`T3' DVD MAY RUFFLE SOME ARNOLD COMMENTS ON NUDITY IN LONG-TAPED INTRODUCTION.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

In just six days, he officially becomes the Governator.

But today, California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger will have what is likely to be his last hurrah as a movie star with the home video release of his summer box office hit ``Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.''

As he prepares for his inauguration and makes political appointments, Schwarzenegger has not participated in publicity efforts leading up to the release of the DVD, which features the actor-turned-politician in his signature role, but his profile has never been higher.

``He is kind of distancing himself and making it clear that he is focusing on his new job,'' said Scott Hettrick, editor-in-chief of Video Business, an industry trade publication. ``He has a personal introduction on the DVD that was recorded prior to the election.''

Warner Home Video, which is releasing the title, declined to comment on the marketing campaign for the DVD but made clear that the release date had been set well before Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy.

Several political experts said Monday that, with the coincidental closeness of the DVD release to the inauguration, they believe the governor-elect would have preferred different timing.

Schwarzenegger's political staff declined to comment, referring questions to his film publicist, who did not return calls Monday.

``The timing is probably not great,'' said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for Study of Politics and the Media at California State University, Sacramento. ``I'd bet that they would prefer that (the DVD) had come out long before this time.''

What could raise eyebrows is the DVD's commentary track in which Schwarzenegger discusses, among other things, his and his villainess female's nudity in the film.

Schwarzenegger states that he liked the idea of having a female cyborg ``so we just don't have to see my naked body arrive back from the future. Let's have a sexy girl for a change arrive from the future to the present with a sexy body and just a knockout-10 figure and great physical appearance and a beautiful face.''

Said Hettrick: ``There's also a couple of comments about when the female terminator wills her chest to get enlarged. Arnold makes a comment on the disc saying some men like bigger breasts. It's nothing too offensive, but those and other comments of that ilk just aren't very gubernatorial.''

In the days leading up to the Oct. 7 election, claims that Schwarzenegger womanized over the years dominated the news and resulted in his apologizing for some of his behavior.

Since voters overwhelmingly chose to oust Gov. Gray Davis and replace him with Schwarzenegger, despite the controversy, political pundits don't believe Schwarzenegger's comment on the DVD track will cause much of a ripple.

``I would assume that he would not say that as the governor-elect,'' O'Connor said. ``But I do think that people care and that this is an ongoing concern. They assume movie people are different, and this release will only further push that stereotype.''

But to Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a public policy professor at the University of Southern California, his comments should not be problematic to him politically.

``The reality of the situation is that the exit polls told us that the allegations had very little impact on the voters,'' she said.

Political strategist Arnold Steinberg described the DVD track as ``fairly mundane,'' and he said that Schwarzenegger is in the unprecedented situation of making a splash at the statehouse and at the video store within a one-week period.

``When Ronald Reagan became governor, he didn't have any recent movies,'' Steinberg said. ``He was pretty much out of a movie career, and, let's be honest, in the old days they didn't have DVDs.''

Online retailer Amazon.com describes ``Terminator 3'' as Schwarzenegger's ``last starring role (before politics, that is''). Advance orders have been strong for the movie, climbing as high as fifth on the best-sellers chart, ahead of ``The Matrix Reloaded.''

``The movie was huge in theaters and will be huge on video, regardless of him being governor,'' Hettrick said.

``Terminator 3,'' which grossed $143.7 million at the domestic box office, was Schwarzenegger's most successful star vehicle since 1994's ``True Lies.'' Still, the third Terminator film, despite an impressive $44 million opening, failed to match the grosses of ``Terminator 2: Judgment Day,'' which was released 12 years earlier.

Today is also the release date of the 25th anniversary edition of ``Pumping Iron,'' a documentary about Schwarzenegger's career as a champion bodybuilder.

```Pumping Iron' and old catalog titles being released are clearly trying to capitalize on the Schwarzenegger political situation,'' Hettrick said. ``Clearly that's a marketing strategy which will be successful. Those old films will now get extra attention not only from people from California, but anybody in the U.S., because his becoming governor is really a national story.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger may be ready to bury his movie star role for a while, but today's DVD release of ``Terminator 3'' is already a hit.