Ahnuld thinks Nazi talk was a Sly plot

New York Daily News | May 22, 2005

They're buddies now. But California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suspects Sly Stallone once worked secretly to smear him as a Nazi sympathizer, according to a new book.

Schwarzenegger tells biographer Laurence Leamer that the "Rocky" star was "furious" when he read a 1988 Playboy interview in which his action rival mocked him, saying, "[Sly] is not

my friend....He hired the best publicity agents [but] there's nothing anyone can do...to save his image."

According to Leamer's book "Fantastic," Stallone sought vengeance by telling British reporter Wendy Leigh that his fellow action hero's Austrian father helped round up Jews during the Holocaust and that Arnold remained a "secret admirer of Hitler."

Leigh tells Leamer that Stallone found her a book agent and hooked her up with sources, including Stallone's ex-wife Brigitte Nielsen, who'd had an affair with Arnold. Leigh says that when Stallone got her hands on her scathing Arnold bio, he told her, "Honey, reading this is better than getting four [oral sex acts]."

After Schwarzenegger sued Leigh for libel, she says, Stallone paid her lawyers' fees and a hefty settlement to Arnold.

Stallone's rep told us he had nothing to do with Leigh's book. But Leamer says Schwarzenegger "reluctantly" confirmed that he believed Sly orchestrated the campaign. He admitted, "I felt somewhat responsible" because of his remarks in Playboy, which he insists were off the record.

Leamer reports elsewhere in the "Fantastic" that:

Beaten by his father, Arnold found a childhood mentor in Alfred Gerstl, a Jewish partisan during World War II. Arnold chased off neo-Nazis during a demonstration in his hometown in Austria.

Former Schwarzenegger girlfriend Sue Moray walked out of the house after confronting him about his affair with Maria Shriver. When she turned around and came back, "I found him there, crying...like a baby."

Former actress Gigi Goyette told him that, for a decade, she was Arnold's extramarital "avenue of relaxation." But Goyette says that, out of deference to Shriver, she and Arnold would engage in foreplay that she called "outercourse." (Schwarzenegger's reps have denied an affair.)

The St. Martin's book is out next month.

Book: Al hearts Bill not

Al Gore listened when President Bill Clinton raged in 1998 that the GOP impeachment attempt was a "a f--ing coup d'état." But, according to "The Survivor," a new book about the Clinton years by author John F. Harris , Gore showed little sympathy for his running mate.

"In 1992, I provided the moral energy for Clinton to win," Harris quotes Gore as telling his own campaign adviser in 2000. "This year he's sapping the moral energy of my campaign."

Other White House staffers were willing to cover the President's tracks.

"When Clinton gravitated toward an attractive woman in a crowd, or vice versa, [one aide] would try to angle his way close to make sure he was in the line of sight of any cameras," Harris writes.

Chief of staff Leon Panetta once canceled a presidential meeting with Barbra Streisand lest it feed speculation about a relationship.

As for Monica Lewinsky, White House aide Rahm Emanuel (now a congressman from Illinois) said he once told the President, "You got it backwards. You messed around with a Jewish girl, and now you're paying a goyish lawyer. You should have messed around with a goyish girl and gotten a Jewish lawyer."

2nd Al hearts this Bill even less

Al Franken hates Bill O'Reilly - but really, where would he be without him?

Introducing fellow liberal Molly Ivins the other night at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press gala, the the Air America host recalled how they once were on a "hair-raising" panel with their Fox News antagonist.

"O'Reilly was promoting his book, 'Living With Herpes,'" said Franken, who got a laugh, even though his gag is well-worn by now. "O'Reilly told me, 'Shut up.' ...

"Molly said there was way too much testosterone onstage. I do think that, if it weren't for Molly, O'Reilly probably would have gotten hurt."

Al also inflicted some Franken-sense on embattled New York Times reporter Judith Miller, saying: "Judy, maybe you can find some WMDs in your salad."

Clark's next 'Idol': Ryan

Corey Clark is milking his 15th minute of infamy - this time setting his sights on "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest .

"Since [Seacrest is] talking junk about my song on Jay Leno, I'm going to have to lay into him," Clark tells Steppin' Out Magazine's Chaunce Hayden . "There's a rumor going around that he was doing some things with Simon [Cowell]."

The "Idol" gang laughed off Clark's dig when we caught up with them at the Fox upfronts in New York yesterday.

"We've all slept with Ryan and we can confirm that he's not gay," Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson said in an E-mail.

Three degrees of levity

And now, a little learning from a few of this year's graduation speakers:

Denis Leary told students at his alma mater, Emerson College, "I didn't prepare a bunch of stuff to say to you guys because I know you want to get out of here and get drunk." He did advise them, "These are not the best days of your lives"...

Dick Cheney told Auburn University grads, "I dropped out [of Yale] after a few semesters. Actually, 'dropped out' isn't quite accurate. 'Was asked to leave' would be more like it. Twice. And the second time around, they said, 'Don't come back'"...

Scandal-scarred UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, whose honorary degree was opposed by some students at the University of Pennsylvania, admitted, "I know you are all looking at me and thinking, 'There's no way he's going to be as good as Bono.' "

Surveillance

Matt Dillon, Gina Gershon, John Leguizamo, Taye Diggs, Tim Robbins, Marisa Tomei and other pals will let fly with their best Fisher Stevens stories tonight when the beloved actor and director gets roasted at a 20th anniversary benefit for his Naked Angels theater company at the Puck Building ...

Kathie Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin are due to reunite tonight at benefit for the Dana's Angels' Research Trust, which battles the devastating childhood illness Niemann Pick Type C. The Stamford, Conn., evening features a one-man performance by Richard Dreyfuss. Check www.danasangels.org ...

John Mahoney headed the splendid cast that Lee Grant put together for an Actors Studio reading of Jimmy Breslin 's play "Love Lasts," described as "9/11 as seen from Glendale, Queens."