Arnold Beats Doctor

12/01/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

A court in Germany has ordered a doctor to pay Arnold Schwarzenegger $10,500 and to retract his 1998 prediction that the actor didn't have much longer to live. Dr. Willi Heepe, a Berlin heart specialist and sports doctor, made the comment during a radio interview while discussing the connection between anabolic steroids and heart disease. Although Heepe apologized in an exchange of letters with Schwarzenegger's attorneys, he refused to sign a statement they had drafted, which led to the court case. Schwarzenegger's attorney accused Heepe of "stubbornness" and said that even public figures had a right to be protected from such speculative medical diagnoses. The civil court agreed.