Queen snapped at celebrity photographer

A BBC documentary on Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has captured the moment she tells off America’s most famous celebrity photographer for suggesting she remove her crown.

A Year with the Queen was filmed as she prepared for her 80th birthday and her visit to the US.

It captures the working life of the royal family.

But the most extraordinary moment is when the Queen is in Buckingham Palace, posing for a photograph by Annie Leibovitz, best known for her work for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair magazines.

Leibovitz is famous for making bizarre requests of her subjects. She once had Kate Winslet repeatedly dunked in a tank of water and snapped Clint Eastwood after he had been tied up with ropes.

But when she asked the Queen to take off her crown, she got a stern response.

In the footage, the Queen walks into a room in the palace cluttered with camera equipment, wearing her crown and 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?”, pointing to what she is wearing.

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.”

Leibovitz eventually released four official portraits of the Queen.