Michelle Shock: More Excited For Elmo Than Queen

Michelle Obama filmed a Sesame Street appearance yesterday, and, as any good American would be, she was delighted. Apparently it was even more fun than meeting some ancient English broad! More »

Canada Still Working On This "Being Sovereign Nation" Thing

Sure, we got problems, but at least the Queen of England didn't indirectly shut down our government. Sucks to be Canada! [Slate]

Poppy, Anna, Alice, Oliver and Megan were the big winners at the Fido Awards, for their impressive performances as Queen Elizabeth's beloved Corgies in The Queen, eliciting these good wishes from their award-winning co-star, Dame Helen Mirren: "I know one should avoid acting with animals and children, but these little chaps were a pleasure to work with and deserve all the plaudits for their fine performances." [AP]

CAA Assimilates The Yankees

· Agenting's Evil Empire joins forces with its baseball equivalent, luring the New York Yankees into their nefarious embrace with the promise of brokering lucrative new corporate sponsorships and keeping the clubhouse buffet stocked with the most delicious babies the Bronx has to offer. [*Full disclosure: As a lifelong Yankees fan, this one really hurts.] [Variety] More »

BBC Sentenced To Identifying And Correcting Every Lie In History By Decree Of An Angry Queen

The fallout continues from last week's royal debacle, in which the BBC was forced to publicly apologize to The Scariest Lady on the Planet, aka Queen Elizabeth II, for having rearranged footage to make it seem as though she had stormed out of a photo session with Annie Leibovitz. A Year with the Queen producers RDF Media e-mailed the director-general of the BBC, accepting full responsibility for what they refer to as "a serious error of judgment." Somehow, not even the divvying of blame among sub-production entities has done much to lessen the Queen's wrath, as The WOW Report's Fenton Bailey reprints an e-mail he received from a BBC contact: More »

Dude in charge of the BBC channel responsible for that whole "the Queen blew off Annie Leibovitz" story may lose his job. They're actually calling it Crowngate. It's kind of adorable how seriously the English take that whole monarchy thing. [Guardian]

BBC Producers Apologize To Queen For Editing Her To Look Like A Nightmare Bitch From Hell

A promo clip released yesterday of BBC documentary A Year with the Queen showed Annie Leibovitz requesting that Queen Elizabeth II remove her crown for a picture. The Queen's response was to incapacitate her with a royal shoe pressed against her neck, threatening, "Ask that of me again and I shall crush your trachea like a bug," before storming out of the session in a huff. Not all was what it seemed, however, and producers have issued apologies to both parties for having creatively rearranged their footage for maximum diva-rampage potential. From BBC News: More »

Angry Queen Really Stormed IN

Maybe the Queen didn't storm off in a huff during that photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz after all. Or maybe the BBC is just worried about getting its charter renewed. Either way, the organization has apologized and "admitted the sequence of events in a BBC1 documentary about the Queen had been misrepresented and would not be shown that way in the final programme." Turns out the old lady was actually bitching and moaning as she arrived for the shoot. That's how we like our monarchs: surly from the get-go. More »

Annie Leibovitz Learns 'Let's Try One Without The Crown' Doesn't Fly With An Actual Queen

What happened when leading celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz—a bold artist known to throw fits when the prop baby DHL'd to her Vanity Fair cover shoot doesn't meet her exacting specifications—was assigned to shoot a legendarily frigid monarch? Things got tense, especially when the portraitist suggested to the Queen of England that she remove her crown, and BBC cameras were there to capture the entire exchange. From The Times Online: More »

Helen Mirren: 'Why I Blew Off The Queen For Nicolas Cage'

Queen Elizabeth II, fresh off her triumphant trip to her semi-retarded former colony, has invited her Academy-Award-winning portraitist (and occasional Defamer forbidden lust object) Helen Mirren to dine with her at Buckingham Palace. Reports spread quickly that Mirren turned the invitation down, for the rather unregal excuse that the actress was unable to escape the South Dakota shoot of the much-unanticipated next installment in the Bruckheimerian scavenger hunt series, National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Now, via a message tied to the leg of a carrier pigeon branded with the logo of a leading Hollywood P.R. firm, comes Mirren's own official explanation of the royal regrets: More »

How To Act Around The Queen

As a hazard attending to the job we do, we pretty much consume almost all media going, and we've yet to see any kind of etiquette guide regarding the forthcoming visit of Britain's Elizabeth "Queen" Windsor to these shores. But according to the Daily Mail our papers have been chockablock with tips for how we should behave in the off chance that we somehow encounter that little island's monarch. While helpfully noting that "Indians and black people are included in all of the ceremonies she will attend," the article doesn't do much in the way of providing useful advice as to how one should handle oneself in the presence of royalty. So here's our suggestion if you've somehow breached the security cordon: Say hello, ask her how her kids are, and get the hell out of there. This is America, we barely give a shit about the President. No need to be embarrassed about some old queen. —balk More »

Awards Round-Up: Art Directors Take Care Of Their Own

· Every Guild Gets Awards! Dept: Remember how authentic those Buckingham Palace gates and that flower shrine looked in The Queen? No? That means the art director was doing his job. The Art Directors Guild makes sure to fête the greatest achievements in contemporary, fantasy, and period movie categories Saturday at the Beverly Hilton. [Variety] More »

Short Ends: The Queen, As Nasty As She Wanna Be

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Awards Round-Up: London Film Critics Give Non-British, Non-Foreign Film Prize To 'United 93'

· The London Film Critics' Circle awarded The Queen its top British film and director awards, United 93 best film and director, and Volver best foreign film, rendering us completely and utterly lost. [Variety] More »

Short Ends: Hey, Prehistoric Shark, Over Here!

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'Dreamgirls,' White Skin, And Acts Of God: An Oscar Nominations Round-Up

· The Gold Derby blog's Tom O'Neil didn't take the Dreamgirls shut-out too well, but after some deep soul-searching and spiritual communion with his higher, musical-loving power, decided the only logical explanation was that Academy members simply couldn't identify with the African American, showtune-belting experience. Or, as he puts it, "Because they can't break out of their white skins, that's why." [GoldDerby] More »

Trade Round-Up: Queens And Spies Big With BAFTA

· DreamWorks marketing guru Terry Press is leaving longtime partner Jeffrey Katzenberg after more than a decade of service to start her own company. But don't worry, she's still handling a variety of upcoming DW projects, ensuring that their ambitious Shrek the Third campaign, in which every child buying a Shrek-promoting Happy Meal will be painted bright green at the time of purchase, doesn't have to be overseen by a lesser visionary. [Variety] More »

Awards Round-Up: Apparently Some Movie About The Queen Is Worth Checking Out

Because it's never too late to start your Oscar pool prognosticating—especially with the all-important Canadian take to factor in—we offer another year-end awards season round-up: More »

Awards Round-Up: Helen Mirren To Hear From Real Queen About How She Got It All Wrong

Like the family Golden Retriever plopping your favorite pair of slippers by your feet, we bring you yet another year-end critics' list round-up: More »