Senate Democrats are demanding answers from David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount-Skydance, about his company's dealings with the Trump administration as they pursue a takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. And they're not asking nicely.
In a letter that Variety obtained, lawmakers accused Ellison of a "pattern of evasion" when questioned about potential conflicts of interest. That's Senate-speak for "we think you're hiding something."
The concern centers on whether Paramount received favorable regulatory treatment for its massive Warner Bros. acquisition bid in exchange for... well, that's what they're trying to find out. Did Ellison make promises to the administration? Were there backroom deals about content, coverage, or corporate structure?
This isn't just Washington being Washington. Media consolidation matters, and when a company controlling major film studios, television networks, and streaming platforms gets cozy with political power, it raises legitimate questions about editorial independence and regulatory capture.
Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, has been trying to build an empire through Skydance's acquisition of Paramount and now the attempted Warner Bros. deal. It's ambitious. It's also exactly the kind of consolidation that makes antitrust watchdogs nervous.
The timing is particularly interesting given James Cameron's public opposition to Netflix acquiring Warner Bros.—a separate but related deal. What's emerging is a picture of Hollywood's legacy studios being carved up by tech money and streaming giants, with questions about who's greasing which wheels.
Senate investigations like this can go two ways: they either uncover actual wrongdoing and blow up deals, or they generate headlines for a few weeks before quietly fading. The "pattern of evasion" language suggests Democrats think there's something worth finding.
For Ellison, the stakes are enormous. If he can pull off both the Paramount and Warner Bros. acquisitions, he'll control a massive chunk of American entertainment infrastructure. If the Senate investigation finds problematic Trump connections, the whole thing could collapse.
In Hollywood, nobody knows anything—except that when senators start using phrases like "pattern of evasion," somebody's about to have a very bad week. Stay tuned.
