US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed three movie stars as special ambassadors tasked with promoting business opportunities in Hollywood.
"I am honored to name Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone as special ambassadors to the great but very troubled place of Hollywood, California," Trump wrote on his Truth platform (Social Truth).
"They will be my special envoys to bring Hollywood, which has lost a lot of business in the last four years, back to foreign lands - BIGGER, BETTER AND STRONGER THAN EVER!" he added.
All three celebrities are associated with Trump and actively supported him in the presidential election campaign.
It is unclear exactly what their roles will be.
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Mel Gibson (69) said he received the news "at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised."
"Nevertheless, I will answer the call. It is my duty as a citizen to help."
Gibson, who recently lost his home in the Los Angeles fires, added: "Is there any chance this position could include an ambassadorial residence?"
The star of films such as Lethal Weapon, Braveheart and Mad Max publicly supported Trump in a video released just before the November election.
He also criticized Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party's candidate in the presidential race.
Stallone (78), best known for his role as a boxer in the Rocky franchise, was a guest at Trump's Florida mansion after the election when he addressed the crowd, praising the newly elected president.
He compared Trump to the first American leader, calling him "the second George Washington."
"Can you imagine what the world would be like without him?" he said.
He added that Washington, who was president from 1789 to 1797, did not realize that he would change the world when he defended his own country.
Voight (86), the father of actress Angelina Jolie, who starred in many cult films, such as Midnight Cowboy, is a longtime supporter of Trump and has called him the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.
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Hollywood and the most powerful film industry have had a difficult few years, plagued by the coronavirus pandemic, multiple strikes by screenwriters and actors, and competition from streaming services.
Lucas Shaw, a longtime Hollywood analyst, doesn't believe the new envoys can do much to help the struggling industry.
"He [Trump] sees them as allies and can use them to talk about change in Hollywood, but I don't believe Voight, Stallone and Gibson are going to make streaming more profitable or figure out how to get China to import more Hollywood movies," he said.
Trump's relationship with Hollywood is fraught with tension and controversy.
The entertainment industry is partly responsible for bringing Trump to the forefront thanks to his reality show The Apprentice (The Apprentice), because it reinforced his image as a smart businessman, Shaw told the BBC.
Trump's rise to the White House, however, has brought him into conflict with much of the Hollywood industry.
"Hollywood tends to fund and support Democrats more than Republicans, so it has also served to effectively criticize them," Shaw says.
During his first term, in August 2019, Trump criticized the film industry as "racist" and accused it of creating "very dangerous" films.
His comments stemmed from controversy ahead of the film's release. The Hunt, an action horror about a group of elites who hunt people just for sport and entertainment.
He then said that Hollywood was doing "a huge disservice to the country" by producing content that incites violence and division.
The following year, Trump criticized the American Film Academy's decision to award the Oscar for Best Picture to the South Korean film Parasite.
He wondered how a foreign film could win the American film industry's highest award and suggested that it was undeserved.
Trump's stance on immigration, climate change and social justice has drawn sharp criticism from many celebrities, and he has also faced the wrath of stars such as Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro.
Part of his political program was also aimed at Hollywood; among other things, he pressed to eliminate tax breaks for film production in certain states.
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The decision to appoint special envoys for Hollywood was announced just four days before Trump's inauguration in Washington on January 20.
Los Angeles - the heart of the entertainment industry - is currently struggling to contain deadly fires which destroyed thousands of homes and buildings.
The damage is estimated at around 250 billion dollars.
Due to the large fires, the nomination of films for this year's Oscars has also been postponed.
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