CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SACRAMENTO

Maria Shriver apologized Wednesday after she was publicly flogged -- by her husband, among others -- for talking on her cellphone while driving without a hands-free device, in apparent violation of state law.

TMZ.com posted two photos Tuesday of Shriver using one hand to drive a car and the other to press a cellphone to her ear. Her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed the cellphone law that went into effect last year. When the pictures were posted, he wrote on Twitter that he would take “swift action” against his wife. But soon after, TMZ posted a video it said showed Shriver breaking the law again even as the controversy was unfolding.

“I’m sorry,” Shriver said in a statement. And, responding to Internet gibes about her bulky, seemingly outdated phone, she said she’d donate it to a program that helps domestic violence shelters.

-- Michael Rothfeld