Love rats at it again as Arnie takes this year's title

List is dominated by politicians and movie stars

IT'S time for the annual Love Rat of the Year award. Once again, this year's list is dominated by politicians and movie stars, the people we can usually rely on to misbehave. After running my list of contenders past my friends and colleagues, we came up with five finalists, all worthy of taking the coveted title.

This year's award goes to Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger. One might have been able to forgive the muscle-bound Terminator star for having a little affair on the side. But the news that he had a 14-year-old love child with the family's housekeeper was a real slap in the face for his wife Maria Shriver. After discovering his infidelity, she filed for divorce, leaving the superstar with a bit of an image problem among his millions of fans. Shame on you, Arnie.

Second spot goes to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the thoroughly unpleasant former head of the International Monetary Fund.

He was forced to quit his post after a New York hotel chambermaid accused him of sexually assaulting her. The portly businessman managed to wriggle out of those charges, but subsequent claims by other women indicate that he is a real rotter. Let's hope his long-suffering wife divorces him without having to part with a dime of her vast fortune.

In third place is Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. It seems he has never been too far from sex scandals, but this year he finally had to quit office after investigations into his hiring of an underage prostitute. He was also accused of holding "bunga bunga" parties, which were dinner parties that turned into orgies. There's no doubting that old Silvio is a real character whose antics have entertained, but enough is enough.

Fourth spot goes to Mike Tindall, the England rugby player who managed to spoil a rather good year for the British royals. Shortly after marrying Princess Anne's daughter, Zara Phillips, the beefy player made a complete fool of himself at the World Cup in New Zealand by groping girls in a bar. With TV footage to prove his appalling behaviour, he lost the England captaincy and no doubt earned the wrath of his new in-laws.

In fifth spot is Ashton Kutcher, whose silly fling with a young actress ended his marriage to actress Demi Moore. Their's was meant to be the perfect cougar relationship - when a woman teams up with a much younger man. But Ashton's affair ended that. To make matters worse, he cheated on Demi on their sixth wedding anniversary and had unprotected sex.

Other contenders included former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who sent out a sexually explicit picture of himself on his Twitter account. There was also the conservative lawmaker in Indonesia who was caught watching a pornographic video while sitting in parliament.

A last-gasp entrant into our contest was the US Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain who was forced to quit after claims of sexual harassment against him. And Prince Albert of Monaco could have found a place on our list after revelations about a love child nearly scuppered his wedding to Princess Charlene.

But in the end, there could only be one winner. Arnold joins former winners Mel Gibson and US presidential candidate John Edwards as a worthy Love Rat of the Year.