In this Sept 8, 2008 file photo, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is greeted by children as he walks to a ceremony to honour several Olympic athletes from California at the Capitol in Sacramento, California. -- PHOTO: AP
LOS ANGELES - THE Terminator always said he'd be back.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is sifting through a stack of corporate, Hollywood and real estate offers as the celebrity politician nears an inevitable career crossroad: On Monday, he's out of a job.
His next act? After seven years as governor in Sacramento, the former body builder and film star will by his own account hit the speech circuit, keep a hand in political activism and possibly write the autobiography that publishers have wanted him to do for years.
The Austrian-born Schwarzenegger says he even might get back into acting if the right script comes along - presumably one appropriate for a 63-year-old father of four with political baggage, advancing age lines and a tinge of grey.
'Will I still have the patience to sit on the set and to do a movie for three months or for six months, all of those things? I don't know,' the Republican governor tweeted in October in a rare exchange about his future plans.
Spokesman Aaron McLear says Mr Schwarzenegger is sorting out 'an absolute flood of every conceivable offer' from the corporate world, real estate ventures and the entertainment industry, but the governor insists he won't make any decisions until after he surrenders the office to his successor, Democrat Jerry Brown.
'I don't have a plan,' Mr Schwarzenegger told hundreds of supporters and staffers at a private farewell party in Sacramento last month. -- AP