Free Republic

The headlines announcing Mark Ruffalo’s latest line of defense against claims of antisemitism were striking. More than 170 Jewish artists had rallied around the actor, denouncing an “outrageous smear campaign” and rejecting accusations that his rhetoric about the Ellison family and the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger trafficked in antisemitic themes. Read the names and the letter itself, and a different picture emerges. There are recognizable Hollywood figures among the signatories, including Joel Coen, Tony Kushner, Hannah Einbinder, Ilana Glazer and others. Of the 177 signatories, fewer than half are entertainment figures. The list also contains a significant collection of anti-Israel...

Paramount clapped back at Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo and accused him of invoking “antisemitic tropes” in an unhinged rant where he raged against the company’s proposed Warner Bros merger. The media giant swiftly issued a lengthy statement on Friday after the Hulk-portrayer spouted off on social media, criticizing the intended $110 billion merger as “crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world.” “We are, as always, 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...

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird wrote in an op-ed for The Daily Wire that she is suing California for leading the charge in the lawsuit against the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.“California is once again trying to be the country’s regulator. And once again California is defying common sense to raise costs around the country,” Bird wrote.Bird argues that “any Iowa family” would tell you the cost of streaming is too high and that there are “fewer quality shows” to choose from. She says these are symptoms of one company getting “too far in front,” and the competitors being “too small to...

Back in June, the Justice Department approved the Paramount deal to buy Warner Bros., a merger that would give David Ellison control over not just Warner Bros. but CNN and HBO Max, too. The merger is happening because Warner Bros. cannot stand on its own anymore, but the Left isn't happy about this. They think Ellison, who has worked with President Trump in the past, will allow some sort of weird MAGA influence over the network. Advertisement In July, 12 states moved to block the merger, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, citing concerns about a "reduction in competition" and...

David Ellison is eager to reach a swift resolution in the antitrust case filed by 12 states seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. And, in a move seemingly aimed at gaining leverage in the showdown, he’s prepared to start moving Paramount out of California as soon as October unless the merger is resolved through a settlement with the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, Variety has confirmed. Ellison told Paramount senior execs last week that he will relocate Paramount’s operations outside of the state of California if the deal doesn’t close by Sept. 30, sources confirmed to Variety. The...

Tennessee is courting David Ellison’s Paramount, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. In a letter to Ellison on July 2, Tennessee Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter urged the Paramount CEO to relocate the studio’s corporate headquarters amid a rift with California over its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. “Our success is rooted in fiscal discipline, low taxes, predictable governance, and a steadfast belief that government should be a partner in private-sector growth,” stated the letter. “Companies that choose Tennessee find more than a favorable business climate — they find a state committed to helping them succeed.” The invitation was delivered...

A coalition of 12 Democratic attorneys general led by California filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block the $110 billion merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance, despite the deal having been approved by the Trump administration. “The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. The legal challenge comes just days after reports that advisers close to...

Former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens is reportedly writing a tell-all memoir about his 37 years at CBS News, taking aim at owner Paramount, its CEO David Ellison and editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, among others. In a proposal obtained by Breaker Media, Owens describes Paramount’s decision to settle President Trump’s lawsuit over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris as “perhaps the worst legal strategy ever employed by the worst-run media company in the history of America.” The proposed book would mark Owens’ most extensive public account yet of the turmoil that engulfed CBS News...

Why is nothing new happening in film? You’ve noticed. Sequel after sequel, unmemorable plots, films you don’t care about discussing the next day. Yeah, it didn’t use to be like this. Filmgoers in the 20th century had a bonanza of new genres or styles of film. Every decade birthed two or more. Film started in the 1910s with a big dose of Charlie Chaplin. Sound entered the picture in the ‘20s, and the films got bigger. The 1930s exploded with Gangster Films, Spectacle Films, Musicals, and Slapstick Comedy. In the 1940s came Power Women Films, Film Noir, and Italian Neorealism....

A group of states led by California and New York is preparing to sue to block Paramount Skydance from acquiring Warner Bros., Reuters reported on Friday. Last year’s merger between Paramount and Skydance already sparked criticism over concerns about antitrust issues and the impact of centralizing control of major media and entertainment companies. The criticism grew as Paramount settled a lawsuit President Donald Trump had filed against CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which numerous legal experts had assessed as a fundamentally weak case on First Amendment grounds. It was widely speculated that political...

