The chief legal counsel of Paramount Skydance, Makan Delrahim, has alleged that some opponents of the David Ellison-led company’s pending $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery are motivated by “antisemitic views.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Delrahim spoke about the backlash in the industry to the Paramount-WBD deal. To date, more than 5,500 filmmakers, actors and other Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter opposing the deal. House Democrats have urged California Attorney General Rob Bonta to “closely scrutinize” the deal.
“Politics is part of life. It’s part of the beautiful process of democracy,” Delrahim said. “Generally, we are very empathetic to the folks in Hollywood, but this transaction will actually create more and better and exciting jobs. David [Ellison] is an absolute lover of films; he’s a filmmaker himself. For the first time, you are getting an owner who comes from the creative side.”
The exec continued: “Let’s be honest. There’s a lot of fear-mongering, particularly from people in Washington, D.C. They are running a political campaign. Some of these people are trying to inflict harm on this transaction really because of their own antisemitic views. Regulators and law enforcement officials will see right through that.”
