Revenge of the Picasa2 Nerds

How great is this? The famous American lady photographer, Annie Leibovitz , won the gig to shoot the Queen on her eightieth birthday. During the shooting, Annie the First requested, ever so politely, that Elizabeth the Second remove her gem-encrusted sparkling spiked tiara from her royal head, in order to make a more down-to-earth and interesting portrait. Elizabeth, Head of Church and State, was so stunned at this extraordinary “decrowning” demand from a mere mortal, that she lost her queenly temper and regally stormed out of the palace chamber, dragging her train behind her. Actually, she did not drag her velvet train as it was most carefully carried by the Queen’s ladies in waiting.

During the programme photographer US celebrity snapper Annie Leibovitz sizes up the Queen in her full regalia and ventures: “I think it will look better without the crown, because the garter robe is so…” . Before the photographer can finish … the Queen raises her eyebrows, fixes the snapper with an icy stare, and snaps: “Less dressy? What do you think this is?” TV cameras follow the Queen storming off with an official lifting the large train of her blue velvet cape off the floor as the Queen tells her lady-in-waiting: “I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this thank you very much.” This is all according to reports from Britain’s Daily Mail.

Leibovitz, being the pro that she is, managed to snap the footage of the stormy whirlwind and captured Her Majesty’s face at the very moment that Majesty was contemplating sending Annie to the Tower of London. It gets even worse, for although Queen Lillibett may have given commoner Annie a piece of her mind, it was actually Annie who got the last laugh, with this — the official photographic portrait of the long-lived queen. Not only is Elizabeth “uncrowned”, but Annie has turned her into a vampire looking Munster Queen.

Queen Elizabeth Munster

And I bet Annie did it with Picasa 2 too, using the “Focal B & W” effect, although she will never admit it.

UPDATE: Since I first “reported” this event as it appeared in Britain’s “Daily Mail”, the title has been changed to “BBC lied about Queen’s ‘tantrum’” after the BBC apologized to both the Queen and Annie for misrepresenting the behavior of both. So the new news is that the Queen and Annie are good and proper folks and it is the BBC that deserves contempt … I guess. It is a bit much for Kerfuffles to find and follow the truth here, however, Annie’s portrait of Queen Lillibett Munster has not changed … yet.