Given the coming election in California and the likely re-election of Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have to revisit a hilarious story from the LA Times (via Worldhum) about how the Governator got help from a tabloid publisher to suppress the release of a 1983 Playboy video starring the then-future governor in which he visits Brazil’s Carnival and engages in some on camera grab-ass (among other lewd and lascivious gestures).
The tabloid publisher, American Media, paid Thomas Wells $2,000 for a copy of the video and crafted an agreement whereby Wells would not discuss the existence of the tape. The tabloid’s interest in Schwarzenegger’s success was due to their ownership of two muscle magazines, Flex and Muscle & Fitness, for which they wanted Arnold to be their public face (and for which they made him executive editor of the two magazines and paid him a percentage of advertising revenue (which, if I remember correctly, was an extraordinary sum).
The best quote by far in the video: “You know something,” Schwarzenegger says “after watching the [dancers] shake it, I can absolutely understand why Brazil is totally devoted to my favorite body part: the ass.” Who said Arnold doesn’t have class?