Big Picture

Michele Williams: Paris Pretty Plus, Victoria Beckham struts and Courteney Cox steals a smooch. Get the latest pics!

MORE PHOTOS +

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

Fashion Police

Leighton's Valentine's Look Plus, Ashlee Simpson and Cate Blanchett. Rate the highs and lows!

MORE PHOTOS +

Top Galleries

MORE PHOTOS +

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

Schwarzenegger Good to Govern After Surgery

Tue., Dec. 26, 2006 6:16 PM PST by Natalie Finn

Contrary to what his movies would have us believe, Arnold Schwarzenegger is human.

The actor turned California governator is recovering nicely, however, after undergoing surgery Tuesday at a Los Angeles hospital to repair a broken leg he suffered while skiing over the holiday weekend.

"Following the surgery, the governor was awake, alert and talking in the recovery room," orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kevin Erhart said in a statement. "He is now fully coherent and I have cleared him to resume his duties as governor."

According to the Santa Monica-based doctor, a combination of cables and screws were used to "wire the two main fragments of the governor's broken femur bone back together." The "relatively common" procedure lasted about an hour and a half, and the post-op X-rays "look great."

Erhart has treated Schwarzenegger before, after the T-800 injured his shoulder while filming Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003.

Schwarzenegger, 59, will have to stay in the hospital for three days and it will take approximately eight weeks for his right leg to heal, during which the True Lies star will need crutches, Erhart said, but he won't be wearing a cast.

The beefy official, who's scheduled to be sworn in for a second term Jan. 5, was on vacation with his family in Sun Valley, Idaho, when he injured himself Saturday.

Ski instructor Adi Erber, describing it as a "freak accident," told the Los Angeles Times that Schwarzenegger was about to take on the last 200 yards of a run on Bald Mountain when his ski pole got caught in one of his skis.

"It was the last run down," Erber, a fellow Austrian who was with Schwarzenegger when he fell, said. "He was trying to take off again and he tripped." The duo had been skiing for about two hours before it happened.

"I've skied with him for 18 years," Erber said, predicting that the governor will be ready to hit the slopes again in no time. "He's an expert skier."

Schwarzenegger's also an avid motorcycle rider, but that didn't stop him from taking a tumble earlier in the year as well. In January, the former body builder needed 15 stitches in his lip after a low-speed collision with a car that was backing out of a driveway near his Brentwood home.