U.S. Franciscan friars go digital, accept prayer requests via text

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The largest group of Franciscan friars in the United States is offering the faithful a new way to pray in the digital age by accepting prayer requests via text messages.

The Friars of Holy Name Province, who staff 40 parishes and have colleges, soup kitchens and food centers along the eastern seaboard, as well as groups in Peru and Tokyo, are among a few religious groups offering this type of digital service.

Its “Text a Prayer Intention to a Franciscan Friar” initiative, which is described as faith at your fingertips, is a novel way for Roman Catholics to connect.

“People are always saying to friars, ‘Can you say a prayer for me?’ Or ‘Can you remember my mother who has cancer?’” Father David Convertino, the New York-based executive director of development for the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name Province, said in an interview.

“I was thinking that a lot of people text everything now, even more than email, so why not have people have the ability to ask us to pray for them … by texting.”

The faithful simply text the word ‘prayer’ to 306-44, free of charge. A welcome message from the friars comes up along with a box to type in the request. When the it is sent, the sender receives a reply.

The intentions are received on a website and will be included collectively in the friars’ prayers twice a day and at Mass.

It is one of several ways the friars hope to reach a younger audience, increase the number of faithful and spread the faith. They have already renovated their website and the next step is moving into Facebook and tweeting.

“If the Pope can tweet, friars can text,” said Father David.

The friars also have a presence on LinkedIn and have been streaming some of their church services.

“We’re trying,” said Father David when asked if the friars are well into the digital age, adding that they were “rushing madly into the 19th century.”

Most of the 325 friars, whose average age is about 60, are comfortable with the technology.

“We have a friar who is 80 who was texting today,” said Father David.

The friars are following the example of 85-year-old Pope Benedict, the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, whom the Vatican said had 2.1 million followers on Twitter just eight days after sending his first tweet.

The Pontiff tweets in several languages, including Arabic, and plans to add Latin and Chinese to them.

“We’re really excited about this working,” said Father David, about the new program. “I think we’ll be able to keep up (with all the intentions). That’s what we do, we pray for people.”

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy)

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“Idol” judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj play nice after feud

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – New “American Idol” judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj shrugged off their widely publicized feud on Tuesday as a “trumped-up thing” that was merely a passionate difference of opinion over the TV talent show‘s contestants.

In their first big media appearance ahead of the hit show’s return to Fox television on January 16, the two pop stars showered each other with praise while barely looking at each other.

A day after the airing of an ABC TV interview in which Carey said she hired extra security following threats reportedly made against her by Minaj last year, the “Hero” singer told reporters it was time to focus on the aspiring “Idol” stars.

“This is a very passionate panel. There are a lot of strong personalities,” said Carey, who is reportedly being paid $ 18 million to be an “American Idol” judge.

“The fighting is what it is. This is ‘American Idol.’ It is bigger than some stupid trumped-up thing. It’s about the next superstar … The whole thing is convoluted. It’s a distraction from the show and the contestants,” Carey said.

Minaj, an outspoken 30-year-old rapper, called Carey one of her “favorite artists of all time.”

“She has really shaped a generation of singers and to be on a panel with her where (contestants) all aspire to be Mariah Carey … I feel excited to see them, see someone they look up to so much,” Minaj said.

Carey, 42, recalled working with Minaj in 2009 on an album track, and knowing at the time that the rapper would be successful.

“Nothing to write about now!” quipped “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest.

REVIVING AGING ‘IDOL’ FORMAT

Carey, Minaj and country singer Keith Urban joined “Idol” as judges in September for the upcoming 12th season after the departures of Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.

Carey, with more than 200 million album sales, and Minaj, one of the most exciting voices in rap, are expected to revive the contest, which last year lost its eight-year crown as the most-watched show on U.S. television to “Saturday Night Football” on rival NBC.

Video of the pair arguing was leaked online from early auditions in last fall, and Minaj was reported to have said, “If I had a gun, I would shoot that bitch.”

“American Idol” executive producer Trish Kinane said the new panel was chosen after fans said they wanted to see judges who were current and talented in their own right.

