Governator Gone Wild

[[P O R N]] * It turns out that National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc. (AMI), which was revealed in August to have promised $20,000 in “hush-money” to a woman who’d allegedly had a seven-year affair with married actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, didn’t stop there. The Los Angeles Times now reports that during the Republican celeb’s 2003 gubernatorial recall campaign in California, AMI “tried to suppress a risqué 1983 Playboy video starring the future governor.” That videotape, titled Carnival in Rio, shows Schwarzenegger romping about with topless samba dancers, “grabbing a scantily clad woman and making other sexually suggestive gestures” while touring Brazilian hot spots, according to the Times. The entertainment footage is embarrassing, because during his campaign Schwarzenegger was accused of having engaged in inappropriate “groping” of women in his past.

“We were protecting [Schwarzenegger],” an unnamed former AMI executive tells the newspaper. But Rob Stutzman, the now embattled “Governator’s” communications director, pooh-poohs this latest disclosure. Carnival in Rio “was a video written about during the campaign, and it has been publicly distributed,” he says. “The governor is not aware of any activity from AMI. And above all else, [the video] proves the governor doesn’t dance so well at times.” That last point has certainly been made clear in Schwarzenegger’s booblike attempts to dance clear of the scandals and poor ratings currently threatening to bury his re-election chances in 2006.