Schwarzenegger Will Forgive Widow’s Debt

Arnold Schwarzenegger will forgive a $22,000 debt owed by a Granada Hills woman whose late husband was hired to install cinema equipment at his home, the actor said Wednesday.

“My philosophy is that people who have money should help those who don’t,” Schwarzenegger said, adding that he was not aware that Janice Nickerson owed him money until reading about it in The Times last Saturday.

“My wife and I have no interest in making a woman who has no money pay back a debt.”

Nickerson never disputed owing the money, but questioned why the actor--who reportedly will earn up to $15 million for his next film, “The Last Action Hero”--would “play hardball” with a struggling widow.

Nickerson, a part-time secretary, had said that she tried to settle the debt several times, and offered Schwarzenegger’s lawyers $10,000--all that was left of her husband’s pension--but that they had held out for $15,000.

Schwarzenegger’s attorneys last week offered to remove a lien against the woman’s modest home, but refused to withdraw the judgment, which, with accumulated interest, exceeded $22,000.

However, Schwarzenegger said that after learning about the woman’s plight, he called her on Tuesday to say he had no intention of pressing the debt.

The debt stemmed from work that the late James Nickerson left unfinished at the Pacific Palisades home of the actor and his wife, television journalist Maria Shriver.

Nickerson had been paid $70,000 to install the equipment in the couple’s private screening room, and had not completed the project before he died in 1989.

In an interview last week, Janice Nickerson said her husband left her more than $40,000 in debt, and that if it were not for the help of relatives she would be unable to pay her mortgage and buy food.

She said most of her other creditors have been paid, and that some, upon seeing that she was broke, did not pursue their claims.

But it was different with Schwarzenegger, she said.

“Every time I tried to settle things with him,” she said, “my lawyer would come back and say: ‘This guy just won’t go away.’ ”

Her story, which was first reported by the weekly Los Angeles Sentinel, attracted widespread media attention, and Schwarzenegger’s representatives complained that the actor was being unfairly criticized. His publicist, Charlotte Parker, said the decision to push for repayment was made by subordinates at the actor’s Venice-based production company.

Until Parker announced the actor’s plans Wednesday, KABC radio hosts Ken Minyard and Roger Barkley had scheduled a “Schwarzenegger-athon” today to raise money from listeners to help Nickerson pay the debt.

Nickerson, meanwhile, declined to be interviewed.

Her sister, Beverly Dupree, said the widow had entered into exclusive arrangements with the Globe supermarket tabloid and the TV program “A Current Affair” to talk about the matter.

Bonnie Robinson, a free-lance writer who said she arranged both deals, declined to say how much money Nickerson will receive.

“She would just love to talk to you,” Robinson said, “but, unfortunately, she is under contract.”