“They (fans) also wanted honesty, and we very much took that into consideration. They (the judges) are not shrinking violets. They say what they think, and we encourage that,” Kinane said.

“American Idol“, which has produced stars like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, faces growing competition for TV audiences from a slew of rivals like “The Voice,” “The X Factor,” and “America’s Got Talent.” Last year, “Idol” attracted under 20 million viewers, down from the more than 30 million who watched on a regular basis five or six years ago.

But Mike Darnell, reality programming chief for Fox, said the new panel had “re-invigorated the show.”

“Yes, there are too many (talent) shows on the air and they are all taking each other down a bit. But this is still the king of the shows and the only one that makes stars,” Darnell said.

Fox is a unit of News Corp.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Gaps Seen in Therapy for Suicidal Teenagers

Most adolescents who plan or attempt suicide have already received at least some mental health treatment, raising questions about the effectiveness of current approaches to helping troubled youths, according to the largest in-depth analysis to date of suicidal behaviors in American teenagers.

The study, in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in part to a lack of access to treatment.

The findings, based on interviews with a nationwide sample of more than 6,000 teenagers and at least one parent of each, linked suicidal behavior to complex combinations of mood disorders like depression and behavior problems like attention-deficit and eating disorders, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.

The study found that about one in eight teenagers had persistent suicidal thoughts at some point, and that about a third of those who had suicidal thoughts had made an attempt, usually within a year of having the idea.

Previous studies have had similar findings, based on smaller, regional samples. But the new study is the first to suggest, in a large nationwide sample, that access to treatment does not make a big difference.

The study suggests that effective treatment for severely suicidal teenagers must address not just mood disorders, but also behavior problems that can lead to impulsive acts, experts said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,386 people between the ages of 13 and 18 committed suicide in 2010, the latest year for which numbers are available.

“I think one of the take-aways here is that treatment for depression may be necessary but not sufficient to prevent kids from attempting suicide,” said Dr. David Brent, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study. “We simply do not have empirically validated treatments for recurrent suicidal behavior.”

The report said nothing about whether the therapies given were state of the art or carefully done, said Matt Nock, a professor of psychology at Harvard and the lead author, and it is possible that some of the treatments prevented suicide attempts. “But it’s telling us we’ve got a long way to go to do this right,” Dr. Nock said. His co-authors included Ronald C. Kessler of Harvard and researchers from Boston University and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Margaret McConnell, a consultant in Alexandria, Va., said her daughter Alice, who killed herself in 2006 at the age of 17, was getting treatment at the time. “I think there might have been some carelessness in the way the treatment was done,” Ms. McConnell said, “and I was trusting a 17-year-old to manage her own medication. We found out after we lost her that she wasn’t taking it regularly.”

In the study, researchers surveyed 6,483 adolescents from the ages of 13 to 18 and found that 9 percent of male teenagers and 15 percent of female teenagers experienced some stretch of having persistent suicidal thoughts. Among girls, 5 percent made suicide plans and 6 percent made at least one attempt (some were unplanned).

Among boys, 3 percent made plans and 2 percent carried out attempts, which tended to be more lethal than girls’ attempts.

(Suicidal thinking or behavior was virtually unheard-of before age 10.)

Over all, about one-third of teenagers with persistent suicidal thoughts went on to make an attempt to take their own lives.

Almost all of the suicidal adolescents in the study qualified for some psychiatric diagnosis, whether depression, phobias or generalized anxiety disorder. Those with an added behavior problem — attention-deficit disorder, substance abuse, explosive anger — were more likely to act on thoughts of self-harm, the study found.

Doctors have tested a range of therapies to prevent or reduce recurrent suicidal behaviors, with mixed success. Medications can ease depression, but in some cases they can increase suicidal thinking. Talk therapy can contain some behavior problems, but not all.

One approach, called dialectical behavior therapy, has proved effective in reducing hospitalizations and suicide attempts in, among others, people with borderline personality disorder, who are highly prone to self-harm.

