Arnie Muscles in on £5m Contract

California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is receiving at least $1m a year as a consultant for a bodybuilding magazine.

The former film star and Mr Universe signed a contract with a publisher of health and bodybuilding magazines two days before being sworn in as governor in November 2003.

As governor, he has vetoed new regulations on the health supplement industry.

Under the magazine agreement, in which Mr Schwarzenegger is referred to as "Mr S", he receives an annual income of 1% of the advertising income for two magazines, or $1m. Advertisements for health supplements make up 70% of the magazines' advertising.

"In no event will payment be less than $1m a year," the contract stipulates. In return Mr Schwarzenegger will "further the business interests" of the publisher by "performing services suggested by Mr S" and "being responsive to the reasonable requests" of the publisher. Mr Schwarzenegger also writes a monthly column for one of the magazines, Muscle & Fitness.

Although an arrangement with the publisher, Weider Magazines had previously been made public, the amount involved had not. Mr Schwarzenegger, who takes a nominal salary of $1 as governor, is scheduled to receive $2.15m a year from Weider in 2006-08, and $1.7m in 2009, a total of $8.15m (£5m) for four years of the five-year contract.

American Media Inc, the parent company of Weider, also publishes the leading supermarket tabloids in the US, including the National Enquirer, the Globe and the Star. These magazines often ran salacious stories about Mr Schwarzenegger's alleged womanising and other aspects of his personal life, but they stopped shortly before he declared he would run for governor. He signed the contract a few months later.