TMZ’s Harvey Levin reported with a sly smile that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s housekeeper, Mildred Patty Baena, was wearing Maria Shriver’s clothing during their affair. Baena’s size is perhaps four times larger than Shriver’s -- which makes this an impossibility. Maybe he’s talking about Shriver’s accessories rather than her clothing, but still it is taking the focus off predator Schwarzenegger’s abhorrent and crude behavior.
Baena is from Guatemala. Some years ago I lived in Guatemala while shooting a film in Antigua, its major city. The people were the most charming, compliant people I have ever met and largely Indians. You could call them naïve.
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Baena would have been in awe of her master and could have seen succumbing to his wishes as part of her duty. Clearly he was attracted to her enormous breasts and Guatamalan naiveté, seeing a live-in opportunity to turn her into his sex slave, satisfying his need to dominate women.
Who knows if she acquiesced immediately when he made his advances or tried to fight him off? Resistance can, of course, be seen as a turn on for such a man, a sign that she is the submissive, subservient woman he is seeking. He is known for his force and determination. It’s not hard to imagine that a naïve woman in her circumstances eventually became prey for the governor.
How can Harvey Levin with any degree of accuracy state that Baena was “crazy “and wanted to “be” Maria Shriver? If anything, Schwarzenegger had made her crazy with his persistent advances. To blame Baena is just wrong. Neighbors who claim otherwise will say anything to get media attention. A Guatemalan woman by nature would have respect for those in charge of the household, both Maria and Arnold.
She would probably be in awe of Maria Shriver, seeing such respect as her duty. She might well have been torn and conflicted about where her true allegiance belonged. The fact that Arnold’s advances --which could have been deemed rape -- turned into an affair is understandable, given the power structure of the household. Arnold was her master.
Many argue that this is like Thomas Jefferson having an affair with his slave. While Jefferson had six children with one of his slaves, let’s rejoice that Arnold was caught after having only one child. Schwarzenegger is no Thomas Jefferson, an otherwise good politician who fathered illegitimate children with a woman who worked in his household.
Instead, he is a bully who managed to deceive the State of California, while running for office, by arriving in Sacramento on his wife’s petticoats then leaving both the economy and her petticoats in shreds.
We need the media to stand up for women who are wronged by men -- whether Maria or Mildred Baena -- both victims of Arnold’s testosterone-driven, out-of-control sex addiction.
Joy Behar, in an effort to stand up for women, had Gloria Allred on her show, who defended Baena as a victim.
