Arnie's orgies boast threatens campaign
28/08/2003 - 17:44:11Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wild past threatened to derail his political ambitions today after a 25-year-old interview in which he boasted of orgies and drug taking came back to haunt him.
The Hollywood tough guy’s comments in the August 1977 issue of Oui, a men’s magazine published by Playboy, risk alienating the millions of conservative Californians he must attract if he is to win the October 7 vote to become the state’s governor.
In the six page interview, unearthed by thesmokinggun.com, he told how he took part in an orgy with other bodybuilders.
He said “everybody jumped on” the woman involved and “took her upstairs where we all got together”.
When asked if he was talking about a “gang bang”, Schwarzenegger answered, “Yes, but not everybody, just the guys who can in front of other guys. Not everybody can do that.
“Having chicks around is the kind of thing that breaks up the intense training. It gives you relief, and then afterward you go back to the serious stuff.”
At the time, 29-year-old Schwarzenegger was appearing in Pumping Iron, a documentary film on the bodybuilding circuit.
He admitted that he took marijuana and hashish, but no hard drugs.
“The point is that I do what I feel like doing. I’m not on a health kick.”
He also said he enjoyed having sex the night before competitions and answered a question about the size of his penis.
Schwarzenegger said after the interview was made public that he expected voters to understand that he was a different man today.
“I never lived my life to be governor of California,” he told Sacramento radio station KFBK.
“Obviously I made some statements that are ludicrous and crazy and outrageous because that’s the way I was. I was always out there.”
But the revelations come as a setback for the star, whose campaign has already been rocked by a surprisingly strong showing by his Democratic rival, California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante.
Polls have shown the lead swinging back and forth between the two candidates in the race to recall California Governor Gray Davis.
This week Schwarzenegger finally began to outline some of his policies, after being criticised for dodging specific questions from interviewers.
Confirming his credentials as a moderate Republican, he said he backed giving gay couples the right to form civil unions but opposed allowing them to marry because “marriage should be between a man and a woman“.
Schwarzenegger said he supported some gun control measures, but added that he believed the US constitution guaranteed individuals the right to bear arms.
He also favoured legalising marijuana for medical purposes and protecting a woman’s right to abortion, but was against granting drivers licences to undocumented immigrants, a major issue in many parts of California.
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