JUST WHAT ARNOLD NEEDS: more national air time. On Monday, Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, will appear on the season premiere of the “Oprah Winfrey Show.” It marks the couple’s first joint interview during recall–this one, with an old friend (Maria and Oprah worked together in Baltimore, in the mid-1980s, when both were cracking the news biz). Arnold needs to do better with women voters and Oprah’s viewing audience is 75 percent female. Then there’s the question of what to do about Howard Stern, who’s an inroad to another voting bloc Schwarzenegger needs: Generation Y. Arnold appeared on the shock jock’s radio show back in June, when he was promoting “Terminator 3.” Stern expects a return appearance now that the FCC has ruled his broadcast qualifies as a “bona fide news interview program” (take that, Tim Russert). An Arnold appearance wouldn’t trigger an equal-time requirement for all recall candidates, but it would trigger a Maalox moment for his staffers. They don’t want to alienate conservative Republicans. And they fear a replay of last June’s dialogue, which wasn’t exactly family values:

Stern: You will be the governor of California . . . . We will help. I’ll get you in office. But I need to be invited to the mansion.