Index: porthole/backends/portagelib.py
===================================================================
--- porthole/backends/portagelib.py	(revision 1209)
+++ porthole/backends/portagelib.py	(working copy)
@@ -452,7 +452,11 @@
 
 
 def get_masking_status(ebuild):
-    return portage.getmaskingstatus(ebuild)
+    try:
+        status = portage.getmaskingstatus(ebuild)
+    except KeyError:
+        status = ['deprecated']
+    return status
 
 
 def get_masking_reason(ebuild):