There could be much more to the Governator’s official portrait than meets the eye, according to multiple reports.
An obvious blotch on former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recently unveiled portrait might be the result of a hurried cover-up job to scrub his ex-wife Maria Shriver out of the picture, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Sources told the Chronicle that Shriver’s face originally appeared on a small lapel pin in the painting. But it's now apparently covered with a sloppy blue smudge.
Schwarzenegger’s former assistant Clay Russell told the Chronicle he first saw the portrait with the pin on an easel in the then-governor's Santa Monica office.
The only thing that struck out to Russell at that time: “It was unusual for a portrait to be done so soon — a couple of years into the administration," he told the Chronicle.
Russell said he didn't blame Schwarzenegger for hanging the portrait in the Capitol without Shriver's lapel pin. “Considering everything, it’s not that odd,” he said. “It would have been weirder if it was already up and he had removed it.”
The portrait was done by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein. Schwarzenegger revealed the portrait Monday, nearly four years after he left office.
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Schwarzenegger and Shriver separated when it was revealed in 2010 that he fathered a child out of wedlock with their longtime housekeeper.
