I wondered if there was something in the reflection they didn't want readers to see, coz it looks like someone just dragged a smear brush all over that side of the picture to hide it. Like they were smudging ink on a canvas.
It looks like the reflection on the black part was identified as further afar and therefor has been blurred.
Yeah, it's ridiculous that they didn't catch it before publishing the article. I don't mind faux bokeh if it works well (it's easy to spot around the hair if you look for it), but it's a complete mess here.