But suicidal teenagers who have a mixture of mood and behavior issues are difficult to reach. In one 2011 study, researchers at George Mason University reduced suicide attempts, hospitalizations, drinking and drug use among suicidal adolescent substance abusers. The study found that a combination of intensive treatments — talk therapy for mood problems, family-based therapy for behavior issues and patient-led reduction in drug use — was more effective than regular therapies.

“But that’s just one study, and it’s small,” said Dr. Brent of the University of Pittsburgh. “We can treat components of the overall problem, but that’s about all.”

Ms. McConnell said that her daughter’s depression had seemed mild and that there was no warning that she would take her life. “I think therapy does help a lot of people, if it’s handled right,” she said.

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Dreamliner glitches giving Boeing a black eye

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner could become a public relations nightmare for Chicago-based Boeing Co. and some of its airline customers.

Electrical problems and fuel leaks have plagued the new Boeing plane model recently. On Monday, an empty Japan Airlines 787 in Boston caught fire. On Tuesday, a fuel leak forced a different Japan Airlines 787 to cancel takeoff and return to the gate before ultimately completing its trip to Tokyo.

"We're getting to a tipping point, where they go from needing to rectify problems to doing major damage control to the image of the company and the plane," said Richard Aboulafia, a defense and aerospace analyst with Teal Group, a consulting firm based in Fairfax, Va. "While they delivered a large and unexpected number of 787s last year, it's possible that they should have instead focused on identifying glitches and flaws, rather than pushing ahead with volume production."

The fire, in particular, prompted Chicago-based United Airlines — it's the only North American carrier so far to operate 787s — to inspect its six new Boeing 787 airplanes overnight.

United reportedly found improperly installed wires in one plane's auxiliary power unit, the same system involved in the Japan Airlines electrical fire Monday, said The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed source.

But United would not confirm that finding.

"We continue to work closely with Boeing on the reliability of our 787s," United spokeswoman Mary Ryan said.

The rash of recent incidents, including those this week and inspections for fuel leaks ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration last month, add to the problems of Boeing, which had already endured criticism for delivering 787s to customers more than three years late because of design and production problems.

Investors were not pleased. Boeing's stock price dropped 2 percent Monday and an additional 2.6 percent Tuesday.

Boeing said in a statement it was premature to discuss details of Monday's fire but "nothing that we've seen in this case indicates a relationship to any previous 787 power system events."

Boeing said it is cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board in investigating the fire, which was discovered when Japan Airlines reported smoke coming from the 787 at Boston's Logan International Airport, where passengers had disembarked and the plane was being cleaned. The fire was traced to the battery used to start the auxiliary power unit.

"Before providing more detail, we will give our technical teams the time they need to do a thorough job and ensure we are dealing with facts, not speculation," Boeing said.

Aviation experts say glitches are to be expected early in an aircraft's life cycle, especially one as revolutionary as the 787. The highly anticipated Dreamliner is touted as offering greater passenger comforts and fuel efficiency, largely because of its construction of light composite materials rather than metals.

"These types of issues are not uncommon," said Timothy O'Neil-Dunne, managing partner of aviation and travel consulting firm T2Impact. "The electrical (systems) on a 787 are incredibly complex." He cited early production problems with other aircraft models, including the Airbus A380, "when they basically had to rewire the whole plane."

"I won't want people to rush to conclusions that the aircraft is not safe," he said. "However, the level of complexity and the early production problems suffered by Boeing … reflects on the company's eagerness to ramp up production to a very fast rate."

Aboulafia said there is no indication the plane itself is flawed.

"It's just a question of how quickly they can get all the onboard technologies right, and whether or not the 787 and Boeing brands will be badly damaged," he said.

Reuters contributed.

gkarp@tribune.com

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Doctor stabbed on Mag Mile sues suspect, hotel, restaurant

An Oak Brook doctor who was stabbed in the neck and face during an attempted holdup at a Gold Coast restaurant in November is suing his alleged attacker along with the restaurant and hotel that houses it.

