NEW YORK (AP) — 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 it calls its “special ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California.”
On Wednesday, 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 also called the trio of special envoys. Ambassadors and special envoys are typically chosen to respond to troubled hotspots like the Middle East, not California.
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 Palisade fireadded: “Is there a chance the position will come with an ambassadorial residency?
American film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and, last week, the ongoing wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Overall U.S. production declined 26% from 2021, according to ProdPro data.
In the greater Los Angeles area, productions were down 5.6% from 2023 according to FilmLA, the lowest since 2020. Last October, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed expanding the tax credit program for California Film and Television at $750 million per year (up from $330 million). Other American cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago and San Francisco have used tax incentives to attract film and television productions to their cities. Actor Mark Wahlberg is even considering creating a production center in Las Vegas.
It’s unclear what Gibson, Voight and Stallone will do in this effort to bring productions back to the United States. Representatives for Voight and Stallone did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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 introduced him at a gala in November shortly after the election.
“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!”
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 Wahlberg’s upcoming thriller “Flight Risk.”
Voight is a longtime Trump supporter who has called Trump the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.
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