I’ll be back: Schwarzenegger launches PR blitz
ON VALENTINES DAY Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Mr Universe, Terminator and governor of California, looked forlorn as he silently tucked into his lunch with a man who appeared to be his security guard as his sole company.
Sitting at a nearby table in a restaurant in Santa Monica, California, The Sunday Telegraph heard none of Schwarzenegger’s usual belly laughs or Teutonic exclamations as he contemplated life as a 60-something singleton.
His wife, Maria Shriver, had filed for divorce the previous May after discovering he had fathered a child with their housekeeper.
And he was no longer managing a state with the eighth largest economy in the world, having left office with an approval rating a little over 20 per cent, his chances of being elected to the United States Senate in tatters.
In truth, as he pondered his meal, Schwarzenegger looked very glum indeed. It seemed that the final, shameful chapter in an extraordinary public life had been written and a sad end had befallen the retired muscleman who, for many, had been the living embodiment of the American dream.
Fast forward seven months, and the public is about to see a very different Arnold Schwarzenegger as he begins a concerted public relations fightback aimed at securing his political and cinematic legacy. He is determined not to be remembered merely as philandering fodder for late-night comedians.
In crisis communications terms, this is what is called a ‘‘pivot’’ moment for Schwarzenegger. Having suffered disgrace, apologised, and spent an acceptable period in the celebrity wilderness, it is time for the fightback and he is coming back with all guns blazing.
At the forefront of his PR blitz will be a new autobiography, which he intends to be a kind of literary Uzi 9mm. Much hyped and much anticipated, the upcoming launch of Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story will be accompanied by a high-profile television interview.
The word in publishing circles is that Schwarzenegger will pull no punches. For the first time he will offer his side of the story over how he fathered an illegitimate son with his Guatemalan-born housekeeper Mildred Baena.
Even by the standards of American politicians the scandal was explosive.
Whispers had circulated for years that the boy, Joseph, was Schwarzenegger’s son, but the truth only became apparent to Shriver as he grew up to look like his father. Shriver had been pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, Christopher, at the same time as Baena was pregnant. Schwarzenegger’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, has said the book will be ‘‘candid’’ and that he ‘‘spares nothing in sharing his amazing story’’.
In a slick, Hollywood-style trailer, he declares: ‘‘If my life was a movie no-one would believe it, the directions I’ve chosen, the careers I have conquered. This story you know. So are you ready for the story you don’t?’’
The question now for Schwarzenegger is whether there will be a personal cost, as he tells all and tries to regain public sympathy. Among those not sure if they are ready may be Shriver herself.
According to Laurence Leamer, who wrote the 2005 biography Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Shriver had no idea about the book’s contents a few weeks ago. In an article for Newsweek, Leamer also disclosed that Shriver had asked her cheating husband to go to therapy with her to save the marriage, but that he only went once.
The relationships in the Schwarzenegger clan appear complicated. He and Shriver still attend the same church in Santa Monica on Sundays. And earlier this year they were seen shopping together for furniture as she prepared to move into a new US$12 million (NZ$14.5m) home. The divorce has yet to be finalised but both parties have successfully, and unusually in Hollywood, avoided leaks and public mud-slinging.
Soon after their separation, however, the couple’s elder son Patrick, 19, who is forging a career as a clothing company owner, model and actor, changed his name to Shriver on his Twitter account.
Their elder daughter Katherine, 22, already the author of a self-help book, recently graduated from the University of California with a communications degree and is following in the footsteps of her journalist mother.
Schwarzenegger’s overriding concern throughout the family crisis is said to have been his children, who are the ‘‘light and centre’’ of his life. But he appears to have accepted that there will be no reconciliation with his wife of 25 years. According to Newsweek, at one point he told a friend: ‘‘I think things will work out OK with Maria, but if they don’t, I’m getting me a 20-year-old honey.’’
In July, gossip websites reported that he had been seen with a ‘‘25-ish-year-old brunette’’ at a West Hollywood restaurant. The swagger of one of the world’s richest movie stars would appear to be back.
He still has his office not far from Muscle Beach where his would-be bodybuilding successors strut and preen.
Close by is a tobacco shop where he still buys the cigars he smoked when he was the ‘‘Governator’’. From here he is co-ordinating the operation to save his long-term reputation.
His book has been co-written with Peter Petre, a former executive editor of Fortune magazine who also co-wrote autobiographies of Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, and General Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded coalition forces in the Gulf War. Undoubtedly, Schwarzenegger hopes Petre’s pedigree will help the book to be considered a serious historical tome.
This week he also launched another prong of his comeback with the opening of the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, a think tank at the University of Southern California. Its US$20 million funding will come partly from money Schwarzenegger raised and partly from his own pocket. He will have the academic title of Downey Professor of State and Global Policy.
The opening was attended by heavyweight politicians including the former Republican presidential candidate John McCain and the former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, along with Hollywood power players James Cameron, the film director, and Ron Meyer, president of Universal Studios.
The third prong sees Schwarzenegger return to the silver screen and in this he has been helped by his friend Sylvester Stallone. The pair appeared together in the action blockbuster The Expendables 2 last month and next year they will play prison cellmates in The Tomb.
Schwarzengger will also be seen in his first leading role for a decade, playing a sheriff in The Last Stand.
Chris Lehane, a crisis communications expert and former White House adviser to Bill Clinton, said Schwarzenegger’s comeback strategy could work.
‘‘He handled it the right way from the start,’’ Lehane said. ‘‘He took full res- ponsibility and apologised, and avoided digging a deeper hole in what was already a very deep hole.
‘‘That’s given him the option to orchestrate a long-term comeback. Part of that comeback is having some time between events. You can’t just apologise and turn the page the next day.
‘‘Now he can do a movie, he was a leader on public policy issues such as climate change, and he has a book. All of these are part of a three-point pivot that allows him to focus on the future and rebuild his image.
‘‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint. What happened is always going to be part of his storyline. But there is a reason people paid money to see him on screen, because he’s very likeable. His comeback is part of the storyline.’’