Is this fake news?
The Daily Mail is reporting that Donald Trump has picked movie star Sylvester Stallone for a government post. The most likely position is head of the National Endowment for the Arts. Predictably, the arts community is hyperventilating.
On the one hand, I can sympathize with their distress. The thought of Rocky and Rambo deciding who gets funding to make art leaves me dumbfounded. But then, the NEA’s choices already leave me dumbfounded. This is the outfit that funded Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorp (old news, now, dating back to the 80s and 90s). Most recently, the NEA has been accused of directing artists to produce works that promoted President Obama’s domestic agenda.
So taken on balance, maybe Rambo would be an improvement. At an rate, it should deflate some of the self-importance of those who consider themselves artistic gatekeepers.
