The Block the Merger Coalition released a new video featuring Hollywood stars rallying support for the coalition’s new public-facing petition, thanking the 12 state attorneys general and calling on them to hold strong in their suit to block the dangerous Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. The video, which features Hannah Einbinder, Bradley Whitford, Rati Gupta, W. Kamau Bell, Kristen Vangness and Jane Fonda, spells out why settlement concessions would be unenforceable and a losing proposition for workers and free speech. It calls for no private promises, no settlement, and no concessions.

“No matter what Paramount promises,” says Hannah Einbinder in the video. “This mega merger – the largest financial transaction in Hollywood history – would cause massive layoffs and cuts to programming.”

“Corporations make all kinds of promises to get mergers approved, and then they break them,” adds Bradley Whitford.

The stars point to broken promises from the Live Nation-Ticketmaster and the Charter-Time Warner Cable mergers as examples of past unenforceable promises and call on Paramount to defend its merger in court instead of trying to pressure the AGs through bad-faith PR tactics. 

“We say to the AGs, the public is with you every step of the way,” says Kristen Vangsness.

The No Concessions petition and platform follow the coalition’s successful campaign launched in April that called on state attorneys general to take action against the suit. The initial letter, which has over 5,600 signatures representing A-list actors, writers, directors, journalists, and professionals from across the entertainment industry, helped turn the tide against the transaction, which had been seen as a done deal. Coalition members also helped collect and deliver 171,000 signed petitions to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, urging him to investigate. In addition to the state AGs' suit, the WGAW and the WGAE jointly filed suit to block the proposed merger.

The video, organized by the Committee for the First Amendment in coalition with partners, comes as a court filing lays out the upcoming roadmap to the scheduled March 2, 2027 trial date. Fact discovery will close on January 8, and expert discovery will close on February 23.