Confronted with fresh allegations that he groped women, Arnold Schwarzenegger apologized for having "behaved badly sometimes" and pleaded with voters just days before California's recall election for the chance to show that he has changed.
The admission came on Thursday just as the action hero appeared to be picking up steam as the front-runner to replace Governor Gray Davis in Tuesday's historic election.
It was followed hours later by a report on ABC News that Schwarzenegger told an interviewer during the filming of the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron in 1975 he admired Adolf Hitler.
PHOTO: AFP
Schwarzenegger, with wife Maria Shriver at his side, told a late-night news conference at Los Angeles' Century Plaza Hotel that he didn't recall making the reported Hitler remarks.
"I don't remember any of those comments, because I always despise everything that Hitler stood for," Schwarzenegger said, calling Hitler a "disgusting villain."
Asked about the new allegations of groping against her husband, Shriver referred to his apology earlier in the day in San Diego.
"As I say to my children, it always takes great courage to stand before anybody and apologize and I think that's what Arnold did today," Shriver said.
Schwarzenegger's apology came at a campaign event kicking off the final leg of his campaign. Taking the stage to chants of "Arnold, Arnold," he immediately addressed the issue.
"I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right, which I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I offended people," he said.
From this point on, Schwarzenegger said, he would prove he is a "champion for the women." As he made that pledge, the crowd interrupted him with cheers.
The admission came hours after the Los Angeles Times reported the accusations of six women who accused Schwarzenegger of sexually harassing and groping them over the past three decades.
Three of the women told the Times that Schwarzenegger groped their breasts. One said he tried to take her bathing suit off in a hotel elevator, and another said he put his hand up her skirt and grabbed her buttocks. Still another said he pulled her on his lap and asked if she ever had a particular sex act performed on her.
The Times, quoting two of the women by name and the rest anonymously, said the incidents occurred as far back as 1975 and as recently as 2000.
Julie Vandermost, president of the California Women's Leadership Association, a Republican group that endorsed Schwarzenegger, said she was pleased the actor was truthful, and added that his admission does not mean he is an unworthy candidate for governor.
"I don't expect Schwarzenegger to be groping people in Sacramento," she said.
Schwarzenegger dismissed the Times story as "trash politics" and said much of it was not true.
"But at the same time, I have to tell you that I always say, that wherever there is smoke, there is fire. That is true," he said.
"Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize because that's not what I'm trying to do."
The Times said that none of the actor's political opponents put reporters in touch with the women and that none had come forward on their own. None have brought legal action against Schwarzenegger, the newspaper said.
Schwarzenegger's alleged past indiscretions have been an issue in the campaign since he announced his bid to replace Davis if the governor is recalled. Much of the controversy has surrounded a 1977 interview in Oui magazine in which Schwarzenegger talked about engaging in group sex.
The actor and former world bodybuilding champion has previously said he did not remember that interview and that, in any case, he often exaggerated in those days to promote his sport and his fledgling movie career.
After Premiere magazine raised allegations of boorish behavior toward women in 2001, several colleagues came to Schwarzenegger's defense, including Linda Hamilton, who appeared opposite him in two Terminator movies, and Jamie Lee Curtis, who played his wife in True Lies.
"Arnold is a perfect gentleman and a devoted family man," Curtis said at the time.
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