Mir Shah says he was violently attacked and stabbed several times by Jimmy Harris in the bathroom of the Westin’s The Grill on the Alley on Nov. 17, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court. The restaurant’s bartender was also injured when he chased Harris, who cut him with a knife, police said.

The lawsuit claims the hotel and restaurant at 909 N. Michigan Avenue were negligent when they allowed “unauthorized persons to gain access to their hotel, restaurant and restroom facilities” and didn’t perform proper security checks.

Harris, who also goes by the name Jimmie Harris, had been freed from prison eight days prior to the attack. He has at least 60 arrests and nine felony convictions dating to the late 1970s, according to Chicago police, state and court records.

Shah, an oncologist, was out to dinner with his family that night after attending the Lights Festival along the Magnificent Mile. While in the bathroom, Harris approached Shah and announced a robbery before stabbing the doctor in the right side of his neck and face, prosecutors said. Shah is now disfigured and disabled, according to the suit.

Harris, who was ordered held without bond, was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint. A spokesman for The Grill on the Alley declined comment.

jmdelgado@tribune.com
 

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Live blog: Samsung’s new gear at CES 2013

yep thats how apple works now, but can you stream network flash players thru your i pad via apple tv , answer = no , same with google tv. hook the comp directly to the comp get a wireless keayboard and an air mouse , and fyi windows media player can be streamed wirelessly from any pc all you need is a 50 dollar blue ray player , if you want to stream media from a hard drive wirelessly it just has to be one built to the standard like any wd home drive , but dont go usb get one that connects via gigabit

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NBC chief braces for ratings drop after strong fall season

PASADENA, California (Reuters) – NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said he expects the network’s ratings to slip in the coming months after an unexpectedly strong fall season, though he hopes some coming new shows will break out to help stem the decline.

The Comcast-owned network made a surprise comeback in the final months of 2012 after years in the ratings basement. The network’s viewership jumped 24 percent among the 18- to 49-year-old age group that advertisers crave, the only increase among the four major TV broadcast networks.

Critics are skeptical of whether NBC can stay on top of its competitors through the rest of the TV season. The NBC schedule received a boost in the fall from “Sunday Night Football,” singing competition “The Voice,” and new drama “Revolution.” NFL football games are gone from NBC until next fall, and “The Voice” and “Revolution” will not return until March 25.

Greenblatt said he was “totally prepared” for NBC ratings to decline in the coming weeks. “I think it’s inevitable,” Greenblatt told reporters at a meeting of the Television Critics Association.

He said NBC had a “very robust” mid-season plan that includes new shows such as “1600 Penn,” a comedy about a First Family living in the White House; soapy “Deception” about a murder in a wealthy family; and “Do No Harm,” a thriller about a neurosurgeon.

“I’m hoping that out of this new crop of shows we’ll get lucky,” Greenblatt said.

He said he decided to keep “Revolution” off the air until late March, rather than bringing it back in January, so the rest of the show’s first season can run without being interrupted by repeats.

“It’s a little bit more of a cable model,” Greenblatt said. “If you market properly and have the goods, and then you can run them all in a row without repeats, I actually think that’s the better long-term play,” he said.

When “The Voice” returns, it will have new judges Usher and Shakira in place of Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green. NBC also is bringing back Broadway musical drama “Smash” for a second season starting in February.

Greenblatt began his presentation to reporters and TV critics with a litany of ratings numbers from the fall season, many with double-digit percentage gains.

“I’m going to bore you with some statistics,” he said, “because I’m not sure when I’m going to have the chance to do this again.”

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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House drops bills on guns, marijuana, but pension fix alive

SPRINGFIELD — With time running short in the lame-duck session, state lawmakers on Sunday dropped hot-button issues dealing with guns and marijuana but kept alive hopes of reforming pensions and giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

The slimmed-down agenda unfolded rapidly as the House, returning to the Capitol for the first time in a month, pulled an assault weapons ban from consideration and the sponsor of legislation to allow Illinoisans to use marijuana for medical purposes said the chances of quick passage is unlikely.

