Arnold Schwarzenegger Has A History Of Alleged Sexual Misconduct, Just Like The Last 'Celebrity Apprentice' Host

Bodybuilder, actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the new host of The New Celebrity Apprentice, a reality show in which a group of celebrities agree, for some reason, to work for a celebrity boss. But Schwarzenegger seems to have a lot in common his Apprentice predecessor, President-elect Donald Trump. Both men were the subject of allegations of sexual misconduct right before an election in which they were a candidate and both, in spite of the accusations, won. The Daily Beast points to a 2003 interview with Esquire in which Schwarzenegger gave a very Trump-ish dissertation on how surprising it is when attractive women turn out to be smart as well.

Schwarzenegger was the original groper, if you will, long before the infamous recording of Trump saying "grab [women] by the p***y" was revealed. The scandal was even referred to as "gropegate." The year was 2003 and Schwarzenegger was running as a Republican in the recall election to replace Governor Gray Davis, who Californians blamed for budget issues and the Western U.S. Energy Crisis.

In early October, several women shared stories in which they claimed the actor had groped them, pulled them into his lap, and/or asked them inappropriate sexual questions. All of the alleged incidents occurred between 1975 and 2000. One accuser was a movie secretary who said that he slipped his hand underneath her skirt and touched her butt while on the Columbia Pictures lot.

"I remember thinking his hand was cold on my butt," she told the Times.

Campaign spokesman Sean Walsh claimed that the Democrats were behind the allegations.

"We believe Democrats and others are using this to try to hurt Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign," Walsh said. "We believe that this is coming so close before the election, something that discourages good, hard-working, decent people from running for office."

Scwarzenegger, however, would comment a short time later, admitting he had occasionally "behaved badly" on film sets, saying he was "rowdy" and had "done things that were not right which I thought was then playful."

"Rowdy" and "playful" sound precisely like the type of boys-will-be-boys excuses that surrounded the recorded comments Trump said to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush in 2005. Schwarzenegger also denied some of the allegations, saying parts of the claims were untrue. He pledged to be a "champion for the women" if he won the election.

After his sort-of apology, three more women came forward. One said that he repeatedly undressed in front of her on the set of Twins, the 1998 film in which Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito played twin brothers who had been separated at birth. Carla Baron, who worked as a stand-in for actress Kelly Preston on the same set, said that Schwarzenegger declared that he wanted to make a "Carla sandwich." She said he then sandwiched her between himself and another co-worker, then shoved his tongue in her mouth. She said his forced kiss was like "an ashtray of human flesh," as the actor had just finished smoke a cigar. Another woman alleged that in the 80s, when she was an intern at CNN, Schwarzenegger grabbed her butt in a stairwell. Other women complained of harassment on the set of Terminator 2.

Still, on October 7, 2003, Governor Gray Davis was recalled and Schwarzenegger became Governor of California, defeating Democrat Cruz Bustamante. He had won 48.6 percent of the vote.

Anna Richardson, a British TV host, also sued Schwarzenegger for allegedly tarnishing her reputation. She said that Scwarzenegger had touched her breast at a press event at the Dorchester Hotel in London in 2000 when he was promoting sci-fi film The Sixth Day. She did not sue him for the alleged grope, but for libel after he and his aides denied her claims. The suit was settled in 2006.

Many of these alleged incidents would have occurred during Schwarzenegger's marriage to journalist Maria Shriver. They wed in 1986 and divorced in 2011. It was later revealed that Schwarzenegger had fathered a child with the couple's housekeeper.

The New Celebrity Apprentice will premiere on Monday, January 2 on NBC, and has also moved production from New York to Los Angeles. The celebrity guests include Jon Lovitz, real housewives Kyle Richards and Posha Williams, musician Boy George, and Motley Crue's Vince Neil, who was recently un-invited from playing at Trump's Presidential Inauguration.

Schwarzenegger says he intends to make the show his own versus copying the behavior of Trump. He also did not endorse Trump in the election, preferring John Kasich.

"A lot of things will stay the same, but I have my own personality—I’m not Donald Trump. He approached it his way, which was very, very effective. This one is a continuation of that, but it will be my personality and sense of humor," he told Parade. Let's hope his sense of humor isn't too "rowdy."