“…and Arnold Schwarzenegger getting beat up by a small lady.” – Bill O’Reilly
THAT WAS the intro to one of Bill O’Reilly’s segments on Monday night. “A small lady” referred to veteran journalist, broadcaster and “60 Minutes” contributor Leslie Stahl. No one should be surprised at the sexist lead-in to a segment on a womanizer, but it’s still jarring.
Stahl interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger for “60 Minutes” on Sunday and grilled him hard. Of course, it doesn’t take physical size to get the best of a womanizing cad like Arnold, it takes knowing what your job is and doing it.
At least O’Reilly gave Stahl her due later when talking with Adam Corolla, saying she “kicked his butt.”
Then he gave Stahl notes, upset she kept coming at him on his immoral betrayal of his wife and family. O’Reilly wanted Stahl to call Schwarzenegger out on his governorship.
Back when I lived in Los Angeles, the stories about Schwarzenegger were everywhere. I used to see him hanging out at Cafe Roma in Beverly Hills with his man pack, smoking cigars, leering as the girls walked by. His womanizing was legendary.
Schwarzenegger has been many things in his multi-faceted life — a onetime possessor of a storied physique, a savvy real estate investor, a popular action hero and, against all odds, the elected governor of California. Precisely because he’s so adept at reinventing himself, I figured he would reemerge chastened, introspective and remorseful. Instead, as he told Stahl, some denial and secrecy have been part of his pattern as he moves through his life. Sunday night, he came across as a man who has simply moved past all the emotional damage he wrought and now wants another incarnation. [Los Angeles Times]
O’Reilly commiserated with Schwarzenegger with Adam Corolla, amazed that this “big macho guy” was taking hit after hit from, as O’Reilly saw it, a small lady like veteran broadcaster Leslie Stahl.
O’Reilly did get one thing right, it was “inexplicable” on Arnold’s part to think he wouldn’t be made a fool.
It also wasn’t worth it, especially for Maria Shriver and her five children.
What O’Reilly really couldn’t stand is that Leslie Stahl went where he wouldn’t have gone. Bill O’Reilly would have given Arnold Schwarzenegger a pass on his serial philandering, as well as the “love child” he had and kept from Maria Shriver for 10 years, as he plans his next big move, hoping the book and the interviews will set him up.
To Bill O’Reilly the infidelity is not the story, especially if it costs a “big macho guy” like Arnold discomfort.
It’s not the media’s fault that the children are being put through this again. It’s the egotism of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has been allowed to walk all over woman after woman throughout his life, always getting a pass.
Watching him squirm last night, as well as seeing the panning of his book, is karmic justice finally landing squarely where it belongs.
” Who has been allowed to walk all over woman after woman, throughout his life, always getting a pass. You mean like Clint Eastwood. By the way; back when Stahl grilled Richard Clarke on his book, ” Against All enemies, ” she treated him as if she were a member of the administration and he was a traitor.
Hey fangio, apples and oranges, buddy! One thing has nothing to do with the other. Ever hear of mutually exclusive situations? One doesn’t wipe out the other.