Shriver and NBC Chief to Discuss Her Future

Maria Shriver’s future at NBC News could be settled as early as today, when she meets with network news President Neal Shapiro to discuss whether her expanding duties as California’s first lady are in conflict with her news role.

There has been widespread speculation that Shriver would take an unpaid leave from her job as contributing anchor on the network’s “Dateline” newsmagazine, as she did during her husband Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful campaign, although another possibility would be some kind of special correspondent role.

NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust said Shapiro is headed to the meeting “open-minded about the options. He’s looked at it both ways, and together they will come up with a situation that works for both Maria and NBC News.”

“This is uncharted territory,” said “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert, a longtime friend of Shriver’s, speaking Wednesday to a gathering of television critics in Hollywood. Russert, who said he had spoken to Shriver and Shapiro, added, “Maria is obviously trying to reconcile her duties as first lady and as wife of the governor of California with her job as a journalist and the ethical practices of NBC. I’ve racked my mind, and I don’t have an answer. Maria is debating that.”

In Sacramento, meanwhile, the Schwarzenegger administration is searching for a chief of staff or executive assistant to Shriver amid indications that she will play an expanded role in the administration.

A biography of Shriver on a state website describes her as “an NBC News television journalist.”

Donna Lucas, deputy chief of staff to the governor, said Wednesday that Shriver is “looking at a number of things that she’d like to do as first lady.”

Times staff writer Maria Elena Fernandez contributed to this report.