BBC director general Mark Thompson has today ordered an ?independent inquiry? into the TV editing error which wrongly implied the Queen had walked out of a portrait session with photographer Annie Leibovitz
The news comes just days after TV production company RDF Media apologised to the BBC for the mistake over the footage which was shown to journalists last week to promote the BBC?s autumn TV line-up.
Responding to the controversy Annie Leibovitz’s UK agent Neil Burgess last week criticised elements of the press for its sensationalist coverage.
Neil Burgess, the founder of NB Pictures, told Amateur Photographer magazine that he was already ‘pretty angry’ at the initial portrayal of Liebovitz as depicted in the trailer for the upcoming documentary.
However, he said his fury was further intensified by subsequent newspaper coverage of the furore.
The controversy erupted after a trailer for the programme, called A Year With The Queen, apparently showed Her Majesty in a verbal exchange with Leibovitz after which The Queen is seen walking off.
Leibovitz is seen telling The Queen she will look better without her tiara – the trailer later cutting to The Queen telling her lady-in-waiting: ‘I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this, thank you very much.’
However, the TV clips were shown out-of-sequence and wrongly implied that The Queen was angry at Liebovitz?s request.
Captured at Buckingham Palace Leibovitz’s portraits of The Queen were published earlier this year to mark her state visit to the United States (see AP 19 May 2007).
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