What's next, Arnold?

LOS ANGELES - IN the recently released trailer for "The Expendables," the action movie directed by Sylvester Stallone about a group of aging mercenaries on a rebel mission in South America, big-screen graybeards Stallone, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke (along with the more youthful Jason Statham and Randy Couture) are plotting a coup when an unexpected face suddenly materializes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, apparently taking a break from the budgetary troubles that have dogged him during his governorship, appears on screen with Willis and Stallone, utters a crisply satirical line ("Give this job to my friend here - he loves playing in the jungle," he says about the "Rambo" star) and, as quickly as he appeared, turns and walks away.

As California's governor prepares to beat a retreat from Sacramento at the end of the year, the scene dangles a tantalizing possibility. Forget low approval ratings, tax hikes and an education crisis - fans and entertainment-business insiders are asking more pressing questions. Is the appearance in the Aug. 13 release "The Expendables" - a testosterone-drenched, shoot-'em-up summer movie, if testosterone-drenched, shoot-em-up summer movies were cast in action-film retirement homes - an acting swan song before Schwarzenegger stalks off to a new political adventure (a post in the Obama administration, perhaps)? Or is it a trial balloon for another foray into Hollywood?

Since landing in the governor's office nearly 6 1/2 years ago, Schwarzenegger has taken on a task that can seem as mercenary as any in "The Expendables." After all the political powder kegs, legislative trench warfare and spray-and-pray news coverage, he may have wished they'd given this job to his friend. (Or his enemy.)

But Schwarzenegger is unlikely to let his work in the Capitol serve as our lasting impression of him. "When politicians leave office, they almost always try to re-ingratiate themselves with the public they've inevitably disappointed," said pundit and Time magazine columnist Joe Klein, a frequent chronicler of the politics-celebrity nexus.

In Schwarzenegger's case, that could mean a humanitarian role a la the one inhabited by former President Bill Clinton. Or it could mean an actual movie role.