A plane on Thursday flew over Paramount Pictures’ lot in Hollywood towing a banner that read, “Ellison Is Trump’s B!tch!” It is not immediately clear who was behind the stunt.
The plane made its passed over the Paramount lot as a group calling itself Neighbors for Strong Communities was planning to hold a press conference outside the Paramount gates to raise alarms about what would happen if the studio leaves California. CEO David Ellison has threatened to leave the state if the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger is not closed by Oct. 1, when the company will begin to incur a $7 million-per-day ticking fee to Warner Bros. investors.
At the same time, spokespeople representing the Block the Merger coalition — which has strongly opposed the Paramount-WBD merger — were on outside Paramount on Thursday to “thank state attorneys general for holding firm in their lawsuit to block the $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, and to call on them to continue resisting what they have called Paramount ‘blackmail.’” The group said speakers included Elyssa Phillips, actress, writer, comedian and Committee for the First Amendment member; Jessica J. González, co-CEO of Free Press; Konstantine Anthony, actor and Burbank City Council member; and Nikki Perez, Burbank City Council member.
A rep for the Block the Merger campaign said it was not behind the plane. Variety has reached out to Paramount for comment.