The footage, a trailer for a fly-on-the-wall documentary, made headline news around the world after it showed [Annie] Leibovitz apparently asking the Queen to remove her crown because it was too "dressy".
The Queen was shown saying: "Less dressy? What do you think this is?"
In the next shot, the Queen was shown apparently storming out of the room, with a footman following behind, as she complained: "I'm not changing anything. I've done enough dressing like this, thank you very much."
This story was almost immediately retracted. (But still check it out here, for the fantastic screen cap of the Queen looking pissed off.) It seems like a case of misleading cuts in a trailer - run of the mill for blockbusters, sure, but riskier when you've finally been allowed to do an unprecedented documentary about the royal family. It turns out that the 'storming off' shot was actually a shot of the Queen on her way to the photo shoot.
Today's Guardian story is all about how embarassed the BBC is - apparently it's worried about losing the right to televise major state events. The Guardian even goes so far as to claim that "some insiders [are] fretting that it could damage viewer trust, already eroded by a series of scandals in recent months, including the Blue Peter phone-in incident".
I'm wondering why the print media doesn't show a bit more embarassment themselves. They printed a story based on a few seconds of a documentary trailer, and a claim from the group that made the documentary. Sure, it's tough to check this stuff with the royal family - but I bet Annie Leibovitz is more accessible.
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