Arnold Schwarzenegger Painted Over Maria Shriver’s Face: Cover-Up A Fail, ‘Sloppy Mess’

The headline “Arnold Painted Over Maria” is trending on the internet today, but it is not because Arnold Schwarzenegger threw shade at Maria Shriver.

The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” is no more apparent than a recently unveiled image of the former governor of California, which bore the marks of a job hastily done — a “fail” in modern colloquialism.

A story by New York Post out today suggested Arnold Schwarzenegger scrubbed Maria Shriver from an official portrait he sat for in 2003, back when things between the two of them were still, let’s say, peachy. Moreover, the writer claimed the former Governator “was so hot to erase any memory of his marriage to Maria Shriver that he had her face scrubbed from his official portrait as governor of California — and he didn’t even care that the hastily done job was a sloppy mess.”

Capitol tour guide Richard Granis agreed in the assessment of Arnold’s paint-blemishes over the spot of Maria’s face.

“Whoever touched it up did not do a very good job. It was softball sized, right there on his left lapel.”

The larger-than-life painting of Schwarzenegger, sans a lapel of the former first lady, was done by commissioned renowned Aussie artist Gottfried. The glorified work was marred by an obvious blemish that stood out like a sore thumb, apparently done in short order to exclude his ex-wife.

Many invitees braced for the unveiling; they didn’t know if the onetime bodybuilder would keep his ex-wife’s face on his lapel. Little did they know, Arnold had someone paint over Maria’s face and it left a “splotch.” The scrub-attempt was instantly picked up by staffers at the ceremony, and it was quite embarrassing, to boot.

Monday’s tradition was made more tense in light of the recent revelations that Maria Shriver allegedly had an affair with her husband’s campaign strategist, Matthew Dowd, five years before learning he was cheating with the housekeeper. His infidelity resulted in a love child.

As the Post wrote, “Shriver was recently seen with the political aide at cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wedding to actress Cheryl Hines in Hyannis Port, Mass.”

The portrait of Schwarzenegger was half a foot wider and a full foot taller than official paintings of his predecessors. However, their works did not bear the marks of poor workmanship, after the fact.

Sure, Arnold had Maria’s face painted over; that much is obvious. But the amateurish attempt to conceal Shriver’s face undoubtedly upstaged the meaning of the painting.

The actor-turned-politician let down the curtain to his official painting as two of his five children, Christopher, 16, and Patrick, 20, and several dignitaries looked on.

As an A-Lister, he recalled how as a boy growing up in Austria how he wanted to dream big and travel to America one day, particularly to California, a place he says “where nothing is impossible.”

“I dreamt about California every day, and I knew that one day I would have to come here to this beautiful state if I wanted to make my dreams a reality.”

Did Arnold have someone paint over Maria’s face? Well, it’s unlikely he picked up a brush and created the debacle himself, although he is known to be fond of art. The larger question is this: Who allowed the redacted face of Shriver to look so, well, redacted before the official unveiling?

[Image via: PureFans]