an event carrying a bag of \u2018Block the Merger\u2019 buttons, Paramount reportedly\u00a0pulled\u00a0its advertising in response,\u201d Ruffalo and Stoller note. \u201cOne of us, Mr. Ruffalo, was suggested as a guest for a CNN discussion of the merger, but a producer later said that the network had\u00a0decided\u00a0to pass on the segment, and reportedly told the organizers behind the letter, \u2018It\u2019s a delicate subject for us at CNN given Warner Bros. Discovery is our parent company, and there are legal considerations around what we can and cannot cover or say while the merger is ongoing.’\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe op-end sates: \u201cThis merger will cause many harms in Hollywood, but one is already in effect: People are afraid to say what they think about their own industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the 4,000-plus names who signed the open letter are 75 Oscar winners. The group is hoping to sustain opposition to the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal, which is still pending approval by regulators in the U.S. and Europe \u2014 and could be subject to litigation seeking to stop the merger by state attorneys general.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs filmmakers, documentarians and professionals across the movie and television industry, we write to express our unequivocal opposition to the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger,\u201d the\u00a0letter at BlockTheMerger.com states<\/a>\u00a0in part. \u201cThis transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries \u2014 and the audiences we serve \u2014 can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world. Alarmingly, this merger would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to just four.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruffalo and Stoller concluded their op-ed by writing: \u201cWe\u2019ve seen what happens when monopoly-leaning companies benefit from a fear that silences dissent. But our growing coalition is demonstrating that when we don\u2019t get stuck on the sidelines, don\u2019t bow down to inevitability and join together to fight, we can win. And who knows? If we can defeat the oligarchs trying to seize control of our TV shows and movies, maybe we can do it elsewhere, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHead over to The New York Times\u2019 website <\/a>to read the op-ed in its entirety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Ruffalo revealed in a new op-ed for The New York Times co-written with American Economic Liberties Project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17,9921,5997,25131],"class_list":{"0":"post-474089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-mark-ruffalo","14":"tag-paramount","15":"tag-warner-bros"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116536718856814531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}