Three questions for three stars

First off, the news: I may have found a US-based publisher for Beef: Schwarzenegger v Stallone. I can't say too much at the moment, because some other options are still tbc.

The prospect of potentially actually-getting-the-book-out-there is a massive relief. Particularly as my attempt to crowd-serialise it online has been a non-starter thus far – grateful though I am to everybody who has subscribed. Critically, all that generosity has come from inside my friend circle; not a single random netizen has come forth to back the project.

I don't know if that's my social media ineptitude, or just that no one is willing to back such a speculative endeavour. Dropping content on Facebook fandom and action-movie groups – where moderators often don't seem to even approve posts – has been fruitless. There've been flutters of interest on Reddit, but it seems to go against the digital grain to ask people to click out of the site and read something somewhere else.

So now I have three-quarters of a book to write – and am heading back to the research archives forthwith. This would seem to be a better use of my time than trying to keep a rigid posting schedule here (so will use your subscription money to buy a couple of days' grace to that end). I already have a section written about Rambo: First Blood Part II, but will be digging in further to Commando, Rocky IV, Red Heat and the real-life 1983 invasion of Grenada; the theme of the next chapter of course being US nationalism and self-esteem.

I love deep research – which is lucky as there's a heap out there in the public domain, from the various biographies, to DVD commentary tracks, to random Jay Leno turns on YouTube, to old journalist microcassettes shoved into boxes in municipal archives (I once called in a set of these for an old Schwarzenegger Playboy interview).

But there's plenty that's not out there too. The documented truth is usually just the tip of the iceberg. Every time I work on a long story, conducting real-life research hammers that realisation home; an insight that's all the more precious as the world doubles down by letting AI regurgitate information. So that means sending emails, getting on the phone and speaking to people. That's how I discovered, for example, how the Schwarzenegger-Stallone spat came to an end in the unlikeliest of ways – at a truce summit brokered by a Philadelphia socialite (more of this in the book). Those are the gold-nugget details that will make the book come alive beyond the tired PR soundbites.

Obviously, in terms of my interview list, there are three names in this story that come first (or perhaps, in practice, last). So with them in mind, here are three questions I'd like to ask:

1. Arnold, did you arrange – as some biographies allege – for Sylvester and Brigitte to meet through your lawyer Jake Bloom [now deceased]?
2. Sylvester, did you feel Arnold flouted Hollywood ethics by hounding you in public?
3. Brigitte, how do you view the death of your Hollywood career after your divorce from Sylvester?