George Clooney declined to endorse the merger of Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery during a press conference at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, saying, “I don’t see how the merger financially ends up making sense.”
Clooney is being honored with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival and made wide-ranging remarks about the merger, free speech, the state of Hollywood and journalism.
“I don’t see how the merger financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it,” he said in response to a question about the embattled transaction. “We’ll see. I worry when a big company swallows up another company,” he said. “I always worry whenever big companies are consolidating because it means a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.”
Clooney, a veteran of the festival, came to Venice to speak his mind.
Barely off the boat, the actor offered support to Mark Ruffalo, whose own criticism of the merger — and of the Ellison family behind it — has drawn accusations of antisemitism.
“I support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely,” Clooney said without echoing Ruffalo’s particular line of argument. “It’s ridiculous. We’re not going to ban speech. I believe in free speech even when I completely disagree with it. That’s important. In fact, it’s part of how democracy works.”
Here, Clooney joins a growing chorus of industry voices who signed an open letter supporting Ruffalo over the past 24 hours. Other signatories include Joel Coen, Hannah Einbinder, Joaquin Phoenix, Sarah Sherman and Todd Haynes.
For his part, though, Clooney took a different tack in critiquing the impending deal — and of the wider threat of media consolidation.
“I always worry whenever big companies are consolidating because it means a lot of people are going to lose their jobs,” he said. “I don’t see how the merger financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it.”
“The state of journalism is in question,” he added. “The richest people in the world are owning the Washington Post and Twitter, and that is a concern.”
“I support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely,” Clooney said. “It’s ridiculous. We’re not going to ban speech. I believe in free speech even when I completely disagree with it. That’s important. In fact, it’s part of how democracy works.”
The post George Clooney Won’t Endorse Paramount-Warner Merger: ‘I Don’t See How’ It Makes Sense appeared first on TheWrap.
