Donald Trump names Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight “special envoys” to Hollywood

Donald Trump wants to make Hollywood “bigger, better and stronger” and has chosen Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone as the stars of what he calls his “special ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California.” .

The president-elect announced on his social network that the three actors would be his eyes and ears for the cinema city.

“It will once again, like the United States of America itself, be the golden age of Hollywood!” » he wrote on Truth Social.

He said: “They will serve as my special envoys in an effort to bring Hollywood, which has lost a lot of business over the last four years to foreign countries, back bigger, better and stronger than ever!

Trump said the actors “will be my eyes and ears, and I will do what they suggest.”

Ambassadors and special envoys are typically chosen to respond to troubled hotspots like the Middle East, not California.

Trump’s decision to select the actors as “ambassadors” underscores his concerns for the 1980s and 1990s, when he was a rising tabloid star in New York, and Gibson and Stallone were among the world’s biggest movie stars .

Stallone is a frequent guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and presented it at a gala in November shortly after the elections.

“When George Washington was defending his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world. Because without him, you could imagine what the world would be like,” Stallone told the crowd. “Guess what? We have the second George Washington. Congratulations!”

Gibson said in a statement that he heard the news “at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised.” Nevertheless, I listen to the call. My duty as a citizen is to provide whatever help and information I can.

Gibson, who lost his home in the Palisades fireadded: “Is there a chance the position will come with an ambassadorial residency? »

“I’m old enough to have touched a few years of Hollywood’s golden age, and I’ve seen its slow deterioration since then. Today we’re in a pretty bad situation,” Voight said. “Very few movies are being made here now, but we’re fortunate to have a new president, who wants to return Hollywood to its former glory, and with his help, I think we can do it.

The move also reflects Trump’s desire to gloss over his supporters’ most controversial statements. Gibson’s reputation has been damaged in Hollywood since 2006, when he made an anti-Semitic rant while being arrested for driving under the influence. But he also continued to work in mainstream films and directed Mark Wahlberg’s upcoming thriller. Risk of theft.

Voight is a longtime Trump supporter who has called Trump the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.

American film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 Hollywood corporate strikes and, last week, the Los Angeles wildfires. Overall U.S. production declined 26% from 2021, according to ProdPro data.

In the greater Los Angeles area, productions were down 5.6% compared to 2023 according to FilmLA, the lowest since 2020.