William and Kate -- and Dead Princess Diana -- Creepily Immortalized in Beverly Hills Gallery on Eve of Royal Visit

By Simone Wilson Thu., Jul. 7 2011 at 4:45 PM

Unveiling of "Ordinary People": All the Beverly royals were there.

That Newsweek cover was creepy enough: Princess Diana, digitally aged and strolling alongside her new daughter-in-law as if Our Lady had survived the limo accident that shook the world.

But at a posh unveiling Wednesday afternoon, Beverly Hills artist Steven Vaughan gave Tina Brown a run for her creepiness with "Ordinary People, William and Kate" -- a smooth, uber-realistic paint job that depicts newlyweds William and Kate basking in the glow of Angel Diana.

The piece -- prominently displayed at the prestigious David W. Streets Gallery on Santa Monica Boulevard -- takes royal-obsession shrinage to a new level. Reporters from Patch Beverly Hills, investigative devils that they are, snapped some photo evidence:

Patch

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will probably be too busy schmoozing with pols and frolicking with inner-city children to stop by the gallery and observe their likeness, but we're sure they'd be thrilled to see someone thinks they have hair and boobs, respectively.

And as for Diana: Gallery owner Streets tells Patch that he worked alongside the princess "on several charity events in the 1980s," so this might really hit home for her, seeing as a portion of the proceeds from the painting, and the prints made from it (yes, this thing is about to multiply into dozens of little creepers), will go toward Jenny McCarthy's autism organization and two other charities.

This just keeps getting better.

"It is, hopefully, a beautiful piece of art," the artist tells Patch. "But it was also created to help out some really beautiful causes."

Wills and Kate will be passing through Beverly Hills on Friday evening for a tech summit at the Beverly Hilton, located just over a half-mile west of the gallery where "Ordinary People" now hangs. Crazy, right?

In slightly less wholesome Royal Couple news, Kate totally wore the same pair of pants three times in a row on the recent Canada tour. FYI: That won't fly in L.A., girl. Your angel of a predecessor would have known better.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

Tags:

Beverly Hills, David W. Streets Gallery, Kate Middleton, painting, Prince William, Royal Couple, royal wedding, Santa Monica Boulevard

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woodymcbreairty

According to various present online articles, David W Streets is a convicted felon, was put on probation and ordered to make restitution payments, lists passing bad checks, fraud, petty theft among other things. One article says he even pocketed a deposit from a customer when he worked in a furniture store. I have always thought he was a shady character even before reading all this. He posted on FB that he is a "major" contributor the the West Hollywood Library. I wonder how much truth there is to that, and how "major" a contributor he could be to an $80 million building. I've read that he says he's very close to West Hollywood council members John Heilman and Abbe Land. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

guest

The painting is beyond tacky. It was unveiled in the prestigious D W Streets Gallery in Beverly Hills?? Come on! The gallery is a haven for the totally talent-free. You'll find only third rate schlock there.And as for Diana: Gallery owner Streets tells Patch that he worked alongside the princess "on several charity events in the 1980s," The Gallery owner is a convicted felon and bi-polar, who obviously doesn't take his meds.

anonymous

Why don't we bring monarchy back to US since people are more infatuated with royalty than vote in the Presidential election. Even our idiot Mayor is at LAX to greet them.

Holly H Wilson

Yikes!

Well at least they gave Prince William more hair on his soon to be chrome dome.

BeverlyHillsAdjacent

It's an OMG! moment...Embarrassing indeed - Beverly Hills must be hiding it's collective face...

JJ Gittes

Forgive them Art. They know not what they do.

ArtLover

beyond distasteful - really awful - who are the people doing such juvenile things? - must be an awful embarrassment for Beverly Hills

Woody McBreairty

Although the painting is definitely creepy (and ticky-tacky) -it reeks of publicity seeking and opportunism. It is also amateurish looking, kind of 3rd grade imagination. The likenesses aren't even good ones. Reminds me of the time someone presented Elizabeth Taylor with a similarly ridiculous looking painting of herself. She accepted it, but later said privately, "I don't even think I'd be comfortable with it in my closet."