Queen Storms Out of Celeb Photo Shoot

This undated image provided by the British Broadcasting Corp., from the television program "A Year with the Queen" shows Britain's Queen Elizabeth II after America's most famous celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz suggested she remove her crown. "A Year with the Queen" was filmed by the BBC., as the queen prepared for her 80th birthday and during her recent visit to the United States. When Leibovitz asked Queen Elizabeth II to take off her crown, she got a stern response. In the footage, the queen walks into a room in Buckingham Palace, cluttered with camera equipment, wearing her crown and her Order of the Garter robes. Leibovitz tells her: "I think it will look better without the crown because the garter robe is so..." But before the photographer can finish saying "extraordinary," the queen gives her an icy stare and replies: "Less dressy. What do you think this is?" and points to what she is wearing. (AP Photo/ BBC/ho) (AP)

LONDON -- Annie Leibovitz received an icy stare and a stern response when she asked Queen Elizabeth II to remove her crown for an official portrait.

Footage of the exchange is included in a British Broadcasting Corp. documentary that was filmed as Queen Elizabeth II prepared for her 80th birthday and during her recent visit to the United States.

Snippets of "A Year With the Queen," which captures the working life of the royal family, were released Wednesday.

Queen Elizabeth II is shown walking into a room in Buckingham Palace _ which is cluttered with camera equipment _ wearing her crown and her Order of the Garter robes.

Leibovitz tells her: "I think it will look better without the crown because the Garter robe is so ..."

Before she can finish saying "extraordinary," the queen gives her an icy stare and replies: "Less dressy. What do you think this is?" and points to what she is wearing.

Cameras follow the queen as she storms off, an official lifting the large train of her blue velvet cape off the floor, as she tells her lady-in-waiting: "I'm not changing anything. I've had enough dressing like this, thank you very much."

Four official portraits of the queen were eventually released by Leibovitz.

The photographer, famous for her work for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair magazines, is known for making unusual requests of her subjects. She had Kate Winslet repeatedly dunked in a tank of water and snapped Clint Eastwood after he had been tied up with ropes.

Other images include a naked John Lennon cuddling a clothed Yoko Ono and Demi Moore, naked and heavily pregnant.

BBC cameras were given unprecedented access to the royal family _ and the queen's beloved corgis _ at home and abroad for the documentary.

___

On the Net:

BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/