There is rejoicing in Hollywood.
Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order and has stopped, for the moment, the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros.
The Ellisons’ takeover of a second movie studio that includes CNN and HBO is now on pause for two weeks.
Twelve states had brought a lawsuit against the merger to block the deal.
Literally everyone in Hollywood except David and Larry Ellison is no doubt ecstatic. No merger has even been this decried.
The Ellisons already own CBS-Paramount, and have utterly destroyed CBS News with their pandering toward Donald Trump. The fear is they would also own CNN, which is owned by Warner’s, and try to turn it also into Fox News Lite.
Then there’s the threat of fewer movies and Tv shows being made if Paramount and Warner Bros. are one. Production in Hollywood is already at low levels. The result of the merger would kill jobs from acting, producing, and directing to every other aspect of show business.
Already, the Ellisons are threatening to leave Los Angeles if they don’t get their way, and upend Hollywood entirely.
The judge will now have two weeks to decide if the proposed merger violates antitrust laws. It’s hard to believe she wouldn’t rule that way.
