Tiara Tempest in a Teapot

We were not amused when a flap broke loose this week over slipshod editing aired by the BBC for entertainment news reporters. What happened was this: artist Annie Leibovitz asked HM Queen Elizabeth II, during a March 28, 2007 photo shoot, if Her Majesty might consider taking off the "crown" (in actuality, a tiara) in order to get a "less dressy" shot. To which The Queen rapidly replied somewhat impatiently, "Less dressy? What do you think this is?" (gesturing at her clothing which, as it happened to be, was the full frontal Order of the Royal Garter regalia -- robe, sash, diamond brooch, the whole nine yards).

We know this exchange occurred because it was recorded in the course of filming the upcoming BBC One fall series A Year With The Queen. And this in itself wasn't a huge deal although, truly, one simply does not offer bareheadedness suggestions to HM. However, some unnamed film editor decided to splice footage out of sequence in the A Year With The Queen press trailer. End result being it looked as if HM had stormed out of the photo shoot prematurely after the tiara remark when, in fact, she'd made an unhappy comment about all of the wardrobe and makeup fuss going into it. The Queen, sorely tempted though she must have been thousands of times, has never stormed out of anything in nearly 70-years' worth of public service. The implication that she had, and over something as relatively unimportant as a photo shoot, is what caused such an uproar.

Profuse apologies, calls for restructuring the BBC and 447 news releases have been flying since the press trailer appeared on July 11. Don't look for the trailer; it's vanished (along with that film editor, in all likelihood) though you can see snippets of it in this BBC Ten coverage on YouTube. Interestingly, prior to this week's sturm und drang, most of the publicity Leibovitz's session with the Queen received labeled its results "pedestrian" and "boring." (What was anyone expecting? Her Majesty curled in a fetal position around Yoko Ono?) Was Annie Leibovitz disrespectful? Possibly, but I say that as an American who'd likely leave a Buckingham Palace garden reception with an angry Corgi attached to her unintentionally rude jugular vein. I think it more probable that Ms. Leibovitz merely has a long-standing habit of asking her sitters to do unorthodox things. What say you?

Image credit:

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 12: Photographer Annie Leibovitz (L) and her sister director Barbara Leibovitz attend a cocktail reception for the premiere of the documentary American Masters Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens at the Museum of Television & Radio on October 12, 2006 in New York City. Photo by Scott Wintrow/Getty Images