Box-Office Brawn

Body builder to megastar: Arnold Schwarzenegger has a huge following everywhere and the world on a string. It could only happen in the movies.

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Unlike some golden tycoons, Schwarzenegger sees his family as equally important. And in his marriage to Shriver he recognizes the collision of "coming from different worlds. It is not easy, this process of trying to understand and appreciate each other. It takes love and patience. But that was no problem with us. Because I loved her all along, and I said to myself right away that she was the woman I would end up marrying. My friend Charles Gaines asked me in 1972 to describe the ideal woman -- and down to the teeth it was Maria. She knew also that she would end up with me." His wife is a valued adviser in his film career. "I take under consideration very seriously what she thinks," he says, "because I get a point of view not only from a smart person but from a woman. Maria has very good instincts. She reads fast, she analyzes and -- boom! -- she has the notes. Like an agent."

A Hollywood story is told about Mother Teresa: when asked what new worlds she wished to conquer after winning the Nobel Prize, the saintly nun replied, "Well, I would like to direct." For Schwarzenegger, this is no joke. "After I directed that little Tales from the Crypt, I felt ecstatic. It was something I never expected. To work with actors and mold a scene. It's ; wild." His plans are, as always, both bold and judicious: to direct a feature-length TV movie, then a theatrical film. After completing filming of Cameron's Terminator II, in which the killer cyborg finds romance (and a new victim), he hopes to take a breather.

Deep breaths, of course, and a clear vision. Perhaps even a glance back at the fairy-tale action film of his life. No one would have given odds on a poor boy from Thal growing up to become, well, Arnold Schwarzenegger. At the climax of Predator, Arnold finally comes up against the humongous alien -- and it is one ugly malefactor. He asks, "What the hell are you?" And the creature, who has never spoken before, looks at Arnold and mutters, "What the hell are you?" The monster obviously hadn't been to the movies lately. He was staring at the most unlikely and inevitable star of Hollywood's global era.

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