Reward offered for photo of Schwarzenegger with "girlie man"

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041025/323/f59pb.html

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A toy maker offered a 500-dollar reward to anyone who snaps a picture of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with a doll depicting him as a "sissy" in a pink dress.

The man behind a line of political "bobblehead" dolls, one of which shows the movie star politician as a "girlie man," said he would give the cash to anyone who managed to get a compromising photograph Schwarzenegger while he campaigns for US President George W. Bush in Ohio this weekend.

"The reward will go to "the first Ohio voter who has their picture taken with the real-life Arnold Schwarzenegger -- who presumably won't be wearing a pink dress -- and the lifelike but plastic new 'Governor Girlie Man, Arnold in a Pink Dress' bobblehead," said toymaker John Edgell.

"The reward is doubled if you manage to get Arnold to say the following: 'This bobblehead, is 'fan-tas-tic,' everyone should by one," Edgell added in a statement.

Edgell began producing the bobblehead dolls depicting the brawny "Terminator" action star wearing a pink frock and pumps, after Schwarzenegger sued him to halt sales of an earlier bobblehead made in his image.

Schwarzenegger later dropped the lawsuit over the doll of a gun-toting bobblehead, but the furious Edgell nevertheless hit back with new doll showing the macho star as "the sissy in a pink dress."

The theme of the doll is an oblique reference to Schwarzenegger's swipe at California legislators whom he derided as "girlie men" for failing to back his economic reform programme for his cash-strapped state.

Moderate Republican last week announced he would campaign for conservative Bush in the crucial battleground state of Ohio next weekend following months of skirting the issue.

While the White House has long been angling to get the man who is arguably America's most popular Republican to stump for Bush ahead of the November 2 election, Schwarzenegger was initially loath to commit to campaigning outside of California.