Call it a Hollywood mea culpa that wound up in turnaround.
Sources tell Page Six Hollywood that Mark Ruffalo was looking to apologize for a pair of recent social media posts that cast Larry Ellison as a Lex Luther-esque billionaire oppressing Gazans and drew the condemnation of a broad swath of Jewish groups including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
Over the past week, States United Democracy Center co-founder Norm Eisen was working closely with the Marvel star on how to thread the needle of signaling contrition about offending Jews, while remaining firm in his opposition to the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger and (separately) Israel’s military response in Gaza.
Insider say Ruffalo asked Eisen to enlist ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who had called Ruffalo’s two posts “cynical and sickening.” (Eisen and Greenblatt had both worked in the Obama administration and are said to be friends.)
One source says Greenblatt rebuffed his old pal Eisen because he wasn’t “interested in laundering Mark Ruffalo‘s reputation.”
Another source says the ADL chief “couldn’t help” the four-time Oscar nominee, prompting Eisen to pivot to an open letter defending Ruffalo that hit Tuesday.
The letter, first published in Variety, was signed by 180 “Jewish artists, writers, creative professionals, faith leaders and thinkers.”
We hear Eisen wrangled the academic and non-Hollywood types — who make up a large chunk of the list. Ultimately, the industry signatories included Joel Coen, Todd Haynes, James Schamus, Tony Kushner and Hannah Einbender. (The “Hacks” star had already defended Ruffalo on social media.)
There’s little argument that Ruffalo’s reputation took a ding when several entities, including Paramount and the industry-heavy Creative Community for Peace, branded his posts “antisemitic.” The CCFP even called for the actor to be de-platformed in an unprecedented step for the group. (The Ruffalo missives and subsequent reaction caused such a stir that they managed to drown out online outrage about Mel Gibson mocking a sign language interpreter.)
While Ruffalo’s posts appeared to conflate the merger with “genocide” in the Middle East, some of those who are opposed to Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warners seemed unfazed by the uproar.
“If Mark Ruffalo was struck by lightning tomorrow or proven to be a paid agent of Hamas and run out of the country, none of that would change how I feel about the merger,” says one who signed the Block the Merger petition in April.
Eisen and a rep for Ruffalo declined comment. An ADL rep said Greenblatt is traveling internationally and is unreachable.