The spotlight on whether Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and legislators can come together on financial changes to the state’s $96.8 billion government worker pension debt intensified Sunday. House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego signed onto a plan offered by two House Democrats and urged GOP members to support it.

Still, Cross acknowledged that Senate President John Cullerton believes a different measure is the only one that meets a state constitutional prohibition against impairing or diminishing public pensions. Cullerton’s version, previously passed by the Senate, offers state employees a trade of access to state health care in return for a reduction in retirement benefits.

“Nobody has any idea what the court’s going to do,” Cross said. “We all have lawyers. There are a lot of lawyers in Chicago. People have opined on what works and doesn’t work. The reality is, nobody knows.”

Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said the administration, which wants the package passed before a new legislature is seated Wednesday, is “encouraged with the momentum.”

The pension proposal’s fate is uncertain should it pass the House. The Senate went home Thursday but Cullerton left open the possibility of coming back. Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said senators would return to Springfield Tuesday “to review and hear” a significant pension reform bill if one is passed by the House.

“I can’t make any predictions beyond that,” she said.

When the governor and legislative leaders met Saturday, Cullerton said at various points he would lobby against the House plan, Cross said. But Cross also said Cullerton indicated that he would allow for a Senate vote if the pension measure passed the House.

Still, if Cullerton balks at the House pension plan, Springfield could devolve into an all-too-familiar political game: the House passes one version of legislation, the Senate passes another, lawmakers pat themselves on the back and then blame the other chamber for failing to achieve needed reform.

Among the key features of the House plan is a freeze on cost-of-living increases for all workers and retirees for as long as six years, although the length of time was still under discussion Sunday night. Once the cost-of-living bumps resume, they would apply only to the first $25,000 of pensions. The inflation adjustments also would not be awarded until a person hits 67, a major departure among public employees who have been allowed to retire much earlier in some cases and begin reaping the benefits of the annual increases immediately.

Under the proposal, employee contributions to pensions would increase 1 percentage point the first year and 1 percentage point the second year. A lid would be put on the size of the pensionable salary based on a Social Security wage base or their current salary, whichever is higher.

The goal is to put in place a 30-year plan that would fully fund the Illinois pension systems, which are considered the worst-funded in the nation.

Meanwhile, a proposal to allow undocumented immigrants to qualify for Illinois driver’s licenses could get its first House test on Monday. Sponsoring Rep. Eddie Acevedo, D-Chicago, said he would call the Senate-passed bill on the House floor if it advances from committee.

Also Sunday, a House panel defeated a bill to require companies to file public disclosure forms when they pay no state income taxes.

rlong@tribune.com

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Analysts predicting slow start for ‘ultra-HD’ TVs

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ultra high definition TVs are set to be the talk of International CES, the gadget show kicking off this week, but they aren’t likely to account for much of the market even four years down the road.

That is the conclusion of analysts of the show’s host, a day before TV makers such as Samsung, LG and Sony attempt to wow conference attendees with their latest models.

Ultra-HD TVs, with four times as many pixels as HD TVs, are expected to account for only 1.4 million units sold in the U.S. in 2016, or about 5 percent of the entire market. Sales in the rest of the world are expected to be smaller.

The analysts blamed high prices and low availability for the slow start.

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Schwarzenegger is back, and Hollywood hopes he’s still a star

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – As he famously droned on-screen in his signature “Terminator” movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back.

A year after leaving the California governor’s office and becoming tabloid fodder for fathering a boy with his family’s housekeeper and splitting with his wife, Maria Shriver, the 65-year old former bodybuilder will star in no less than three Hollywood movies over the next 12 months.

None are likely to win Schwarzenegger an Oscar. Indeed, the movies, and Schwarzenegger‘s own fee, are low-budget compared with his global blockbusters of yore. But studio executives are betting that overseas fans especially will once again respond to a personality whose 24 films generated worldwide ticket sales of $ 3.9 billion, according to boxoffice.com.

