SCHWARZENEGGER, SOPHIA LOREN GO BRONZE

Looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger is hoping the public gives him a new judgment day. The former California governor has commissioned a whole passel of larger-than-life bronze statues of himself -- at least three, and perhaps as many as seven, according to the New York Daily News. The Enterprise, Ore.-based sculpture studio that got the job, TW Bronze, has already reincarnated the Schwarzenegger as an eight-foot tall, 580-pound bodybuilder from his Mr. Olympia days for $100,000. That work has been donated to a museum in Schwarzenegger’s hometown, Thatl, Austria. When sculptor Tim Parks unveiled the statue to Schwarzenegger, he said the Pumping Iron star told him, “This is fantastic,” and only requested that he tint the patina a little darker.

The second statue is expected to head to Columbus, Ohio, which hosts an annual Arnold Fitness Weekend (next scheduled for Mar. 2-4, 2012). And at least one other sculpture is going to remain with Schwarzenegger himself.

It appears the statues may be part of a larger attempt to pump up his public image, which took a beating this spring when news broke that he was having an affair and had fathered a child with his longtime housekeeper. Rumor has it that he’s also penning a memoir for Simon and Schuster called Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. 

Meanwhile, frequent celebrity-inspired artist Francesco Vezzoli is fashioning a six-foot-tall bronze Sophia Loren walking the red carpet for the Prospect.2 biennial in New Orleans, Oct. 22, 2011-Jan. 29, 2012. The statue fittingly goes on view in the city's Charles Moore-designed Piazza d’Italia.

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