The Ellisons Made Their Trump Bed. First Whispers Hollywood May Finally Push Back
I hear rumblings the worm could be turning
The last few weeks — and a few surprisingly hopeful election results — cracked open the tiniest window of optimism for me. Not enough for a toast, but enough to think thoughts I haven’t let myself entertain in a year: Maybe this too shall pass. Maybe this isn’t how the world ends.
(Don’t panic: For fans of my “sky is falling” content, there’s still plenty!)
But in that sliver of sunlight, one question lodged in my mind. After a year of tech titans and Hollywood players lining up to flatter and enable a would-be despot, is there a point where the mogul class begins to regret it? Not morally — let’s be serious — but because hitching themselves to an administration so hostile to the fundamental liberties of American democracy could be bad for business?
A boy can dream, can’t he?
And if the first signs of whispers I’m privy to around town are any indication, the window is finally cracking open.
Bosom Buddies
I mean, the first flaw in this would-be resistance is obvious: Tech moguls aren’t built to experience shame. If they were capable of that emotion, they would have felt it long before now. So no — they won’t suddenly wake up thinking they did something wrong.
But business regret? That’s different. As Elon Musk already discovered, openly aligning yourself with this regime can come with a real price tag. There may come a moment when that craven embrace stops looking like bold iconoclasm and becomes a liability for the companies they run.
And on that front, I’m willing to believe I’m not just indulging in fantasy.
The tech companies that treated Trump 2.0 as a deus ex machina — a shield against scrutiny — can expect that scrutiny to roar back the minute the protection evaporates.
Hollywood is a different story. There’s been plenty of compromise and accommodation this year, but only one studio regime has gone beyond reluctant adjustments and into active courtship of the administration. Only one has reaped enormous benefits from that alliance — and is now poised to gain even more.
I refer, of course, to Paramount, and to its proprietors in the Ellison family, and its attempt to take control of a second studio.
Before we get into this, and those whispers around town, let’s stipulate a few things: