(AFP) – US President-elect Donald Trump named controversial movie legends and long-standing supporters Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, and Jon Voight as special envoys to Hollywood on Thursday in a bid to make the entertainment industry “stronger than ever before.” The trio of stars, who have 10 Oscar nominations between them and three wins, stand out in Tinseltown, breaking ranks with the bulk of their colleagues who have long leaned to the Democrats. But all three are as famous for their personal lives as their politics, and two—like Trump—have been in very serious scrapes with law enforcement.
“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “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!”
Jon Voight made headlines in 2020 when fellow actor Frank Whaley accused the star of slapping him while they worked on the crime drama Ray Donovan—but his controversies have otherwise mainly been tied to his support of Trump. Gibson, on the other hand, has been plagued by accusations of anti-Semitism, homophobia, racism, and domestic violence. He has been on a comeback since being shut out from Hollywood after his 2006 Malibu drunk-driving arrest during which he went on an anti-Jewish rant. The scandal was followed by leaked tapes in 2010 where Gibson used racist slurs against the mother of one of his nine children, Oksana Grigorieva, who later alleged that he was physically abusive.
Stallone—who recently called Trump the “second George Washington”—has faced a string of sexual assault allegations, all of which he has denied. In 2018, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said there was not enough evidence to prosecute the star over allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in 1987 and 1990. In 2007, Stallone admitted importing 48 vials of banned human growth hormone into Australia. He said he was taking them under doctor’s orders and had not intended to break the law.
“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!” added Trump, who has 34 felony convictions of his own. Trump and the Republicans have traditionally received scant support from the entertainment industry, and a galaxy of stars from Taylor Swift to George Clooney backed Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Underlining the limited impact of star endorsements, Trump sidestepped Hollywood by tapping into a targeted subset of well-known, hypermasculine YouTube influencers.
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