Guess who terminated the show?

WHEN you have Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt and Prince in the same room, it’s hard to be the man everyone is whispering about, but then the governor of California knows how to work a room -- even when he’s not in it.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who 30 years ago this month picked up a Golden Globe as new male star of the year for his role in “Stay Hungry,” did not sit for dinner with the other movie stars but, by the time he appeared at the show’s close, he had been one of the hot topics of the evening. “It’s going to be huge,” Nicholson said of the ovation awaiting his old buddy. Nicholson is pals with the politico but there was reason to wonder how warmly Schwarzenegger would be embraced in a room that has seen him politically zigzag more recklessly than he skis (a recent mishap in the snow is why the governor was on crutches).

Schwarzenegger handed out the night’s final trophy to “Babel.” The movie’s Mexican director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, joked when he took the stage: “I swear I have my papers governor, I swear.”

Earlier, the governor was also name-checked by Warren Beatty during his acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement. Beatty, who has flirted with a bid for office, joked that he had told Schwarzenegger to become a Democrat.

In the audience, Donald Trump clapped loudly for the governor. “I can tell you this, there’s a great excitement about California since he became governor. He’s brought a vitality and energy. He’s a star, but he’s also a leader. I’m a big investor in California.”

Maybe the governor should invest in a speech writer who isn’t stuck on 1980s movie dialogue. To close the show, he said that next year “We’ll be back.”