The filming of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers happened when the Paramount lot was ringed by a picket line, part of the 1945 strike by motion picture set decorators that led to the infamous Black Friday riot outside the main gate at Warner Bros. The strike is a movie history footnote today, and though it gets aired out whenever the industry endures another labour dispute, it's hard to imagine pickets full of writers or actors today in a melee with studio security and police with "tear gas bombs, fire hoses, brass knuckles, clubs, brickbats, and beer bottles" as Variety...

Over 200 journalists, academics, and filmmakers have signed a letter opposing the Paramount Skydance takeover of CNN following the former’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. Letter from the Freedom of the Press Foundation argued that Paramount taking control of CNN will lead to “improper political meddling” from CEO David Ellison, per HuffPo, citing the reported changes at CBS. “News segments critical of Trump policies have been pulled; revered producers and reporters have quit rather than be censored; shows Trump dislikes, like ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,’ have been cancelled; and CBS Evening News has taken to airing flattering features...

Anchor Tony Dokoupil quickly halted Wednesday’s live broadcast of “CBS Evening News” after a cameraman suffered a medical emergency on set. Dokoupil was in the middle of reporting on President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping from Taiwan when he noticed the cameraman was in need of assistance. Trump’s summit with the Chinese leader comes amid ongoing tensions over trade and Taiwan as well as the U.S. war with Iran. “And finally tonight from Taiwan as President Trump and [Chinese President Xi Jinping] prepare to meet, you will hear a lot about American decline and the rise...

Hollywood insiders and executives at Paramount Global are growing increasingly suspicious that Netflix is playing a behind-the-scenes role in efforts to prevent the proposed combination of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global, a deal commonly referred to in industry circles as WarnerMount, according to a report from Puck News.The streaming giant, led by co-chief executive Ted Sarandos, has faced accusations of quietly supporting campaigns aimed at blocking the merger and potentially reaching out to regulatory authorities to voice concerns about the transaction. These allegations come amid a broader push within parts of the entertainment industry to halt further consolidation among...

An $81 billion Warner-Paramount mega merger has received shareholders’ stamp of approval, propelling a deal that could vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape closer to the finish line… That corporate drama may now be over, but the implications remain. Thousands of actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals have voiced “unequivocal opposition” to the deal, in a letter arguing that further consolidation will lead to job losses and fewer choices for filmmakers and movie goers… The merger would bring together two of Hollywood’s remaining five legacy studios. It would also join two major streaming platforms — Paramount+ and...

The Madison is a neo-Western television series created by Taylor Sheridan for Paramount+. The series follows the Clyburn family, originally from New York City, who relocate to the Madison River valley of southwest Montana for emotional recovery following a major life-changing tragedy that both shocks and permanently changes the family.

As we enter the Sacred Triduum, Hollywood is celebrating Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), if not always the underlying message contained on those two ancient stone tablets Moses received at Mount Sinai c. 1446 BC. The American biblical epic, starring Charleton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Ramses II, was a filmmaking masterpiece three years in the making. Narrated by DeMille himself, it tells the story of Moses as an infant, as related in Exodus 2:5, rescued by Pharoah’s daughter, played by Nina Foch, who, discovering the crying babe lying in a papyrus basket in the...

CNN staffers are freaking out after learning that their left-leaning network’s owner Warner Bros. Discovery will be acquired by Paramount Skydance — even as insiders confirmed that the new owners plan to take a more politically centrist approach to news, The Post has learned. Top talent and low-level producers alike are apoplectic that CNN is being acquired by Paramount Skydance, the media giant that scooped up CBS last year – and which subsequently tapped 41-year-old newshound Bari Weiss to root out liberal bias at the network. Now, CNN staffers are so panicked that the network’s president Mark Thompson was forced...

Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal. These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) emerged as the likely winner in a m, after streaming giant Netflix (NFLX), on Thursday refused to raise its bid for the storied Hollywood studio. "We've always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid," Netflix said in a statement. Netflix confirmed to Reuters that it was walking away from bidding for Warner Bros Discovery. The Warner Bros board still has to terminate the Netflix deal and adopt Paramount Skydance's offer. "Once our board votes...