万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-07-18&07-19, BBC向伊丽莎白女王道歉

Well, there's the phrase "artistic¹ liberties", and then there is simply "going too far," and that's how it's believed the BBC in England got itself into a bit of a royal mess involving the Queen of England and an unusual request by an iconic American photographer that the Queen remove her crown for a photo shoot. NBC'S Martin Savage² takes it from there.

It was this BBC sneak³ peek⁴ of its upcoming blockbuster fall series entitled A Year with the Queen that caused all of the furor⁵. Among other things it highlights the royal photo shoot with American celebrity⁶ photographer Annie Leibovitz.

"I think it will look better without the crown, less dressy, excuse me, the garter robe is so..."

"Less dressy??? What do you think this is? I'm not changing anything; I've had enough dressing⁷ like this, thank you very much."

Her Highness appears to storm off. But that's not the way it really happened. This was actually the Queen arriving for the shoot, not heading out in the half as the BBC implied. This morning British papers were full of headlines of a Queen gone mad. The Moment the Queen Snapped, shouted one. By mid-day the BBC was in royal damage control mode.

"The BBC has apologized to the Queen today."

By this evening it was the lead story, in part, because it was the BBC, but also because an American would be so bold as to ask the Queen to remove her crown which in this case as anyone in Britain knows, was actually a tiara .

"I have been photographing the Queen for over 30 years now, and no one would ask her to take off her tiara or her crown."

You see, asking the Queen to remove her tiara is a bit like asking this Welsh guard to remove that bearskin helmet, simply isn't done, is it?

You think the Queen was justified⁸?

I think she is very justified because everything would have been agreed beforehand--what she was going to wear, the shots that were going to happen.

Last month, two Leibovitz's photos of the Queen appeared in Vanity Fair, one with tiara, and one without.

Martin Savage, NBC News, London.

Can't believe I called it a crown. That's our broadcast for this Thursday night. Thank you for being with us, I'm Brian Williams. We will look for you back here tomorrow evening. Good night.

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tiara: An ornamental⁹, often jeweled, crownlike semicircle worn on the head by women on formal occasions.

Order of the Garter robes:嘉德勋章

King Edward III (r. 1327-1377) instituted the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 1348. He and the Black Prince (Edward's eldest¹⁰ son and Prince of Wales) were the first members of the Order, which is now over 650 years old. It is symbolised by a blue garter. The garter supposedly had its origins at a ball in northern France, attended by the king and a certain Joan, Countess of Salisbury.

1 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

2 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

3 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

4 peek   

vi.偷看，窥视；n.偷偷的一看，一瞥

参考例句：

• Larry takes a peek out of the window.赖瑞往窗外偷看了一下。
• Cover your eyes and don't peek.捂上眼睛，别偷看。

5 furor   

n.狂热；大骚动

参考例句：

• His choice of words created quite a furor.他的措辞引起了相当大的轰动。
• The half hour lecture caused an enormous furor.那半小时的演讲引起了极大的轰动。

6 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

7 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

8 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

9 ornamental   

adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物

参考例句：

• The stream was dammed up to form ornamental lakes.溪流用水坝拦挡起来,形成了装饰性的湖泊。
• The ornamental ironwork lends a touch of elegance to the house.铁艺饰件为房子略添雅致。

10 eldest   

adj.最年长的，最年老的

参考例句：

• The King's eldest son is the heir to the throne.国王的长子是王位的继承人。
• The castle and the land are entailed on the eldest son.城堡和土地限定由长子继承。