Gigi-Gate hits the Press

I wrote about Arnold Schwarzenegger's little "gentlemen's agreement" with American Media, who agreed to pay $20,000 in hush money to a former girlfriend of the would-be Governator's in exchange for a business relationship. Well, that was speculation then; now it's hit the LA Times:

SACRAMENTO — Days after Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped into the race for governor and girded for questions about his past, a tabloid publisher wooing him for a business deal promised to pay a woman $20,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement about an alleged affair with the candidate.

American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, signed a friend of the woman to a similar contract about the alleged relationship for $1,000...

American Media's contracts with Goyette and Mora, both titled "Confidentiality Agreement," are two pages long and never expire; they bind the two women "in perpetuity."

Goyette's agreement states that she is not to disclose "conversations with Schwarzenegger, her interactions with Schwarzenegger or anything else relating in any way to any relationship [she] ever had with Schwarzenegger," except to American Media.

This was the missing link in the scandal about Arnold taking $8M from Flex and Muscle & Fitness Magazine, but it's missing no more. I don't think any politician wants their name and "hush money" in the same article. It's just another setback for the Governor, who's continuing his rappelling down the side of Public Opinion Mountain. Maybe this stuff works in Hollywood, but not in the political arena.

Here's my favorite part of the story:

Goyette did not dispute an account of her relationship in Leamer's biography of Schwarzenegger, published two months ago. Like the National Enquirer, Leamer's book says Goyette and Schwarzenegger had a periodic intimate relationship.

In the book, Leamer says Goyette and Schwarzenegger got together yearly at the Arnold Fitness Weekend in Columbus, Ohio, where she helped with events.

Leamer writes that Goyette described her contact with Schwarzenegger with the term " 'outercourse' because it's like foreplay." The interaction, she told him, was "whatever we wanted it to be."

Goyette's lawyer, Charlotte Hassett, told The Times: "She maintained it was more of a massage situation — however you want to interpret that."

"Outercourse" is another word you don't want in the same paragraph with your name. Then again, I believe this is the first time the word "outercourse" has ever been used.

By the way, who gets bought off for $1,000? Is it really that easy to silence somebody? I would've held out for at least 2 grand.