Marvel movie star Mark Ruffalo will be leading a protest of Paramount CEO David Ellison honoring President Donald Trump at a swanky dinner in D.C. this week.
On April 23, David Ellison will be hosting a dinner for the president along with several White House correspondents from CBS News. The dinner comes as Ellison’s Paramount seeks regulatory approval for its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery – a move several Hollywood elites, including Ruffalo, have strongly opposed.
The protest will take place outside the United States Institute of Peace building on Thursday, April 23.
“In a blatant conflict of interest, Ellison is waiting for regulatory approval in his pursuit of a $110 billion deal for Paramount to purchase Warner Bros,” the press release said.
“The deal would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, narrowing the diversity of TV news and reducing the number of major U.S. film studios to just four,” it continued. “If approved, this merger would give one family control over CBS, CNN and TikTok — and the Ellisons have already promised President Trump that they would make sweeping changes to CNN. It would slash jobs, diminish opportunities for creators, and reduce choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.”
Over 2,000 Hollywood insiders, from writers to actors to directors, have signed an open letter opposing Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. At least one industry titan, Academy Award-winning director James Cameron, has expressed support for the deal while hailing David Ellison as “the right man for the job.”
“I’m a supporter of it. I know it’s controversial,” Cameron told the Associated Press.
“I know David quite well. And I know that he really cares about movies,” Cameron continued. “And he’s a natural born storyteller and thinks like almost an old school entrepreneurial producer that was a storyteller that loves storytelling and loved putting on spectacular shows. He’s the right man for the job to run a major studio, and now it looks like he’s going to have two of them, you know, swept under his leadership, which doesn’t bother me at all.”