Theo

She said she looked at her boss, who kept repeating, `` `We've got to go now. We've got to go now,' and yanking my arm.''

The secretary said Schwarzenegger released her after about 20 seconds.

Later, the secretary said her flustered supervisor remarked, ``Oh, my gosh! I had no idea he would do that.'' The secretary said she replied: ``Oh, well, no big deal.''

``I was sort of embarrassed in front of her. It just felt strange.''

Now 47, she has recounted the story numerous times. She told the story to a friend, Michael Collins, a freelance writer and director of the Los Angeles Press Club. In an interview with the Times, Collins said she recounted the episode to him eight months ago -- well before the recall race.

1990 incident

In late 1990, Schwarzenegger was in the San Bernardino County town of Fontana, shooting ``Terminator 2: Judgment Day.'' According to a female crew member, Schwarzenegger harassed her on several occasions.

She recalled encountering the actor in an elevator as she headed down to the hotel pool. On each occasion, she said, she was wearing a robe over a black, one-piece swimsuit.

``At least three times -- if not more -- he would end up in the elevator with me, groping me and trying to take my robe off,'' said the crew member, now 41 and still working in the movie industry.

``He would pin me against the corner in the elevator'' and try to take off her robe and pull down the straps of her suit, she said.

The woman said her reaction to Schwarzenegger's overtures evolved with each incident. ``The first time, you're like, `Oh, my God! I was groped by Arnold Schwarzenegger!' The second time you're like, `This is disgusting.' The third time you're like, `Get the . . . away from me.' ''

The crew member said she told her husband about the incidents. ``I heard this story a long time ago,'' her husband confirmed.

Another woman, now a wife and mother in her 30s, said she also fell in Schwarzenegger's ``sight lines'' while ``Terminator 2'' was being filmed.

A member of the movie crew, she said Schwarzenegger was sitting in a director's chair, surrounded by three or four other men, waiting for filming to start.

``I was walking on the set, and Arnold called out, `Come here, you sexy devil,' and reached out and pulled me on to his lap,'' the woman recalled.

She said he then whispered in her ear: ``Have you ever had a man slide his tongue'' in your anus?

``I didn't know how to react,'' she said. ``What he said was so specifically sexual, it was bizarre.

``I remember looking around and seeing this bank of smiling faces and feeling alone,'' she continued. ``It was kind of like everything he did was OK, and isn't it funny and isn't it swell?

``I didn't fall apart,'' she said, but added: ``It's embarrassing and degrading when you're doing a job.''

The woman said she recounted the incident at the time to a family member. In an interview with the Times, the family member confirmed being told about it.

Some of the dozens of people interviewed for this article stressed that the culture on movie sets tends to be rowdy and permissive. Often, the tone is set by the star, they said.

In Schwarzenegger's case, they said, his sense of humor and language is often outrageous -- but not mean-spirited. Many of his colleagues find him to be charming.

``He's fun, extremely intelligent and very professional,'' said stuntwoman Simone Boisseree, who worked with Schwarzenegger on four films. ``I like him as a human being and think he's a decent guy.''

Another stuntwoman, Chere Rae Bryson, came away with a different impression after working with Schwarzenegger on the 1990 movie ``Total Recall.'' She said he often used vulgar words for vagina and clitoris.

``He was crude, boisterous and disparaging around women,'' she said.

Bryson said Schwarzenegger seemed to have toned down his behavior when she worked with him on a second movie, ``Collateral Damage,'' released in 2002.

``People do change as we get older,'' she said.

Bryson said Schwarzenegger was also on his best behavior whenever his wife, Maria Shriver, was present. The couple married in 1986. ``When Maria was around, he was a gentleman,'' she said. ``When she wasn't around, he was the opposite.''