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Maria Shriver removed from Arnold Schwarzenegger official gubernatorial portrait

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger poses with his official portrait.
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger poses with his official portrait.

In many respects, the new official portrait of former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is quite lovely. It's a very photo-realistic painting done by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, and will look splendid hanging in California's Capitol building.

Except for that smudge ...

A keen eye will notice that on portrait-Arnie's left lapel, there's an out-of-place smudge which just doesn't seem to reflect the detail of the rest of the painting. Turns out, that's where Maria Shriver's face used to be.

When Schwarzenegger sat for the painting back in 2003, he was married to Shriver, quite happily by all outward appearances, and he wore a small pin with her face on it.

"It was actually a cute gesture when he had it done," said Clay Russell, a former Schwarzenegger aide, to the Los Angeles Times.

Unfortunately, the marriage between Shriver and Schwarzenegger dissolved in 2011, shortly after the end of his time as governor of California, in light of the news that he had fathered a child with one of the family's household staff.

While Shriver and Schwarenegger are separated, they are not techincally divorced. Nevertheless, the New York Post's Page Six reports that Schwarzenegger requested Shriver's face be removed from the painting. It is unclear when the request was made, but it is suspected to have been quite recently, based on the hasty job that appears to have been done, with a generous glob of blue paint.

"Whoever touched it up did not do a very good job," Capitol tour guide Richard Granis told the Post. "It was softball sized, right there on his left lapel."

Poor Shriver. Forever relegated to the annals of splotchy paint history, like this now infamous painting of Jesus Christ in a church in Spain.

(Photos courtesy AP Canada and Euronews)

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