Thursday, May 10, 2007
Helen Mirren, The Queen & I
The always gracious, 61-year old Helen Mirren, this year’s Oscar winner for Best Actress in her magnificent performance as Queen Elizabeth II, has extended a sincere apology to her royal highness (HRH). She and her director husband, Taylor Hackford, received the royal invitation for dinner with the Queen of England last Tuesday, the evening before her majesty left on her visit to the U.S. The invitation, however, happened to conflict with Ms. Mirren’s current film schedule, requiring her to be on location in South Dakota at the same time. Currently, she is filming National Treasure: The Book of Secrets, the sequel to Nicholas Cage’s hit movie, National Treasure, and unfortunately had to decline the personal invitation from the Queen.
In view of the fact that Ms. Mirren paid tribute in her Oscar acceptance speech to the Queen and has openly expressed her admiration for HRH, it is firmly believed that the negative RSVP was unavoidable. Ms. Mirren notified and explained her situation to the Palace officials, but unfortunately, the British Daily Mail reported that the film star could have and should have accepted the honor. According to the story issued by the newspaper, Mirren was intentionally rude by not accepting the dinner invitation. They, the press, felt that her production company would have allowed her to do so, schedule or no schedule. On the other hand, the production company has publicly apologized and taken full blame for Ms Mirren’s non-attendance.
Their publicist, Michael Singer, issued statements to the media and on television explaining that poor weather, location lock-ins, and tight filming schedules prevented their allowing Ms. Mirren to accept the honor and privilege. Although the British monarch’s calendar is usually established a year or so in advance, the Palace staff has indicated that plans are being made for an alternative dinner date for the Queen and her film star namesake sometime in the near future.
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