California Split

I just heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have separated after twenty-five years of marriage. This was indeed astonishing news - more astonishing news than the split of Al and Tipper Gore.

Why? Because Arnold and Maria weren't just another celebrity couple, like, say, Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen. They were the ultimate California power couple! Maria Shriver is the scioness of two powerful Democratic Party families and she made a name for herself in her own right as a broadcast journalist. Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California and was such a rising star in the Republican party - at least until he turned out to be a Rockefeller Republican - that the GOP seriously considered getting the Constitution amended so that the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger could possibly run for President.

Of course, Maria Shriver had reported for the news division of NBC, a network that has since fallen on hard times, and Arnold's popularity did the same in his last year as governor. So even though they're not likely to divorce - they're both Catholic - they've reached the point where they have to live separate lives.

This, my friends, is a power failure. Which, I understand, they have a lot of in California.