President-elect Donald Trump hopes to make Hollywood “stronger than ever” by appointing Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson And Jon Voight as “special ambassadors”, whose aim will be to bring back lost business to “foreign countries”.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “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! »
It appears the newly appointed ambassadors had little advance notice of the news, as Gibson said he discovered at the same time from Trump’s social media followers.
“I received the tweet 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 assistance and information I can,” Gibson said in a statement to Variety. “Is there any chance the position will come with an ambassadorial residency?” »
Trump’s announcement comes four days before his inauguration in Washington, D.C., and as wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in South Los Angeles. Many businesses are struggling to recover, and the cost is estimated at around $250 billion. Domestic box office in 2024 was also down compared to the previous year, as Hollywood’s release schedule was hit by the 2023 actors’ and writers’ strikes. Last year’s revenues were $8.7 billion, in down 3.3% from 2023 and 23.5% from 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, which reached $11.3 billion.
Stallone, Gibson and Voight have been staunch Trump supporters in recent years. Stallone introduced the president-elect at a gala at Mar-a-Lago in November, calling him the “second George Washington”; Gibson expressed support for Trump and criticized Kamala Harris’ intelligence before the 2024 elections; And Voight spoke in depth about his admiration for Trump in a Variety cover story last year.
After being blacklisted from Hollywood for years following anti-Semitic comments, Gibson returned by directing the Oscar-winning film “Hacksaw Ridge” in 2016 and has an upcoming action film, “Flight Risk,” starring Mark Wahlberg, which will be released on January 24. recently starred in the Paramount+ drama “Tulsa King” and co-wrote and executive produced Jason Statham’s upcoming action film “Working Man.” Voight recently appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” and the biopic “Reagan,” starring Dennis Quaid as President Ronald Reagan.