Paramount and a dozen states led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta are closing in on a deal to settle a lawsuit challenging the studio’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The two sides are in “advanced talks” to resolve the case, per the report. Under the reported deal, terms include “Paramount agreeing to operate the two companies’ movie studios separately for a period rather than immediately combining them.”
In another sign that a deal is imminent, Reuters reported that an agreement could come “as soon as this weekend.” The settlement could require independent content monitoring of CNN, plus a commitment on the number of theatrical releases.
Across the litigation, Bonta has maintained he’ll only accept structural remedies, which typically involve companies selling off parts of the combined business, and has previously said such an agreement to run studio operations independently cannot be the primary component of any potential deal. So far, Paramount has only offered behavioral concessions, including a pledge to release at least 30 movies with 45-day theatrical windows.
A deal struck without any divestitures would be a major win for Paramount CEO David Ellison, who’s threatened to move the studio out of California if an agreement isn’t reached by the start of next month regardless of the ultimate outcome of the case. With a settlement, Paramount would be able to close the merger ahead of an Oct. 1 deadline when a $7 million-per-day so-called ticking fee will start to accrue.
The discussions are “ongoing and there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached,” the story added.
“Potential settlement talks are confidential,” said a spokesperson for Bonta’s office in a statement. “We cannot confirm or deny whether settlement talks are occurring or their alleged substance.”
Paramount declined to comment.
Movement on deal talks has been slow, with leaks having blown up discussions in public jockeying over a settlement. Last month, Bonta canceled a meeting with Paramount scheduled for the following day, accusing the studio’s representatives of leaking and misrepresenting details of negotiations they held.
A trial is scheduled to start in March, with Paramount, the states and the Writers Guild of America slated to formally sit down for two consecutive days starting Oct. 14 to explore a settlement.
A key regulatory approval came on Thursday when the FCC signed off on equity investments from three prominent Middle East sovereign wealth funds that are backing Paramount’s bid. The sovereign wealth funds are collectively providing roughly $24 billion in financing to help bankroll Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to SEC filings. Their investment, along with that of others, will result in foreign investors collectively holding 49.5 percent of the combined company.

Nicki Minaj has no apologies for loving President Trump … but don’t expect her to turn her next tour into a political rally.
Nicki joined Laura Ingraham on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Friday alongside Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler to discuss the “Million-Dollar Pitch Competition” … and the conversation quickly turned to her relationship with Trump.
Asked what she says to critics of their partnership, Nicki’s answer was blunt — “Absolutely nothing.”
She said she’s honored to work with the administration and called Trump smart, fun, and grounded … adding he’s easy to connect with and makes people feel heard.
“I just love him,” Nicki said, insisting she won’t make excuses for it.
She also agreed with Ingraham that politics don’t belong in her concerts … saying her shows are about having fun, making memories and appreciating life — not lecturing the crowd.
Nicki didn’t mention Macklemore, but her stance comes amid controversy over his pro-Palestine comments onstage, which sparked backlash during his run with Ed Sheeran.
As TMZ previously reported, Nicki was tapped to judge Trump’s small-business competition, which gives five companies a share of $1 million.
As for when the Barbz can expect her back on tour, Nicki says she’ll hit the road after presenting them with her next body of work — whenever that may be.

Nick Reiner argued the “Slayer Statute” shouldn’t play a factor in whether he accesses his trust money, defending a large portion of the inheritance actually came from his grandfather, Hollywood legend Carl Reiner, and not his slain parents.
In new civil court documents, obtained and viewed by TheWrap, Reiner’s team fought to get access to the trust money that has been kept from the “Being Charlie” screenwriter. The 32-year-old Reiner, who has been charged in the killing of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, previously defended that he needed access to those funds to rehire powerhouse attorney Alan Jackson, who abruptly withdrew from the case in January due to lack of funding.
The fiduciaries for the trust hit back by citing the “Slayer Statute” as the reason for Reiner being denied access to the trust. For those unfamiliar, the law prohibits someone from receiving an inheritance from a person they have killed.
Yet, Reiner’s camp argued in the Friday documents that since “a substantial portion of the Trust came from Nick’s grandfather,” who died of natural causes in 2020 at the age of 98, this was not a valid argument.
“Nick’s grandfather died on June 29, 2020. Nick is not accused of causing his death,” the filing noted. “Money that was left to Nick by his grandfather is not money received by Nick from or through his parents. To the extent the funds Nick received from his grandfather are Nick’s personal assets, they remain Nick’s and should be segregated and released from this Trust. Even if they were properly held by the Trust, the Slayer Statute does not supply a basis for withholding them.”
