Arnold Schwarzenegger was reportedly saved embarrassment in the run-up to his
2003 California Governor campaign when American Media Inc. boss David Pecker
allegedly bought a 1983 Playboy video hosted by the Austrian movie star.
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that it has been made
privy to AMI contracts which show Pecker paid Thomas Wells–the owner of the
Carnival In Rio video–a total of $2,000 to “provide AMI with
information regarding the Arnold Schwarzenegger tape” and to hand over his
copy.
The Californian newspaper says the video features footage of Schwarzenegger
dancing with scantily clad Brazilian women, and in one scene he is seen
grabbing one of the dancer’s buttocks before she quickly removes his hand.
Schwarzenegger allegedly says to the camera, “You know something? After
watching the [dancers] shake it, I can absolutely understand why Brazil is
totally devoted to my favorite body part–the a**.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that, unbeknownst to Pecker, the Playboy video
was already freely available on the Internet before he struck the deal with
Wells in 2003, and that just a few weeks earlier he had agreed a multi-million
dollar contract with Schwarzenegger to become executive editor of his Flex and
Muscle & Fitness magazines.
In 2001 a National Enquirer story, a magazine owned by Pecker, reported that
Schwarzenegger had enjoyed a seven-year affair with Gigi Goyette–and Pecker
is subsequently alleged to have paid her $20,000 to keep silent
during the actor’s election campaign in 2003.
An AMI insider told the Los Angeles Times, “Pecker wanted to protect Arnold.
When we had embarrassing information about Arnold, we were to buy it up off the
market.”
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