'Terminator' star and director reunite for TV spot

LOS ANGELES euters) – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and filmmaker James Cameron, who directed the former Hollywood star in two "Terminator" movies, have reunited in a political TV spot supporting the state's global warming law.

The two men appeared together at a news conference on Wednesday to debut the 60-second commercial urging Californians to vote "no" next Tuesday on ballot Proposition 23, which would suspend the landmark climate change statute championed by Schwarzenegger.

Cameron, who also directed "Avatar," about a mineral-rich alien world facing environmental destruction at the hands of humans, is one of several major contributors donating millions of dollars in recent weeks to the campaign to defeat Prop 23.

Unlike the movies in which he and Schwarzenegger worked together, Cameron not only directed but starred in the anti-23 television spot.

The governor, famed his role as the virtually indestructible cyborg assassin from the future in the "Terminator" films, made only A brief cameo appearance in the ad.

"Tell your friends, family, cyborgs and avatars to vote 'no' on 23, before it's too late," Cameron tells viewers near the end of the spot.

The camera shot then widens to show Schwarzenegger sitting next to Cameron, holding the metal-like skeleton frame of his cyborg character's arm, as the governor deadpans: "Why do you keep calling me the cyborg?"

Recent polls show Californians leaning against passage of Prop 23, backed primarily by oil companies, with environmentalists and venture capitalists opposing it.

Passage would put on hold the state's AB 32 law, the basis for California's goal of obtaining a third of its electricity from renewable energy and ambitious plans to create a market to trade allowances for emissions of greenhouse gases.