President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone would serve as “special envoys” to Hollywood has raised questions about their role as the industry reckons with a rocky state of affairs.
On Thursday, via his Truth Social platform, President Trump wrote, “It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California.”
“They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
He added, “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”
What Stallone, Gibson, and Voight will specifically do remains to be seen, but there is some speculation.
Travis Knox, associate professor at Chapman University, explained to Fox News Digital, “As of right now, the special ambassadors’ specific duties are ambiguous. Either curbing runaway production or convincing China, the 2nd largest film market in the world, to expand its quota of imported Hollywood films would be a win for the American film industry. However, without clear directives, we’ll have to see how Voight, Gibson, and Stallone approach their roles as Trump’s ‘eyes and ears’ in Hollywood.”
“It’s not so much that they’re official government employees or they have specific powers. I think it’s a lot more symbolic in the idea of trying to bring back or bring in a cooperation between Hollywood and the more conservative or right side of the current administration,” said Jason Cherubini, executive in residence at Loyola University, Maryland and co-founder of Dawn’s Light Media.
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