July 17, 2005: Headlines: COS - Nepal: Writing - Nepal: : New York Times: Review of RPCV Laurence Leamer's "The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger"
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July 17, 2005: Headlines: COS - Nepal: Writing - Nepal: : New York Times: Review of RPCV Laurence Leamer's "The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger"
Review of RPCV Laurence Leamer's "The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger"
''He's an extraordinary father and a remarkable husband and a terrific human being. He has the character to govern. He has the temperament to govern and he is a leader for all of you.''
Review of RPCV Laurence Leamer's "The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger"
'Fantastic': The Governator
By LOU CANNON
Published: July 17, 2005
CELEBRITY culture reigns in California. Ronald Reagan rode from the Hollywood range to the governorship of California en route to his presidential destination. California has been represented in the United States Senate by a former White House press secretary, a song-and-dance man and the son of a heavyweight boxing champion. Politically active Hollywood stars like Warren Beatty and Barbra Streisand are infinitely better known to workaday Californians than noncelebrity elected officials, who, in any case, tend to be regarded with suspicion and contempt. Topping both the celebrity and the political heap at the moment is Arnold Schwarzenegger, self-cast as the last action hero in his role of governor.
[Excerpt]
Leamer's writing perks up, however, when Schwarzenegger starts making movies and dating Maria Shriver, daughter of Sargent and Eunice Shriver.
Eunice was sister to the martyred Jack and Bobby Kennedy, and Leamer, the author of a trilogy about the Kennedys, understands the modes of behavior of a family that didn't want to admit Schwarzenegger to membership. Maria Shriver's upper-class girlfriends were ''struck by how bad Arnold smelled,'' attributing this to a European ''unfamiliarity with deodorants.'' Leamer says this was probably untrue but adds, ''He did give off an odor of danger.'' The girlfriends ''were appalled that their beloved friend should be seeing such a man.''
Shriver ignored them. Leamer writes that she both pursued and waited for Arnold, who gradually also won the crucial approval of Eunice. Nearly a decade after they met, Maria and Arnold were married. They have four children. Leamer examines their relationship with a tasteful mix of candor and kindness. He seems to be undecided about Shriver's role in her husband's political life, quoting sources who claim she is an uninformed busybody and others who see her as Schwarzenegger's best adviser.
It is beyond dispute that Shriver soared to the occasion in the crucial moments of Schwarzenegger's campaign for governor. On Oct. 2, 2003, six days before the election, The Los Angeles Times published a front-page article under the headline ''Women Say Schwarzenegger Groped, Humiliated Them.'' It quoted six women, four anonymously, who claimed Schwarzenegger had ''touched them in a sexual manner without their consent.'' Schwarzenegger's campaign team charged dirty politics, but it was Shriver, until then a minor player in the campaign, who saved the day. Introducing her husband on the campaign trail, she said: ''He's an extraordinary father and a remarkable husband and a terrific human being. He has the character to govern. He has the temperament to govern and he is a leader for all of you.''
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