Aug 12 Saved No More Posted by Chris Nolan

A few weeks ago, when the details about Arnold Schwarzenegger and American Media got their biggest play, Gov. Terminator caught a break. It was the same week that New York Times reporter Judy Miller went to jail and the East Coast political media, never quick on its feet in July anyway, took only cursory notice.

But there's nothing going on right now. And today's story in the LATimes about the tabloid that paid Schwarzenegger to 'edit' its magazines also paid a woman for a story it never ran stinks well past high heaven.

This, of course, is always what the American Media deal has been about. The idea that Schwarzenegger - a man with a well-known distaste for reading anything too long, a guy who prefers to be talked to - "edits" is laughable. He was being paid by the magazine to be Schwarzenegger the body-builder. The actor -- not the poltician -- attracted advertisers and sponsors to the magazine and its various spin-offs and, to judge by the millions American Media was willing to cough up, it was worth it.

With that kind of money floating around, another $21,000 isn't a huge deal. That's probably a back page full-color ad and while wooing the movie star, now govenor, American Media was probably happy to pay it. For an actor, that's pin money. For a politician, that's real cash.

So the governor is in real trouble. And this story has a lot of the things that make for a good summer scandal: Sex, politics, money and movie stars. Last month, Schwazenegger's butt got saved by Karl Rove et al. This month it might be the other way 'round.