Budget deadlock may cut Schwarzenegger's starring role

Schwarzenegger scheduled a 3D version of "Terminator 2" at Universal Studios. He organized a private dinner for the governors at his Brentwood mansion. He recruited his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead a seminar.

In a promotional video, he said the 26th Annual Border Governors Conference would showcase the state "in true Hollywood style, with lots of action and magic."

"I always believe you work hard and you play hard, and I think this will inspire everyone to work hard," he said in an interview.

But Schwarzenegger will have to miss some of his own party because of a far less glamorous side of his life: the summer budget stalemate in Sacramento.

He said he would fly in his private jet between budget talks in the state capital and the governors conference in Los Angeles, which ends Friday.

The other governors will understand that "the budget is the most important thing right now," he said; they too have states to run.

The event is just one example of how the budget deadlock, now in its seventh week, has crimped Schwarzenegger's high-flying style. Schwarzenegger said that if the impasse lasts three more weeks, he will not attend the Republican National Convention, which begins Sept. 1 in Minneapolis. He has been discussing a possible high-profile speaking slot at that event with the campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but that "is off right now," the governor said.

"I will not make any commitments," Schwarzenegger said Tuesday. "I will not go on vacation. I will not leave the state. I will not do anything until I have a budget."

The governor has also cut back his frequent public appearances across the state in recent weeks -- the part of his job that he seems to take on with the most gusto. Schwarzenegger, who is not shy about his preference for traveling the state over hunkering down with bureaucrats in Sacramento, has increased the number of days he spends inside the Capitol.

He has ordered layoffs and pay cuts for state workers to save money and threatened to veto legislation unrelated to the budget. He faulted state lawmakers for lacking focus after they returned to Sacramento from a monthlong recess -- or, as he put it, "summer vacation."