February 5, 2004

BY SARA FIEDELHOLTZ Staff Reporter

Just because Maria Shriver is trading in her role as an NBC News correspondent for the role of California's first lady doesn't mean she is putting her professional ambitions aside for her husband.

Shriver quit her NBC job Tuesday, saying it became clear that her journalistic intregrity would be under constant scrutiny. In her new role, she is no longer bound to the necessary independence and objectivity required of a reporter. This allows her to be an advisor to her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; an activist for specific causes; and a player in important policy decisions, including those that affect the California budget.

Michael Menager, author of In the Shadow of Greatness: 5 Remarkable Women and the Men of Genius They Served (Hohm Press, $24.95), said Shriver's decision should not be viewed as a disempowering sacrifice.

"My impression of Shriver is she is quite a powerful woman, and I don't think she would do this without a great amount of consideration," he said. "Maybe her decision should be looked at as just another step in her career and not necessarily a step down."

Through his extensive research, Menager found that the women behind such great men as Aldous Huxley, Vladimir Nabokov and Pablo Picasso made their own decisions to assist and thus influence the work of their husbands.

For instance, Vera Nabokov worked as a translator to support Vladimir as he pursued writing. Everything he ever wrote, he dedicated to her. Vera earned her unofficial standing as the best novelist's wife of all time when she pulled the manuscript of her husband's masterwork, Lolita, from the fire he had set for it.

"These women always had their eyes on the big picture and what was possible and the potential of these men," Menager said. "They knew they were consciously contributing to and definitely not as slaves or underlings."

In Shriver's case, the decision to put all of her energy behind her husband could have been made months ago.

"What makes you think that Shriver isn't fulfilling her own ambitions through Arnold being governor? I don't think Arnold would have run unless Shriver was invested," said Catherine Pines, a staff psychologist at DePaul University's Mental Health Center.

"Shriver knew full well what Arnold's being governor meant and was willing to make a change. I have to believe the job of governor is more taxing then making movies."