In "Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger," author Laurence Leamer says Schwarzenegger told him Stallone was "furious" when he read a 1988 Playboy interview in which the "Terminator" star said Stallone "is not my friend. ... He hired the best publicity agents [but] there’s nothing anyone can do ... to save his image."

A few days after the interview appeared, Stallone invited British journalist Wendy Leigh to the "Rambo III" set in Arizona, according to Leamer.

He told Leigh that Schwarzenegger has "always been out to get me. Now he’s gone too far."

Stallone said Schwarzenegger’s father had been a member of the Nazi party and Arnold remained a "secret admirer of Hitler."

Leamer says that Leigh told him Stallone found her a book agent and hooked her up with sources for an article, including Stallone’s ex-wife Brigitte Nielsen, who’d had an affair with Schwarzenegger.

After Leigh’s article claiming that Schwarzenegger held "fervent Nazi and anti-Semitic views" appeared in a British newspaper, Schwarzenegger sued the paper and Leigh. Leigh told Leamer that Stallone paid her legal fees and her settlement with Schwarzenegger.

Stallone claims he didn’t contribute to the Leigh piece, according to the New York Daily News.

But Leamer says Arnold "reluctantly" confirmed that he believed Stallone was behind the Nazi smear.

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