  Candidate counterterms break Noether-Gaillard-Zumino E_{7(7)} current
conservation in N=8 supergravity in four dimensions. Bossard and Nicolai
proposed a scheme for deforming the subsector involving vector fields in a
Lorentz covariant manner, so as to restore duality. They argued that there must
exist an extension of this deformation to the full theory that preserves
supersymmetry. We show that it is not possible to deform the maximal
supergravity to restore E_{7(7)} duality, while maintaining both general
covariance and N=8 supersymmetry, as was proposed. Deformation of N=8
supergravity requires higher spins and multiple gravitons, which presents a
concrete obstacle to this proposal.