“He is still a worldwide star who resonates with action audiences around the world,” said Rob Friedman, the co-chairman of the Lionsgate motion picture group, which is scheduled to release his next two films. “The Last Stand” will open on January 18, and “The Tomb” in September.

“Ten,” the third film, is scheduled for release in January 2014 by Open Road Films, a joint venture of the AMC and Regal Theater chains.

“When you have left the movie business for seven years, it’s kind of a scary thing to come back because you don’t know if you’re accepted or not,” Schwarzenegger said at a Saturday press event for “The Last Stand.”

“There could be a whole new generation of action stars that come up in the meantime.”

The actor said he was “very pleasantly surprised” by what he called a “great reaction” to his cameo in the 2010 action film “The Expendables,” which featured fellow action stars Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham. The film grossed $ 103.1 million in U.S. ticket sales and $ 274.5 million worldwide.

Since then, Schwarzenegger appeared in a second “Expendables” and says he will join a fifth installment of the “Terminator” if it is made.

Comcast’s Universal Pictures wants to “do a bunch” of new films based on the 30-year-old “Conan The Barbarian” movie, said Schwarzenegger, in which he would reprise his role as a barbarian.

He added that Universal, after 10 years of prodding by Schwarzenegger, also wants to do a sequel to the 1988 comedy “Twins,” in which he and Danny DeVito played mismatched twins, to be called “Triplets.”

Schwarzenegger no longer commands the $ 25 million paychecks he cashed in his heyday and will get between $ 8 and $ 10 million for each of his next three films, according to two people with knowledge of his salary but who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. He also gets a percentage of the profits, according to one of the people.

The new Schwarzenegger calculus banks on his films doing outsized business overseas while operating within budgets that are a fraction of the $ 200 million cost of his last action film, the 2003 “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” The budget for “The Last Stand” is estimated at $ 50 million, according to movie resource site IMDB.com.

“He has significant value outside the United States and Canada, where he is still revered by people who have grown up with him throughout the years,” said Jere Hausfater, chief operating officer of film production company Aldamisa International, which hopes to do a film with Schwarzenegger in the future.

What audiences will see is a aging star who isn’t afraid of showing his drooping muscles and widening paunch, or of making fun of being past his prime. In the “The Last Stand,” a less than rock hard Schwarzenegger plays a retired Los Angeles policeman who becomes the sheriff of a small border town and is then called on to stop a violent drug lord from crossing.

In “Ten” he plays an aging drug agent, and in “The Tomb” an older prison inmate.

“We all go through the same dramas, we look at the mirror and say, what happened? You once had muscles and slowly they are deteriorating,” said Schwarzenegger at “The Last Stand” press event.

“The great thing in the movie is that they we’re not trying to play me as the 35-year-old action hero but the one who is about to retire, and all of a sudden there is this challenge where he really needs to get his act together.”

The one-time muscle man compares his career metamorphosis to that of his friend Clint Eastwood, who transitioned from his Dirty Harry days to a wiser person who’s not afraid to make fun of his slipping abilities in recent films like “Trouble with the Curve.”

“That’s called evolution,” said Sylvester Stallone, who stars with Schwarzenegger as aging inmates in “The Tomb.” “There are no more wooly mammoths. Things change, but the one thing you cannot replace is charisma. Certain people have it, and will have it until the day they die.”

Schwarzenegger‘s infamy in fathering a son outside of his high-profile marriage to Shriver initially seemed to hurt his popular appeal. Within weeks of the disclosure, “The Governator,” a comic book that would feature his likeness, was canceled.

Ultimately, though, moviegoers will be less interested in Schwarzenegger‘s political adventures and personal scandals than in what he puts on the screen, says Peter Sealey, founder of The Sausalito Group and a former Columbia Pictures president of marketing and distribution.

“The movie-going audience really don’t care about things like infidelity, DUIs,” added publicist Howard Bragman, vice-chairman of the firm called Reputation. “They overlook a lot. Ultimately, it remains, how are the movies? Is he credible? Is he going to be a joke?”

(Reporting by Ronald Grover and Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Cynthia Osterman)

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