{"id":832259,"date":"2026-08-31T20:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832259\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T20:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:18:13","slug":"kenneth-lonergan-writes-letter-in-defense-of-mark-ruffalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832259\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenneth Lonergan Writes Letter in Defense of Mark Ruffalo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOscar-winning filmmaker and playwright Kenneth Lonergan has come out in support of actor Mark Ruffalo<\/a>, who has become a focal point in an increasingly heated public fight that involves the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a letter sent to The Hollywood Reporter, Lonergan defended Ruffalo from accusations of antisemitism after the Marvel star wrote an Aug. 21 social media post to his 20.6 million Instagram followers linking the billionaire Ellison family with Israel\u2019s military effort in Gaza and called the conflict a \u201cgenocide\u201d that \u201cwas built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLonergan, the Manchester by the Sea Oscar winner who worked with Ruffalo on You Can Count on Me and has been friends with the actor for decades, took on some of Ruffalo\u2019s accusers, and writes in his letter shared with THR, \u201cI have no problem with anybody who wants to contest Mark\u2019s \u2013 or anyone\u2019s \u2013 ideas. But like all such deflections, the tissue-paper accusations levied at him by his targets lead directly back to the soft places in their own positions, which they can\u2019t or won\u2019t defend by actually addressing what he has to say. It\u2019s an old trick, and a sorry one.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn his post, Ruffalo wrote that Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder worth about $200 billion who\u2019s the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison, was fueling a machine \u201ccrushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe post highlighted Oracle\u2019s ties to the Israeli military, circulating a clip of former Oracle chief Safra Catz talking up Oracle\u2019s tech at the Israeli-American Council National Summit in 2024 as it related to Israel\u2019s war effort in Gaza. In the brief clip, Catz described \u201cprofoundly scary technologies\u201d the company had built that could be deployed as part of the war effort. (A spokesperson for Catz said the \u201cprofoundly scary\u201d tech \u201cWas in fact intended for use in rescuing hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tThat same day, Paramount muscularly fired back, issuing a lengthy statement from a spokesperson saying that Ruffalo was invoking antisemitic tropes and that his comments were \u201ca bridge too far<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSince then, the debate has drawn in multiple Hollywood-affiliated groups. The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Creative Community for Peace condemned Ruffalo\u2019s remarks. An industry group calling itself The Brigade, which includes producers Haim Saban, Lawrence Bender and Ram Bergman, also issued a statement<\/a>, saying, \u201cIt is unacceptable to introduce Jews, antizionism, or antisemitism into conversations about business transactions, simply because those involved are Jewish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the other side of the issue, Emmy-winning\u00a0Hacks\u00a0actress Hannah Einbinder\u00a0came out in defense<\/a> of the Ruffalo, describing the antisemitism claims against the actor as \u201cludicrous,\u201d\u00a0while Jane Fonda issued an Instagram post calling the attacks on Ruffalo \u201ca smear to delegitimize criticism of the merger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRuffalo has long been one of Hollywood\u2019s leading voices on environmental, political, and anti-war causes, including the ongoing Gaza war. He has also come out in opposition to the Paramount-Warners deal, testifying against the merger to a Senate hearing, signing an open letter along with hundreds of actors opposing the deal and consistently hammering the point on social media.<\/p>\n

\n\tLonergan also added of Ruffalo in his letter that, \u201cI disagree with profoundly with many of his positions on the Middle East, Israel, Gaza, and Iran\u2019s constellation of fanatical Islamic fundamentalist proxies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLonergan\u2019s full letter shared with THR is below, as is Mark Ruffalo\u2019s original Instagram reel on Aug. 21. Paramount\u2019s full statement, which Lonergan is also responding to, is below as well:<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKenneth Lonergan\u2019s letter on Mark Ruffalo\u2019s behalf sent to The Hollywood Reporter. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Kenneth Lonergan<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMark Ruffalo\u2019s Aug. 21 Instagram reel caption referencing Oracle\u2019s ties to the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMark Ruffalo\/Instagram<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u2019s full statement on Aug. 21: <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. Words like \u2018genocide\u2019 and \u2018apartheid,\u2019 applied to a corporate transaction, aren\u2019t just wrong \u2014 they\u2019re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn\u2019t deserve a response in kind \u2014 and to be clear, we don\u2019t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.<\/p>\n

This brings us to a moment to lower the temperature, not raise it. We\u2019d rather build than further engage in such rhetoric.\u00a0This simply exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction.\u00a0On the other hand, our commitment to great content is matched by our commitment to acceptance \u2013 to every story, every storyteller, and no blacklists, no exceptions, for anyone.<\/p>\n

We understand people feel strongly about this merger and are hopeful and expect that it will be judged based on the legal merits, not underlying bias. We\u2019re asking for the same good faith we\u2019re extending: less rhetoric, more understanding. Paramount\u2019s future is being written for everyone who wants to make and watch great stories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar-winning filmmaker and playwright Kenneth Lonergan has come out in support of actor Mark Ruffalo, who has become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,41215],"class_list":["post-832259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-mark-ruffalo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}