Annette Bening: Help Us Arnold

Annette Bening, the Oscar-nominated actress and wife of actor Warren Beatty, inadvertently provided a bit of comic relief during the 2005 special election when the couple tried to crash a rally with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Staffer Darrel Ng stopped them like a doorman from hell and asked Bening to spell her name.

Now the transmogrified governor has won over the couple, at least a bit. Beatty joked at the recent Golden Globes: "I asked Arnold to become a Democrat, and he did what I said."

And Bening says she has been encouraged by the bipartisan approach Schwarzenegger adopted last year," the AP reports, as she seeks more funding for the California Arts Council. (Bening was appointed to the 11-member board by her friend, former Senate leader John Burton.) At an Arts Council conference in Sacramento, Bening noted Schwarzenegger is taking on the environment and health care, and then pleaded her cause: "We are the folks in the corner who are quietly raising our hand, suggesting that we also need some attention and we also need some funding."

(Photo: Rich Pedroncelli / AP)