Jane Fonda joked about her previous connection to ex-husband and CNN founder Ted Turner while slamming the Paramount Warner Bros. merger.
“The mergers are going to be bad for workers, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs,” the actress, 88, said to Variety while on the red carpet for the Vanity Fair Oscars party on Sunday, March 15. “We’re going to have higher prices. We’re going to have political control over what we do.”
Fonda added that she was concerned about United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s recent comments about Paramount taking control of CNN.
“That’s why Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, said, ‘CNN can’t come soon enough to be under the control of Paramount.’ Because we know [Donald] Trump wants to hurt,” she said before joking about her relationship with Turner. “I mean I slept with the guy who created [CNN]. I have a personal stake in it.”
Turner founded CNN in 1980 alongside journalist Reese Schonfeld. The network was the first 24-hour cable news channel in the United States. More than a decade later, Turner tied the knot with Fonda in 1991. The pair were married until 2001. Despite their split, Fonda and Turner remained friends.
Fonda shared that she was proud of what Turner created with CNN, as it was a “trusted” and unbiased outlet.
“It didn’t take positions, it reported the news. And to see what’s happening, we have to stop,” she said on Sunday while pointing to her pin that read “Block the Merger.”
Fonda explained that while she is very concerned about the Paramount and Warner Bros. merger, she believes all mergers are bad for the industry.
“This [pin] was [is for] any merger not necessarily the Paramount merger,” she said. “But the Paramount merger is really problematic because … in order to get the permission to get the merger they had to cave to, or they felt they had to cave to what Trump wanted.”
Fonda let out an exasperated sigh but remained optimistic, declaring, “We’re gonna win.”
Last month, news broke that Paramount and Warner Bros. agreed to a $110 billion deal for Paramount to purchase the other company. Netflix had originally offered a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Following Paramount’s offer, the streamer declined to match the deal and walked away from the transaction. Paramount and Warner Bros.’ merger is expected to close later this year.
“From the very beginning, our pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery has been guided by a clear purpose: to honor the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said in a statement in February. “By bringing together these world-class studios, our complementary streaming platforms, and the extraordinary talent behind them, we will create even greater value for audiences, partners and shareholders — and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.”
