United Talent Agency appears content to keep Marvel star Mark Ruffalo on its roster after his inflammatory Instagram posts drew accusations of antisemitism from Paramount, a stark contrast to the agency's swift dismissal of Susan Sarandon and Kate Beckinsale in 2023.
Ruffalo used Instagram this week to attack Paramount Skydance's planned $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, calling Paramount owner David Ellison and his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, "oligarchs" and "inhuman forces." He went further, denouncing Paramount board member and former Oracle CEO Safra Catz, saying she "revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle." He also reposted video of Catz touting Oracle's "profoundly scary technologies" used to assist the Israeli military after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Fox News reported.
Paramount fired back with a statement calling the language reckless. A spokesperson said the company is "troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute," adding that "words like genocide and apartheid, applied to a corporate transaction, aren't just wrong, they're a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe," Just The News reported.
Creative Community for Peace, a coalition of entertainment-industry figures formed to counter antisemitism, accused Ruffalo of "antisemitic messaging" and declared that "nobody in Hollywood should platform" him until he retracts his remarks. UTA declined to comment on that demand when asked by Page Six Hollywood. The agency also did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails from the Washington Free Beacon.
Ruffalo's point agent at UTA, partner Shani Rosenzweig, likewise did not respond to requests for comment.
UTA's silence on Ruffalo stands in sharp contrast to how the agency handled two of its female clients less than three years ago. In November 2023, barely a month after the Hamas attack, UTA dropped actress Susan Sarandon after she said at an anti-Israel rally that Jews who were fearful amid rising antisemitism were "getting a taste" of what it was like to be Muslim in the United States. The agency cut ties with Sarandon swiftly and publicly.
Kate Beckinsale, the *Underworld* star, alleged earlier this year that UTA and her agent dropped her on the very same day as Sarandon. Her offense, she said, was "liking" a social media post that accused Israel of genocide. Beckinsale spoke bluntly about the disparity:
"I guess having a penis in Hollywood really counts for a lot, because you've not been fired by the same agent that I had."
Beckinsale did not name the agent in her post. But Rosenzweig is listed on IMDb as Ruffalo's point agent and represented both Sarandon and Beckinsale at UTA.
Rosenzweig herself signed an open letter published by Creative Community for Peace on October 12, 2023, in support of Israel after the Hamas attack. Sixteen other UTA employees also signed. That same organization is now calling for Ruffalo, Rosenzweig's client, to be deplatformed. UTA has said nothing.
Ruffalo's posts did not land in a vacuum. The proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is one of the largest media deals in history, valued at roughly $111 billion. If completed, it would give the Ellison family control over CNN, HBO, Warner Bros., and Paramount's existing properties. Twelve state attorneys general, including those from California and New York, are challenging the deal on antitrust grounds under the Clayton Antitrust Act. The companies have agreed not to close the transaction until June 1, 2027, or after a court decision, the New York Post reported. Paramount faces a $7 million per day penalty if the merger does not close by September 30.
Ruffalo framed his criticism as a matter of corporate power and editorial independence, not ethnic hostility. In a rebuttal posted on X, he called Paramount's antisemitism accusation "appalling and fundamentally dishonest."
"Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle's business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary."
But Ruffalo's track record complicates that defense. Last year, he reposted a tweet claiming "Jewish troops will be looking for Muslims" during Israel's fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, language that goes well beyond merger criticism.
The dispute has drawn public responses from other entertainment figures. Hannah Einbinder, the Jewish actress best known for HBO's *Hacks*, publicly defended Ruffalo. She described the media consolidation as "a dangerous consolidation of power" and rejected the antisemitism charge.
Einbinder told her followers:
"This is criticism of RIGHT WING technofeudalist oligarchs who are in the process of carrying out the largest media acquisition in history. Period end of story."
Ruffalo himself insisted the distinction between criticizing corporate executives and criticizing Jewish people should be obvious. "Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people," he wrote.
Paramount's response suggests the studio sees it differently. And the language Ruffalo used, accusing Catz of reveling in "genocide" built on "an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle", is not the vocabulary of a measured corporate critic. It maps neatly onto the rhetoric that activist groups have used to target pro-Israel figures across the entertainment industry.
UTA vice chairman Jay Sures has himself been targeted by anti-Israel groups. Last year, masked activists protested outside Sures's home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles with banners and chants. The agency's leadership has been described as including vocal backers of Israel, which makes its continued tolerance of Ruffalo's rhetoric all the more conspicuous.
UTA Speakers, the agency's speakers bureau, did recently remove Ruffalo's speaker request page from its website. But no formal termination of Ruffalo as a client has been reported. The agency appears to have calculated that a quiet page deletion is enough.
The reason for the different treatment is not hard to identify. Ruffalo is a high-earning star. *Spider-Man: Brand New Day* is now in theaters and described as a mega-hit. His HBO series *Task* was a surprise hit renewed for a second season. Sarandon and Beckinsale, whatever their talents, are not generating that kind of revenue. Meanwhile, sympathy for Israel has eroded on the American left since October 2023, reducing the political cost of anti-Israel rhetoric in Hollywood circles.
So the pattern is plain. Two actresses lost their representation for far milder offenses, one for a callous remark, one for a "like" button. The male star who called business executives "inhuman forces," accused a woman of reveling in genocide, and shared a post about "Jewish troops" hunting Muslims still has his agent, his franchise, and his agency's protection.
In Hollywood, principles bend where the money flows. UTA's silence says more than any statement could.
