Actress Jaclyn Smith is convinced her Charlie's Angels co-star Farrah Fawcett would laugh over the legal trouble her Andy Warhol portrait has caused, because she could always find humour in any situation.

Fawcett's longtime partner Ryan O'Neal has been locked in a trial with officials from the University of Texas over the ownership of the silkscreen artwork, and the case was handed over to jurors in Los Angeles on Monday (16Dec13).

O'Neal took the valuable piece from Fawcett's home following her death in 2009, claiming it was one of two he had commissioned the iconic artist to paint, while college bosses allege the actress left it to them in her will.

Smith has taken O'Neal's side in the whole dispute and testified on his behalf during the trial, and she is hopeful her old friend will be reunited with the portrait of his late love soon.

She tells U.S. news show Extra, "Over the years that has always been Ryan's painting, so I feel somewhere, why, how, the truth got lost. It's sad because Farrah's not here to set us all straight. It's only people close to her, and when two people are fighting against one another, somehow you know the truth gets diffused and lost in the shuffle, but those who love her and feel her presence know where that painting should be and it should live in the home of Ryan O'Neal."

And Smith is sure Fawcett would find the whole legal furore funny if she was still here today: "She was funny. She was always making you laugh even after her illness. She would probably say, 'Here they are fighting for this painting. I should've made that clearer in that living will!'"

The jury began its second day of deliberations on Wednesday (18Dec13).