Trump names Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone as Hollywood ‘special ambassadors’ | Movies

Donald Trump has tapped three of his longtime celebrity supporters – Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone – to supposedly make Hollywood “stronger than ever” as “special ambassadors” in the movie capital.

The president-elect announced the new appointments, whose functions remain unclear, on Truth Social on Thursday, four days before his inauguration. “It is my honor to announce that Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone will be special ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” he wrote.

“They will serve as my special envoys in an effort to bring Hollywood, which has lost a lot of business over the past four years to foreign countries, BACK – BIGGER, BETTER AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will do what they suggest. It will once again be, like the United States of America itself, the golden age of Hollywood! »

Trump has long disparaged Hollywood, which has seen celebrities overwhelmingly support Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. He made the announcement as wildfires continue to devastate Southern California and significantly disrupt the film industry and television. Many people in Hollywood lost their homes in the fires, which killed 25 people, displaced tens of thousands and hampered businesses, with costs estimated at more than $250 billion.

His message appears to refer to the decline of the US box office, which has struggled to recover from the pandemic and the twin strikes of writers and actors in 2023. The year’s $8.7 billion haul last was down 3.3% from 2023 and 23.5% from 2019, the latest total. a year before the Covid pandemic.

Just like the president-elect, the three new “special ambassadors” are no strangers to controversies. Gibson, a major star of the ’80s and ’90s, never reached the same heights after he was recorded making racist and anti-Semitic remarks during a drunk driving arrest in 2006. Voight, without arguably Hollywood’s most vocal Trump supporter – and awarded a National Medal of Arts by Trump in 2019 – described his ex-daughter Angelina Jolie’s support for Gaza refugees as the result “propaganda” from “anti-Semitic people”.

Stallone, meanwhile, supported Trump during the 2024 election campaign, where he referred to the Republican candidate as “the second George Washington.”

“We are in the presence of a truly legendary figure,” he said at the America First Policy gala in Palm Beach, Fla., in November. “No one in the world could have achieved what he achieved, so I’m impressed.”

It’s unclear whether the Hollywood trio will attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday in Washington DC. The ceremony will feature former American Idol champion and country music star Carrie Underwood singing America the Beautiful. Other artists include country singer Jason Aldean and longtime Trump supporter Kid Rock.