Sex Sells, Sometimes

The Los Angeles Times keeps coming out with stories about then-candidate Schwarzenegger’s questionable relationship with American Media Inc. (AMI). First, it was the Muscle magazine deal. Then it was Gigi Goyette getting paid to keep quiet about what may or may not have been a sexual relationship (and the world learned of the word “outercourse”). Now, Peter Nicholas of the Times is reporting that AMI paid Thomas Wells of Los Angeles $2,000 to share only with AMI the details of a Playboy film featuring Schwarzenegger grabbing one woman and making, what the Times describes as, “other sexually suggestive gestures.” No matter that the video was publicly available—which it sounds like AMI did not realize. Still, the tabloid producer never published a story on the film in the run up to the recall. Sure, there are questions about whether AMI was trying to protect Schwarzenegger, who they had recently inked to an executive editor contract. But I want to know why the public doesn’t seem to care—about the sex. Gigi Goyette was custom made for TV drama but little came of it. What makes Schwarzenegger so immune from the typical “sex sells” public? Check out the Times piece here.