Jane Fonda is the latest star to come forward and publicly voice their support for Mark Ruffalo.
If you didn’t know, the 58-year-old Avengers actor has been a vocal opponent of Paramount Skydance’s proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery since the deal was first announced in February.
During a recent back-and-forth, Paramount Skydance accused the Oscar-nominated actor of being “antisemitic.”
Following the allegations, Jane, 88, and her Committee for the First Amendment organization released a statement defending Mark.
Read Jane Fonda’s message
“Mark Ruffalo has a First Amendment right to speak out about politics, powerful corporations and this dangerous merger — full stop,” the two-time Oscar winner wrote on Instagram on Tuesday, August 25. “Calling his criticism antisemitic is a smear to delegitimize criticism of the merger and to distract from the question Paramount would rather not answer: should one company be allowed to accumulate this much power over our movies, television and news?”
“The original Committee for the First Amendment was founded to stand against blacklisting and intimidation of people for their political beliefs,” Jane continued. “We will not stand by while the government or its allies revive those tactics to bully activists into silence today.”
Why are Mark Ruffalo and Paramount feuding?
Previously, Mark called out the Ellison family over the Paramount-Warner Bros merger, comparing Larry Ellison, Oracle’s former CEO and a billionaire with a controlling stake in Paramount that is being managed by his son, David Ellison, to a “classic Oligarch.”
A spokesperson for Paramount then responded to Mark‘s message saying the company is “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. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone,” per Variety.
If you missed it, see Mark‘s reaction to Paramount calling him antisemitic.
The post Jane Fonda Defends Mark Ruffalo Against Paramount’s ‘Antisemitism’ Accusations appeared first on Just Jared – Celebrity News and Gossip | Entertainment.
