The news is not really shocking. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put his film career on hold following news that he cheated on his wife Maria Shriver, had a child by another woman and that this occurred during the time when he presented himself to California voters. The movie career was going to be his next stop as a failed governor.
I predict that his renewed movie career will not be as good as he hoped nor as tepid as some predict. Here’s the news:
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who returned to show business when his term ended in January, put his film projects on hold after disclosing that he fathered a child with his housekeeper.
“Governor Schwarzenegger is focusing on personal matters and is not willing to commit to any production schedules or timelines,” his lawyer, Patrick Knapp, said yesterday in an e- mailed statement.
The decision sets back projects including “Cry Macho” and the next “Terminator,” and indicates widening fallout over Schwarzenegger’s separation from his wife, Maria Shriver. The producer of “Cry Macho,” Albert Ruddy, said this week that the picture was scheduled to start filming on Aug. 24.
“We have the perfect star for the role,” Ruddy, the Oscar-winning producer of “The Godfather” and “Million Dollar Baby,” said in a May 17 telephone interview. “We’re making this film.”
Ruddy, reached yesterday, declined to comment.
The problem with Schwarzenegger is that on two fronts now he has revealed himself to be a carnival barker. Forget Donald Trump.
He presented himself to California voters as a new kind of independent thinking Republican and then went through phases were he sounded like a cookie cutter Republican party politician and then switched gears again and sounded more independent. He also convinced voters that he would be a savvy politician who’d know how to negotiate. And that he’d be better than the Democratic Governor he had replaced in the recall.
WRONG.
He also presented himself all the time as a family man with wonderful children (CORRECT) and a beautiful, charming, talented wife (CORRECT: Maria Shriver was a joy to many Californians) and a loyal husband,
WRONG.
His problem in resuming his movie career is that he is no longer a young bodybuilder, he now suffers from overexposure, and his “brand name” is no longer the equivalent of success. Many viewers in the United States will now view him as a politician who didn’t cut it who is in the movies — rather than a movie start returning from having a good time for a few years playing governor.
Most Californians feel he did to our state what he did to his girlfriend.
Multiple times.
In short: Arnold could read the lines — as a politician, as a loyal husband — but the Arnold no longer has his tanktop or pants. Most people now realize that wasn’t the real person playing the role.
Although some experts think his upcoming projects will do well, I have my doubts.
There’s the fact that most Americans are not breathlessly waiting for him to be “baack.” Many Americans — particularly younger ones — have moved on to idolize younger celebrities. And some feel overdosed due to years of “Ahnold” overexposure. Would a new movie starring him be a big event to many Americans in 2011 or 2012? It would have to be packed with special effects and have a great script.
Some Americans — particularly Californians and members of Shriver’s family — don’t want him “baack” and would would prefer he drop out of sight.
Meanwhile, the kind of mainstream and new media press he’s getting does not bode well for someone who wants what Variety calls “big BO” – BO for box office.
–-Anything Hollywood:
It looks like ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER’s second act in Hollywood has screeched to a halt. Amidst the shocking celebrity gossip baby, housekeeper bonanza bombshell, it appears Ah-nold may lose his new acting career along with his marriage.
Arnold Schwarzenegger did not voluntarily tell his wife that he fathered a love child with the housekeeper — instead he confessed only after Maria Shriver confronted the woman, who admitted it.
Maria asked Mildred Baena if her son was fathered by Arnold and the housekeeper broke down and confessed, RadarOnline.com and Star magazine uncovered in a joint investigation.
While Arnold is saying how much he loves Maria and wants her back, I hope she’s finally ready to wash her hands of this ass who cheated on her and lied to her for over 25 years. They have kids together and will have to continue to coparent, but hopefully this will convince her to divorce him and get on with her life.
Yesterday I read an editorial in the NY Daily News that this whole cheating scandal might not hurt Ahnuld’s career. At that point no one knew he would try and put a hold on his career to save his marriage, and it was generally thought that some cheating shouldn’t be a big deal in Hollywood. As some of you have pointed out, Arnold doesn’t endorse any products and now that he’s no longer Governor he’s not being held up as a standard of morality, which seems to be lower for actors anyway. It’s not like he’s racist, abusive, on drugs or has a sex tape out. Still, that doesn’t mean he’s not going to feel the fallout pretty hard, especially if he is operating under the delusion that his wife is going to forgive him. He should have focused on his career and realized that he screwed his marriage away decades ago.
This [putting his film career on hold] is definitely for the best. The last thing he needs is any more publicity.
We also have to commend him for having enough sense to know that this is NOT the time to attempt a comeback in the entertainment industry.
Here’s hoping he puts all of his attention and effort into repairing his broken relationship with his family.
Ugh. This whole thing is all just very, very sad.
There’s no word on how this influences production on “The Governator,” his cartoon and comic book series that fictionalizes Arnold’s post-political life as a crime-fighting superhero. But given his high-profile separation from wife Maria Shriver and this week’s shocking confession, the family-friendly “Governator” doesn’t exactly seem like a likely prospect.
If or when Arnold decides to dive back into Hollywood, many box office experts predict that his highly publicized personal troubles won’t influence his chances as a movie star. But those predictions don’t matter if Arnold himself decides to stay away from the public eye — and given his current situation, perhaps Schwarzenegger won’t be back, at least not any time soon.
Is Schwarzenegger’s acting comeback d.o.a., now that the world knows Schwarzenegger fathered a love child and kept it a secret from (likely-to-soon-be-ex-) wife Maria Shriver?
Of course not.
A little-known fact about Schwarzenegger is that, before coming to the U.S., he studied marketing for two years at the University of Munich. His track record shows him to be an expert at putting this academic training to good use when it comes to his career.
As for the matter at hand, two factors are likely on his mind:
1. Yes, the current scandal will leave a lasting stain on his reputation, and no doubt it raises questions about his integrity. But it his missteps were moral, not legal in nature. Keep in mind this story is playing out at the same time as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, is indicted for rape.
2. He’s planning to revive a career not in politics, but in Hollywood – for better or worse one of the most forgiving places on the planet. Where people are given a second, (or third, or fourth) chance after heavy drug use, being in and out of jail, racist remarks, sex tapes… the list goes on and on. In this context, does anyone think adultery and a love child will stand in the way of a comeback?
While Maria Shriver is no doubt decompressing (and lawyering up) after the shock of husband Arnold Schwarzenegger’s infidelities, close friends of Maria’s tell me the pain goes much deeper than what’s being reported.
“He completely betrayed Maria,” says a Shriver colleague and friend, who shares many common interests with the famous Kennedy daughter. “And I’ll tell you what hurt her the most…”
“Do you realize,” asks the Shriver pal and confidante, “that this means when Arnold was standing by her side through mother’s death—and then her father’s death—he was concealing this [affair and love child] from her, too?”
—CBS:
Mike Fleeman, West Coast editor of People magazine, told CBS News, “A week ago, I would have said it was a near certainty that he was going to be ‘The Terminator’ again. But now, his action hero career is in serious jeopardy.”
Yet others say Schwarzenegger, whose movies have grossed $1.6 billion in the U.S. alone, is too big a draw to stay away for long.
Ted Johnson, deputy editor of Variety magazine, said, “I don’t doubt that Schwarzenegger will try a comeback. This is a very determined figure.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.