In this March 2007 photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II greets American photographer Annie Leibovitz at a reception prior to their photo shoot. Notice that the Queen has her black Launer purse on her arm.
Prior to her May 2007 visit to the United States, Queen Elizabeth II sat for a series of official photographs by famous celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. Ms. Leibovitz is well known for her sometimes controversial celebrity photographs including one of a naked John Lennon hugging a fully clothed Yoko Ono.
December 8, 1980 photograph of John Lennon with wife Yoko Ono taken by Annie Leibowitz.
Leibovitz has said the original concept for the now legendary John Lennon and Yoko Ono Rolling Stone cover was for both to appear nude, designed to mark the release of their album “Double Fantasy.” As legend has it, Lennon was game, shedding his clothes quickly, but Ono felt uncomfortable even taking off her top. Leibovitz recalled for Rolling Stone:
“I was kinda disappointed, and I said, ‘Just leave everything on.’ We took one Polaroid, and the three of us knew it was profound right away.”
It was December 8, 1980. Five hours later, Lennon was dead – shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of his Manhattan apartment.
Now back to what I was saying about the Queen:
Leibowitz took the official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II in March 2007. One of the photos, shown below, shows a very serene Queen sitting in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace dressed in a pale gold evening dress, fur stole, and diamond tiara. The wide shot captures the Queen gazing towards a large open window and reveals some of the room’s furnishings and a reflection of a chandelier in a mirror. The room is dark except for the soft light flooding through the open window. All is calm.
Queen Elizabeth II, photographed by Annie Leibowitz, March 2007
The session was going smoothly until Leibovitz asked the Queen to take off her tiara (crown) to look “less dressy” for the next photo. The Queen flew into a huff and replied:
“Less dressy? What do you think this is?”
The Queen was definitely not amused and the tiara stayed on the royal head.
The incident was caught on tape and included in a BBC documentary “A Year with the Queen.” The BBC kept the footage and included it in a promotional trailer for the film. The trailer shows the Queen telling an aide, “I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this, thank you very much” and storming out of the room. The BBC later apologized and admitted that the sequence of events shown on the trailer had been misrepresented, as the Queen was in fact walking to the sitting in the second scene, not exiting. This led to a BBC scandal and a shake-up of ethics training. The event is known as “Tiaragate” and “Crowngate.” According to sources, the Queen was still furious about the incident months later.
Here’s the NBC-TV report:
Lisa's History Room 
Isn’t Annie Liebowitz the same photographer that took the controversial Miley Cyrus photos for Vanity Fair?
I thought they were quite beautiful, and was a little puzzled as to what all the fuss was about. I guess I could understand how, as a parent of a young teenage girl, I might be shocked, but I think these same teenage girls that might supposedly be led astray by Hannah Montana on the cover of Vanity Fair are probably also playing with Bratz and Barbie dolls and listening to Britney Spears – hardly wholesome entertainment.
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Yes, Annie took the controversial M. Cyrus photos. My daughter watches Hannah Montana and the character portrayed in the show is a lot different than the one in the Leibowitz photos. H. Montana is just so funny – not trying to be sexy – and is a great role model. The photos really upset my daughter and the tabloid ones in which Miley is dressing way too old for her age. She doesn’t have just the greatest mom for a role model either – and Dad has been around a bit, too.
Thanks for writing.
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Those photos were indeed artistic. I too thought they were beautiful. Much like a renaissance painting but with a photo.
First of all, Miley need not to apologize as she did nothing wrong. And second, it was of the world reknowned Annie Leibovitz!!!
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Annie Leibovitz has her own troubles….
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Today it was announced that HRH was hospitalized. I hope she recovers quickly. I have to say as an American that Annie Leibovitz is – well – she’s so New York. Sad to say it but – as a friend from Brooklyn put it so wisely “you try putting people into spaces the size of sardine cans and see what happens.” First of all – I was shocked that she didn’t know her tiaras from her crowns – second – the crown is a symbol of power. Asking the Queen to take off her tiara or her crown is like asking her to stop being the monarch. It would be like someone calling President Obama “Barry” in the Oval Office (or anywhere else for that matter). It’s simply NOT done period. I’m having visions of the TV series of John Adams where he is our first Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James where he says something absurdly complicated to the then King of England and then bows and walks out backwards. She didn’t storm off – and frankly – I think it took quit a bit not to want to lob off her head. Annie is an intense person – but she is quintessentially New York. I’ve never met a New Yorker who didn’t talk fast, act annoyed when others didn’t, think everyone outside of NY was – well pretty stupid – and act as if the world revolved around the Burroughs of that fair city. It’s a bit ironic – if I go far back enough – my people were the first non-native settlers in New Amsterdam and some of us were English. So I get it. The Queen can be – well testy. And as Prince William admitted, and I’m paraphrasing, you don’t want one of grannies’ icy stares. I can relate. My granny had those types of imperious stares and she was the Queen of our family but not of the United Kingdom. All I can say is – Annie – I hope you learned your lesson. Some things simply aren’t done.
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[…] lady was asking her to just remove it and then put it back on like it was a baseball cap! So it was Tiaragate 2007! It was really a great compliment to the United States that the Queen wore this beloved tiara for […]
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