Removing silver door handle surrounds

[RedGTS]

I'm going to have my silver interior pieces painted on my new H2, and searching the forums has pretty much answered my questions on removing all the dash and console pieces, but I'm still not sure about the pieces surrounding the door handles. Obviously the small center section comes right off after removing one screw and sliding it over the door handle, but what about the remaining section that's integrated into the door pull and bolted to the inside of the door? It looks to me like it's an integral part of the door panel. And if it is, how did people go about painting it? (I've seen pics of H2 interiors with those pieces painted).

On an unrelated note, I have several cars and frequent many message boards, but I don't think I've come across a poster like this Hummer Man character. What's up with that? My guess is that one of the robots my 10 year old daughter "talks" to on AOL has become self-aware and has started interacting with this forum, but that's only a hunch.

Thanks!