Elsewhere in the filing, Reiner’s team also argued that a portion of the trust was due to be given to him on his 30th birthday, well before the death of his parents.
“This case is not about the far larger Reiner Family Trusts, which hold the assets of Nick’s parents’ estate and the inheritances they left their children,” the document stated. “This case is about money Nick’s parents separately set aside for him alone and made irrevocable, to be paid to him on two fixed dates: one-half at 30, and the balance at 35.”
The filing continued: “Nick turned 30 on Sept. 14, 2023. By the Successor Trustee’s own calculation, at least $558,000 became due and payable to him that day. His parents were alive. No one had accused him of anything. The Slayer Statute, the sole remaining basis for withholding this money, takes away what a person receives as a result of someone’s death.”
They also highlighted that Reiner has yet to be found guilty in a court of law.
Reiner’s team then asked the Court to “enter an order freezing a presumed-innocent man’s own untainted money until after the trial,” noting that by doing so it would “deny him representation he could otherwise afford.”
This update comes a month after Reiner was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder after his parents were stabbed to death in their Brentwood, Calif. home, adding a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait. Reiner was arrested in December just hours after his parents were found dead in their home and has been held without bail ever since.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman shared that Reiner will not be facing the death penalty for the killing of Rob and Michele Reiner.
“We did speak with Nick Reiner’s siblings,” Hochman said at the time. “They made their views very clear. We took their views into consideration in ultimately deciding not to seek the death penalty.”
“This decision reflects our careful judgment about the most appropriate path to take in this case and does not diminish the severity of these crimes,” he added in a statement. “I have spoken to the Reiner family and evaluated the mitigating and aggravating factors that are part of special circumstance murder cases. Seeking capital punishment should be reserved for the most egregious instances, and we determined after a thorough review that the death penalty was not the appropriate resolution in this case.”
If convicted, Reiner faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Currently, no trial date has been.

They’re talking! Or are they? And what are they actually talking about? Does everyone need to chill out?
Paramount and state attorneys general are talking, we are told. However, the discussions that are occurring over coming to a deal in the battle over Paramount’s $111 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery are far from advanced.
In fact, sources tell us, the conversations that are occurring between David Ellison’s team and California AG Rob Bonta’s crew are centered on laying out the agenda for their already scheduled mid-October court ordered settlement discussions. “This is part of the process before you get the principals onboard, it’s pretty straightforward,” declares an individual with direct knowledge of the state of affairs. “The end is not nigh.”
Earlier this week, a federal judge made it official and ordered Para, WBD and the AGs to appear for a two-day settlement conference October 14-15 in a San Francisco courtroom.
Core to the discussions will be scenarios like Paramount potentially operating the film and TV studios of Paramount and Warner Bros. separately, at least for a period of time after the close. Bonta has said a “behavioral remedy” like the company agreeing to release at least 30 films a year, will not satisfy the plaintiffs. Along with studio consolidation, cable network concentration is a key part of the states’ complaint, with speculation centering on some way of moving some of the 50-plus cable networks out of the combined portfolio to avoid running afoul of antitrust limits.
Eyebrows (and hopes) were raised late Friday about a potential resolution of Paramount’s legally waylaid WBD merger. The Wall Street Journal reported tonight that Paramount is in “advanced talks” with California’s Bonta over a settlement of the antitrust suit being brought by the Golden State AG and 11 other states.
Shares in Paramount, which are down 23% in 2026 to date amid mounting uncertainty about the fate of the merger, jumped 5% in after-hours trading. WBD stock, which is also underwater for the year, rose 6% after hours.
After Donald Trump’s DOJ and other major jurisdictions approved the mega-merger with no conditions, the dozen attorneys general filed a much-expected antitrust suit against Para and WBD on July 13. The case, set to go to trial on March 2, 2027, has seen an explosion of threats that Paramount would move to a red state, “blackmail” accusations by Bonta and a media war in the court of public opinion. It could also cost Ellison and his Oracle founding father Larry Ellison some sweet cash with a $7 million a day ticking fee set to WBD shareholders to start on October 1.
In that context, talk of advanced talks is just another piece of that PR puzzle.
“I get why some want this to look bigger than it is, there’s a lot of pressure here,” an insider notes. “This is too big, too much on the line for anyone to rush a deal,” the source added. “Hold your horses. No one wants to waste anyone’s time.”
As with initial talks last month, it is mid-level staff that are in communication as the brass stay above the fray, as it is, we hear.
Paramount had a blunt “no comment” on whether negotiations with the AGs were going on and what the status of them are at present.
