Credit Where Credit Is Due

You know, as little as I think of Schwarzenegger’s governing potential, I’ll give him credit for bucking the political tradition of deny, deny, deny. His apology caught even his own team off-guard. Now I certainly don’t condone his behavior, but actually saying you’re sorry is almost unheard of in the political arena. You sure as hell don’t see little George doing it with regard to this whole Iraq war, do you?

That said, I’m surprised the story in the Los Angeles Times is coming as such a shock. Hell, I remember during the production of Terminator 2, Arnold himself told a story of walking up to bent-over costar Linda Hamilton and grabbing her rear end — only to discover that it wasn’t Linda, but her twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren, who was on set to serve as Hamilton’s photographic double. They all had a big laugh, naturally, as if somehow it all would have been perfectly acceptable if it had been Hamilton. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that Gearren was one of the four unnamed women in the Times story.

Now, on one hand I don’t want to minimize the issue, but on the other I don’t want to overreact; I do understand that things can be a little more relaxed on a movie set than in the average office workplace. Is Arnold a womanizer? Yeah, probably, but I’m willing to cut him a little slack in that regard, particularly since he’s at least willing to own up to it.