An annoying thing happened to David Ellison and Paramount today on the way to taking over Warner Bros Discovery — he got sued for $1.5 billion over a beef a self-declared confidant of Jeff Shell‘s has with the Paramount president.
As exclusively reported by Deadline on March 16, the wide ranging lawsuit against the CEO, Paramount brass and big daddy Larry Ellison from would-be professional gambler R.J. Cipriani was filed today. To be specific, along with Jeff Shell, his wife Laura Shell, the Ellisons, Paramount itself, RedBird Capital Partners, Ellison close advisor Gerry Cardinale, COO Andy Gordon and a bunch of other Paramount bigwigs.
Ready for the filing, Paramount was quick to respond this AM in blunt fashion.
“Paramount is aware of the frivolous lawsuit and believes the claims are entirely without merit,” a company spokesperson told Deadline. “There is no factual or legal basis for any claim against Paramount, its Directors or its major shareholders, and the Company intends to defend these allegations vigorously.”
With more defendants, demands for a lot more money and a heightened presence of the President of the United States for shock value, Tuesday’s 316-page document is a rehash for the most part of the hyperbolic $150 million complaint Cipriani filed against the Paramount president and his wife Laura on March 9. Like that complaint, there’s a lot of chest beating here about all Cipriani supposedly did for the admittedly loose lipped Shell with planted stories in the media to grease Paramount’s UFC and South Park deals, some corporate indiscretions, some high-profile Hollywood cameos (Hi Ari, Hi Patty), and fair slab of grievances.
For the new(-ish) stuff, there are some Donald Trump corruption claims now in the mix. While the Trump paragraphs throw Blue Meat out there for the WBD deal skeptics, they still come down to a he said/no, he said dynamic with lawyer Patty Glaser, who was in the room, as the tie-breaker.
Pulling a lot from previous media reports and tossing out terms like “unfair advantage,” Cipriani suit goes on to cite “a direct personal assurance by President Donald Trump to Lawrence Ellison regarding Paramount’s attempted acquisition of WBD – disclosed by Shell to Plaintiff verbatim” at a February 2 face-to-face in Glaser’s spacious Century City office. “Specifically, Shell recounted to Plaintiff the substance of that communication, in which President Trump stated words to the effect: ‘Larry, it looks like Netflix is gonna get Warner Bros., but if you really really want it, Larry, I’ll make sure you get it,'” the filing alleges in its best whistleblower voice.
“This disclosure — a verbatim account, shared by the President and Director of Paramount with a non-insider, of a direct presidential assurance to the company’s ultimate controlling beneficial owner regarding the most consequential acquisition in Paramount’s history — is direct evidence that Lawrence Ellison was personally engaged in Paramount’s most consequential corporate decisions at the highest levels, and was not merely a passive beneficial owner exercising control at arm’s length through the Board.”
Putting the words that Trump may or may not have said about the WBD deal on the back burner for a sec, the role and influence of Oracle founder Papa Ellison is news to who exactly?
Also, despite all the candied language from the SOTU attending Ellison and White House visiting Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos about what Trump’s preferences were or were not and what his role was, no one doubted the former Apprentice host had a soft spot for his “good friends” Larry and David. No one also doubted the WBD deal was all about eternal MAGA thorn CNN for Trump (Sarandos said as much when Paramount’s whole enchilada $111 billion hostile takeover bid beat Netflix’s $83 billion streaming and studios only bid earlier this month)and how CBS-owners the Ellison would handled the cable newser.
Also, as a Gibson Dunn conducted probe continues into what Shell may or may not have said to Cipriani in the handful of meetings the duo had and the contested text and WhatsApp correspondence over the past year, the Shells hit back with a counterclaim of their own Monday.
Calling Cipriani’s first filing a “shakedown,” the Shells call Cipriani a liar for his claims of insider info, personal obligations, an oral contract and those digital messages. Pointing to various alleged “false and defamatory statements” from their accuser, the Shells also spotlight how “recent weeks saw Cipriani, including through surrogates and agents, continued his pressure campaign, targeting Shell on numerous fronts, for instance through media leaks, public statements, and more veiled threats to Shell and his representatives.”
With everyone meeting with lawyers now, I hear that Shell’s once dicey position at Paramount is actually in better shape now as the legal drama plays out. Concerns about Ellison’s judgement in bringing Shell, who was ousted from his NBCUniversal CEO perch in 2023 under a cloud of misconduct and questionable choices, onboard remain, but a sense of loyalty to a fellow traveller has superseded that it seems — at least for now.
Or as they say in the Paramount distributed Gladiator: “Are you not entertained?”
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