Days after Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped into the race for governor and girded for questions about his past, a tabloid publisher who was...
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Days after Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped into the race for governor and girded for questions about his past, a tabloid publisher who was wooing him for a business deal promised to pay a woman $20,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement about an alleged affair.
The company, American Media (AMI), which publishes the National Enquirer, signed a friend of the woman to a similar contract about the alleged relationship for $1,000.
AMI’s contract with Gigi Goyette of Malibu is dated Aug. 8, 2003 — two days after Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy.
Under the agreement, Goyette must disclose to no one but American Media any information about her “interactions” with Schwarzenegger. AMI never solicited further information from Goyette or her friend, Judy Mora, also of Malibu, both women said.
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The Enquirer two years earlier had published a story describing an alleged seven-year sexual relationship between Goyette and Schwarzenegger during his marriage to Maria Shriver.
On Aug. 14, 2003, as candidate Schwarzenegger was negotiating a consulting deal with AMI, the company signed its contract with Mora, who said she received $1,000 in cash. Goyette declined to say whether she received the $20,000 promised in her contract.
Rob Stutzman, the governor’s communications director, said he believed Schwarzenegger did not know of AMI’s deals with the women. He said Schwarzenegger was not available for comment and denied any link between AMI’s deal with Schwarzenegger and its agreements with the two women.
“There is no connection with his business with AMI or AMI’s business of purchasing the rights to stories,” Stutzman said. “That’s what they do. Obviously, part of their business is the tabloid business.”
The women might have been in a position to embarrass Schwarzenegger. When he announced his candidacy on the “Tonight Show,” he speculated that he might face accusations of infidelity.
But AMI was effectively protecting his political interests, said a person who worked at the company when the contracts were signed.
At the same time, AMI was crafting a deal to make Schwarzenegger executive editor of Flex and Muscle & Fitness magazines..
“AMI systematically bought the silence” of the women, said the person, who has a confidentiality agreement with the company and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Schwarzenegger biographer Laurence Leamer wrote in his book, “Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger,” that Schwarzenegger understood the tabloids would not skewer him if he was entering a business relationship with the company — although he told Leamer that he did not specifically seek such assurances.
During the recall campaign, AMI put out a 120-page magazine celebrating Schwarzenegger as an embodiment of the “American dream.”
The Enquirer did run a story repeating allegations in the British media that Schwarzenegger had an extramarital affair, published first on its Web site before the election, and then in the newspaper three weeks after his election victory. But it was not displayed prominently, running on page 24.
AMI, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment, signed a contract with Schwarzenegger, which he dropped last month after the arrangement was made public.