Hollywood Hears 'Crickets' From Trump's 'Special Ambassadors:' Report

LOS ANGELES, CA — Four months after President Donald Trump announced a trio of conservative actors would be his "special ambassadors" to the entertainment industry, many in Hollywood say they haven't heard much from Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone or Mel Gibson, according to a report.

Trump made the announcement days before his inauguration on his Truth Social platform, writing that Hollywood was a "great but very troubled place."

"These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest," Trump wrote. Trump said he's help boost domestic production in the face of foreign competition and usher in a new "Golden Age of Hollywood."

But months later, several industry leaders say they haven't heard much from Trump or the ambassadors — neither about efforts to boost the struggling industry nor about what exactly the three actors will do.

“We have reached out to all three and never heard back,” Pamala Buzick Kim, co-founder of Stay in LA, a grassroots campaign aimed at spurring local film and TV production, told the Los Angeles Times.

The California Film Commission executive director, however, has had a "productive" conversation with Voight, but a spokesperson declined to offer details to the Times.

In Los Angeles, the entertainment industry has struggled to rebound from the pandemic and labor strikes and faces ongoing competition from locales with more favorable tax incentives and other economic conditions, like Georgia, New Mexico and Canada.

On-location production dropped over 20% in the LA area compared to the same period last year, according to a recent report released by FilmLA, which oversees much of the region's film permitting.

A proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom to increase tax incentives for production has yet to pass the Legislature.

While Gibson may not be making much noise as film-industry ambassador, he has positioned himself as yet another effort to recall Newsom.

At a February news conference announcing the effort, he said the governor has "brought us nothing but crime, acute homelessness, horrendous inflation — I mean this industry that I work in, the film industry this used to be the mecca of filmdom. It is no more."

Shortly after that, a U.S. Justice Department lawyer claimed she was wrongly fired for refusing to cave to pressure to restore Gibson's gun permit despite his domestic violence conviction.

See Also:

• Trump Justice Department To Investigate LA Sheriff's Department, UCLA
• Prosecutor Says She Was Fired For Refusing To Restore Mel Gibson's Gun Rights: Report
• Prosecutor Fired After Refusing Mel Gibson's Gun Request Testifies: Report