Maria Shriver removed from former California Gov. Schwarzenegger's portrait

[September 13, 2014]  By Alex Dobuzinskis
 
 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A small image of Maria Shriver on a lapel pin worn by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an official portrait has been painted over as the actor-turned-politician and his wife go through a divorce, a former aide said.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican who left office nearly four years ago, was the featured star earlier this week when the portrait was unveiled in the state capital of Sacramento.

But since then attention has shifted to reports that Shriver had been erased from the photo-realistic painting.

The two-term governor's legacy was tarnished in 2011 when the Austrian-born former bodybuilder and movie star publicly admitted to fathering a child out of wedlock more than a decade earlier with a member of his family's household staff.

The revelation came weeks after the separation of Schwarzenegger and Shriver, who had been married for 25 years.
 

Schwarzenegger's former aide, Clay Russell, confirmed in an email on Friday that the portrait had included a small image of Shriver on a lapel pin Schwarzenegger wore. The artist worked on the portrait sometime during the then-governor's first term in office, and before the separation.

When the portrait was unveiled on Monday, it no longer had the small image of Shriver, although it was unclear when that might have been erased. Adam Mendelsohn, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, declined to comment.

Shriver, a daughter of the Kennedy political dynasty, filed for divorce in 2011 and has returned to her former work in broadcast journalism, as a special anchor and correspondent for NBC News.

Since leaving office, Schwarzenegger has taken up acting again, starring in "The Expendables" film franchise and 2013 action movie "The Last Stand."

In 2003, he took the state's helm as the aftermath of the dot-com crash roiled California's economy and devastated the state budget, leading voters to recall then-Governor Gray Davis.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Eric Beech)

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