Having called out Paramount previously for alleged leaks that scuttled the last set of behind the scenes talks, Rob Bonta’s office today were 100% by the book. “Potential settlement talks are confidential,” a spokesperson for the CA AG told Deadline In the non-answer answer they added: “We cannot confirm or deny whether settlement talks are occurring or their alleged substance.”
Interestingly, Bonta’s office did not complain of leaks or bad faith on the part of Paramount like they did last month when planned settlement talks were cancelled on claims the company was playing the press.
While there appeared to be reason for optimism (mild as it is at this stage) there are many caveats to consider — and not just because there is a big Paramount+ streamed UFC fight out of L.A. this Yom Kippur weekend.
The latest word of discussions follows an ill-fated sequence in August. Bonta canceled negotiations hours before they were set to take place, accusing Ellison of “playing games” ahead of those meetings. “Not only did Paramount leak the alleged substance of settlement discussions, but they misrepresented these discussions, demonstrating a lack of good faith,” Bonta said at the time.
Even as recently as Thursday of this week, when Bonta made an appearance at the Atlantic Festival in New York, the top cop of California said the fate of the deal “lies at the feet” of Ellison and the Paramount team. A follow up sit-down on MS Now, Democrats’ favorite cabler newser, contained much of the same even as Paramount leaks tried to up the ante on the Melrose lot packing up for Tennessee, Texas or Georgia.
Sources tell us Bonta had a “conversation” with fellow ParaBros antitrust plaintiff NY AG Letitia James while out on the East Coast this week. To that, it is not clear if AG Bonta is back on the West Coast tonight.
The leverage has been heavily on the side of the AGs since a string of rulings in the case by a federal judge favored the plaintiffs. Even when it came to setting a date for the antitrust trial, the judge landed on early March, which was a lot closer to the AGs’ preference of April than to Paramount’s stated desire for November.
Despite momentum in the case, high-profile Democrats in California, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, have publicly pressured Bonta multiple times to settle the case. The ambitious Newsom and reelection-fighting Bass fear damage to the industry, L.A. and the state if the deal remains pending for several months. At the same time, of course, a damning August report delivered to L.A. County from the region’s Department of Economic Opportunity says the $80 billion debt ladened merger will likely cause the loss of thousands of jobs, adding to the pain for a region already facing a downturn in production and other headwinds.
The job loss and economic pain could be much greater if Paramount makes good on their threat to leave L.A., says a September 10 report to the County from the Economic Development Corporation. On the flip side, that same leaked EDC report, which Paramount commissioned, also told the powerful Board of Supervisors that ailing Hollywood would be boomtown if ParaBros went though with jobs and productions galore.
As well, the ParaBros court calendar is looking pretty full even before those official settlement talks of next month and the spring 2027 trial. A hearing will be held next week in Oakland on Paramount’s request for a $1.88 billion bond from the plaintiffs to cover “extraordinary losses” the company anticipates due to having to pay those pricey ticking fee during litigation. On September 25, the blue state AGs have to respond to a motion from red state Iowa and Montana to take the validity of the antitrust suit to the Supreme Court.

Dropkick Murphys‘ frontman Ken Casey has spoken up about Macklemore being forced off Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour after the rapper made onstage comments in support of Palestinians and criticized Israel’s war in Gaza.
In an interview with Boston Public Radio, Casey said, “I know that, as a musician for 30 years, anytime we’ve gone on tour we’ve selected the bands that have opened for us — that’s brotherhood, sisterhood, that’s family. You live or die with the people you bring on the road. They’re your people.”
He added: “And the fact that Ed Sheeran took the knee, no matter what the cause is, and not stood with his fellow tour partner, just doesn’t, you know, sit right with me. And that’s not how Dropkick Murphys would operate.” Casey comments garnered applause during the taping.
Casey said that the promoter is not the entity that should dictate what happens at a show. “The promoter is not what the people come to see.” (Sheeran said the decision to remove Macklemore was not his, but that of the promoter Messina Touring Group, combined with pressure from venues. As well, per a statement from Macklemore, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft allegedly led a pressure campaign to force him off The Loop Tour).
Casey gave an example: the band has long been outspoken about the Trump administration and during the Rocklahoma Festival in Oklahoma, he said, “we said what we have to say onstage every night, and probably about 50 percent of the audience walked away.”
“And I was told immediately afterwards that angered the owner of the site, and I’m sure we won’t get invited back,” Casey continued.
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Casey insisted it’s important to stand up for your beliefs. “All the artists I loved as a kid, no matter what, it was that they stand by what they sing about,” he said. “Once you let that go, then you don’t have any worth in your music if you ask me.”