Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [230]
“Millions of women tune in to you for inspirational and educational programming and you interview a nymphomaniac who’s had unprotected sex with almost 100 guys?”
Unfazed, Oprah may have felt immunized from FCC pressure because of her relationship with the Bush White House, so she continued presenting tabloidy sex shows intermixed with feel-good and do-good shows. A partial list of 2004–2009 shows:
“Is Your Sex Life Normal?” (2/19/04)
“Is Your Child Living a Double Life?” (3/18/04)
“Secret Sex in the Suburbs” (11/19/04)
“Wife Swapping” (12/27/04)
“Venus, Serena and Jada Pinkett Smith on Dating, Sex and Weight” (3/30/05)
“Releasing Your Inner Sexpot” (5/31/05)
“Women Who Use Sex to Find Love” (2/23/06)
“Female Teachers, Young Boys, Secret Sex at School” (4/27/06)
“Why Do Men Go to Strip Clubs, and Other Burning Questions” (1/1/07)
“237 Reasons to Have Sex” (9/25/07)
“How They Revved Up Their Sex Life” (8/27/08)
“Behind Closed Doors: Sex Therapy” (10/2/08)
“Sex Therapy 2: Fears, Fantasies and Faking It” (11/21/08)
“Best Life Week: Relationships, Intimacy and Sex” (1/9/09)
“Sex: Women Reveal What They Really Want” (4/03/09)
“How to Talk to Your Kids About Sex, with Dr. Laura Berman” (4/09/09)
“14 Years Old: They Say They’re Ready for Sex” (4/16/09)
“How to Get Your Sexy Back Makeovers” (6/15/09)
“Former Child Star Mackenzie Phillips’ Startling Revelations” (9/23/09)
“Mackenzie and Chynna Phillips, Jay Leno and Harry Connick Jr.” (9/25/09)
As much as she may have helped George W. Bush get elected president, Oprah did even more for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 race for governor of California. “Both of those candidates had real difficulty on policy issues and had issues with women voters,” said Mark Sawyer, director of UCLA’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. “The ‘are-you-a-nice-guy-to-talk-to’ aspect of [going on] Oprah” made both Bush and Schwarzenegger more approachable candidates.
When Schwarzenegger appeared on the show, he was being investigated by the Los Angeles Times for numerous incidents of sexual harassment over three decades. By the time the newspaper ran its series, there were sixteen women who claimed to have been groped and mauled by him against their will. Most did not come forward voluntarily because they were afraid of reprisals in Hollywood. Some said Schwarzenegger had attacked them in elevators or on movie sets. One said he wrestled her from behind, shoving his hands up her skirt. Another said he grabbed her breasts, threw her up against the wall, and demanded sex. All described his language as lewd and demeaning.
That evening David Letterman joked, “Today the L.A. Times accused Schwarzenegger of groping … women. I’m telling you. This guy is presidential material.”
Schwarzenegger admitted to telling coarse and bawdy jokes in front of women, but he denied all charges of sexual harassment. Still, his sudden decision to enter California’s recall election had exposed his personal behavior to public scrutiny, and so his first interview after announcing his candidacy on The Tonight Show was on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
“Everyone wanted that interview,” Oprah said of her exclusive booking. “But I played the friendship card.” She also bathed Schwarzenegger in the warm glow of her acceptance: “Arnold is a mentor to a lot of men, but the thing that they’re mentoring is the macho, the muscles. But what makes Arnold Arnold is the balance. He knows and practices sensitivity.” She extolled him as a father and lauded the Schwarzeneggers’ four children as a tribute to both parents. Such praise from Oprah enabled him to overcome the resistance of women who remembered the boasts of “Arnold the Barbarian” to Oui magazine in 1977 about his drug exploits, gymnasium gang-bang orgies, and demands