{"id":272790,"date":"2026-02-07T20:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T20:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/272790\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T20:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T20:19:10","slug":"mark-ruffalo-leads-celebrity-backlash-against-kevin-oleary-after-attack-on-billie-eilishs-anti-ice-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/272790\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Ruffalo leads celebrity backlash against Kevin O\u2019Leary after attack on Billie Eilish\u2019s anti-ICE speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kevin O\u2019Leary is facing the wrath of some high-profile celebrities, most notably Mark Ruffalo, over remarks he made targeting Billie Eilish\u2019s anti-ICE stance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During Sunday\u2019s Grammy Awards, the pop star, 24, used her Song of the Year acceptance<\/a> speech to urge fans to \u201ckeep fighting and speaking up and protesting.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is illegal on stolen land,\u201d Eilish declared. \u201cF*** ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days later, the Shark Tank star, 71, appeared on Fox News\u2019 program America Reports, criticizing artists who use their platforms for political messaging. \u201cHalf the people in politics that you piss off won\u2019t buy your music anymore,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. \u201cIt\u2019s the first lesson 101 for celebrity: As you rise up, whether you\u2019re a film star, a music star [or] whatever, shut your mouth and just entertain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruffalo, a staunch liberal<\/a>, has since defended Eilish against O\u2019Leary\u2019s criticism, telling the millionaire, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you STFU?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hilarious. You will go on any show and talk s*** about any number of things and smugly expect us to listen to you,\u201d the Avengers star, 58, wrote on Threads, \u201cbut you will dig into a real artist that dwarfs anything you dream of doing for actually saying something that resonates with 100\u2019s of millions of people the world over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Mark Ruffalo (left) defended Billie Eilish (right) against Kevin O’Leary’s (middle) insults aimed at her anti-ICE remarks (Getty)\"Eilish<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Eilish and older brother Finneas (left) won Song of the Year at the 2026 Grammys (Getty)<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s astounding the fantasy double standard Kevin O\u2019Leary lives in. You played yourself well in Marty Supreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary, a Canadian entrepreneur and Donald Trump ally<\/a>, made his feature film debut in Josh Safdie\u2019s Oscar-nominated sports drama as Milton Rockwell, an arrogant stationery tycoon. <\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted O\u2019Leary\u2019s representative for comment. <\/p>\n

Ruffalo\u2019s comment received an outpouring of support from fans and peers, including comedian Kathy Griffin, who replied: \u201cMark, keep it up. We are so grateful for your resistance. Stay loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Marvel actor isn\u2019t the only celebrity to stand up for Eilish. Her older brother, singer-songwriter Finneas, 28, also spoke out against the conservative backlash she\u2019s received. <\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing a lot of very powerful old white men outraged about what my 24-year-old sister said during her acceptance speech,\u201d Finneas said on his Instagram Story. \u201cWe can literally see your names in the Epstein files.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eilish, who won Song of the Year for her song \u201cWildflower\u201d from her 2024 Grammy-nominated album Hit Me Hard and Soft, used her acceptance speech to send a powerful message about the Trump administration\u2019s continued ICE operations<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so honored every time I get to be in this room,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, as grateful as I feel, I honestly don\u2019t feel like I need to say anything, but that no one is illegal on stolen land. \u2026 It\u2019s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now, and I feel really hopeful in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had previously called out other celebrities who have remained silent about the deaths of Minneapolis civilians, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of DHS agents. \u201cHey my fellow celebrities u gonna speak up?\u201d Eilish asked in an Instagram Story shared in January. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-272790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}