Shriver stands by her man Arnold

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — A day after her husband apologized to women who say he groped and sexually harassed them, Maria Shriver defended Arnold Schwarzenegger and said she is neither hurt nor surprised by the revelations from his past.

"I'm doing fine," Shriver said as she and her husband moved Friday into a posture of damage control. "I grew up in a political family, and I've had to do this my whole life."

While Shriver recounted her husband's virtues to a Republican women's group here, other women across California were declaring the state a "No Groper Zone" and calling on Schwarzenegger to drop out of Tuesday's unprecedented election to replace Gov. Gray Davis.

"It's very offensive to me that he waited until being outed on the front page of the Los Angeles Times before he even thought to apologize to these women," said Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace, which sponsored the protests.

The newspaper on Thursday presented new details of accusations that Schwarzenegger groped, propositioned and harassed six women — some of whom declined to be identified — from 1975 to as recently as 2000.

The women said Schwarzenegger had grabbed their breasts and buttocks and made lewd comments to them on movie sets, in restaurants and in hotel elevators. No legal action was ever taken by the women.

Other women also came forward with accusations of improper sexual contact.

Radio psychologist Dr. Joy Browne told the syndicated TV show "Inside Edition" that Schwarzenegger had groped her ankles and knees during an interview in the 1970s.

And at an event held by a coalition of women's groups to unveil an anti-Schwarzenegger ad campaign, a former TV network intern who said he had groped her when she showed him around a sound stage 25 years ago.

On Thursday, Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he had "behaved badly sometimes" with women and apologized to anyone he had offended.

Shriver took the lead in defending her husband's response to the accusations.

After her campaign appearance here, Shriver said her husband's apology was courageous and heartfelt, and that she knows her husband isn't perfect.

"Nothing hurts, because I know the man I'm married to," Shriver said. "Has he said and done everything 100 percent (correctly) all of his life? No. but I don't know of anybody on the planet, male or female, who's led a perfect life."