Arnold’s staffer, Mildred Patricia Baena, has published pictures of herself and her son by Arnold (yeah, the kid’s his) on Myspace, and it really has to make a guy wonder what the hell the movie star was thinking. The only thing I can think of that might explain it is that Mildred Baena provided some emotional support that Maria Shriver, as an American woman trained to maintain an adversarial relationship with men, was incapable of providing.
This has echoes of the scandal concerning SC gov. Mark Sanford, who fell in love with an Argentine woman (who was much, much hotter than Mildred), and wrecked his family. Perhaps there is actually something to be said for the emotional basis for affairs, even where men are concerned, because I certainly can’t think of any other explanation in this case. Foreign women generally provide a much higher level of emotional support than American women, and I can see how a powerful man could come to rely on that.
This will be humiliating for Arnold and Maria both. Human frailty is magnified by power, and here we are watching a high profile train wreck.
