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ALL ARNOLD ALL THE TIME

Los Angeles Times devotes full-page feature to Schwarzenegger and cigars

Los Angeles, September 20 – If there was any doubt that California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger dominates the cultural and political scene in this state, the Los Angeles Times put that notion to bed on Sunday.

On the front page of its massive Calendar section and just below a feature on D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film “Birth of a Nation,” Steven Barrie-Anthony writes a story which jumps to an entire page of coverage, with pictures, of Schwarzenegger, his fondness for cigars and those who hate him for it.

Writing for the dependably liberal Times, Barrie-Anthony devotes the entire introduction of the story “in the state that prides itself as having the strictest smoking policies in the country” to comments from staunchly anti-tobacco State Assemblyman Juan Vargas. The fourth paragraph starts “I hate tobacco,” Vargas says. “I think it’ a terrible thing.”

Of the 51 paragraphs in the story, 13 are littered with anti-tobacco comments, even pitting the governor’s habits against those of staff aides who smoke cigarettes outside State buildings. Even the caption to the story’s pictures emphasizes the criticisms. When not criticizing cigars and tobacco, Barrie-Anthony’s story also includes a few interesting items:

• Thanks to California’s law against smoking inside buildings, Schwarzenegger has – at his own cost – erected a tent in the Capitol courtyard in which he holds meetings and smokes cigars at his pleasure. The tent is furnished with a glass table and six chairs and a side table which holds what is undoubtedly a Daniel Marshall humidor.

• Schwarzenegger has cigars made for him by Marshall, but not specially banded. Instead, regular D. Marshalls are wrapped in cellophane gold-stamped with “Arnold Schwarzenegger” on them.

• The story claims that either Sargent Shriver (his father-in-law) or film director John Milius introduced Schwarzenegger to cigars and that the tent may be a continuation of Milius’s fondness for a similar-style tent on locations when filming. Milius directed Schwarzenegger in “Conan the Barbarian” in 1982 and had Montecristo (Havana) No. 4s available on the set for anyone who wanted one (or more).

As usual, the best comment comes from a 17-year-old Boy Scout visiting the Capitol as part of a field trip. The story quotes Chris Thompson: “[Schwarzenegger] brought himself up from nothing. From Austria, to a movie star, then to governor. I have asthma, I should hate smoking, but I think he should have the freedom to smoke.”

Amen.

More cigar sightings:
Before the Europeans began lighting up mid-round cigars after taking out any suspense from the Ryder Cup matches this past weekend, celebs in the Ryder Cup Champions Invitational pre-tournament event had a good time as well. Part of it was with cigars, which resulted in some hilarious coverage in the Detroit News:

• Referring to former NFL cornerback and actor Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, columnist Neal Rubin wrote “‘You can never count The Hammer out,’ said Williamson, who has adopted the curious speech pattern in which athletes refer to themselves in the third person. ‘The fire is still alive.’

“It may have come from his cigar, a Trinidad that was glowing not long after breakfast time. If you keep close track of Fred ‘The Hammer’ Williamson’s activities, you’ll want to know that he usually smokes an Arturo Fuente, but somebody gave him this one and it worked just fine.”

Later in the story, Rubin wrote that “Williamson credits himself with starting the cigar-smoking movement by puffing them in his 1973 movie ‘Black Caesar.”

• “Intrepid Detroit News staffers Mekeisha Madden and Adam Graham, part of a fair-sized media contingent at the event, were unable to confirm [Boston Celtics Hall of Famer John] Havlicek’s cigar preference, but we now know that Dick Butkus likes his unlit.”

• “Returning to the cigar theme, all-universe linebacker [Lawrence] Taylor was smoking one the size of a loaf of Wonder Bread.”

Attention Rob Reiner:
Promotional spots for tonight’s season premiere of the CBS sitcom “Two and A Half Men” feature guest stars Sean Penn and Elvis Costello, with Costello enjoying a Toro-sized cigar as a part of the show. I might have to watch . . .
~ Rich Perelman

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