Q Reviews
I thought this was a little silly, so I teased out the best I could:
BBC – Queen triumphs amid Bush gaffes
What will have mattered to her is the fact that this state visit – her fourth to the United States in the past 50 years – has clearly been a success.
The capital city of the world’s superpower isn’t an easy place to impress.
There is an understandable superiority about the city. Very, very few official visitors have the power to break through its studied indifference to just about everything that isn’t American.
Queen Elizabeth II showed that she is one of those visitors who does have the presence to impress Washington’s most powerful movers and shakers.
Partly it’s because she’s a major-league royal, which carries a mystique outranking any amount of “celebrity”, and arouses a curiosity few be-suited politicians could muster .
Partly it’s because of her venerable age and the fact that she has been a witness to, or a participant in, so many world events for so very long.
And partly it’s because it was citizens from her country who, 400 years ago this month (as her visit recognised) established the first permanent non-native settlement in North America which, in turn, gave birth to the USA and a military alliance which has been tested in two world wars and various other conflicts.
Then you have this, unbelievably tagged as “Queen Gets the Semi-Royal Treatment” on FOXnews’ front page:
FOXnews – No Hollywood Stars at Dinner for Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip must have been a little disappointed last night. The White House dinner thrown in their honor didn’t include any Hollywood stars. Remember when Princess Diana got fussed over by John Travolta and Tom Selleck? How times have changed!…
Actual celebrities? You tell me. Among the attendees were NBC’s David Gregory, ABC’s Robin Roberts, pregnant member of “The View” Elisabeth Hasselbeck, her football player husband Tim, plus Peyton Manning, Arnold Palmer, Henry Kissinger, the wife of opera star Placido Domingo and violinist Itzhak Perlman.
Queen Elizabeth II may have returned home with a T-shirt that read: “I went to the White House and all I got was this lousy T-shirt and anecdotes about Rosie O’Donnell.”
Of course, most Hollywood stars probably identify themselves as Democrats, but still: Who would turn down an invitation to meet the Queen of England at the White House?
At Liz Smith’s Literacy Partners dinner last night in New York, Bette Midler — the surprise performer at the swellicious Lincoln Center event — quipped about the State dinner, “I wasn’t invited, so it turned out I was free. And I hear President Bush has already made his first faux pas of the night. He congratulated Queen Elizabeth on her Oscar win.”
God, typical. He couldn’t even watch The Queen? Somehow I don’t think HM is impressed by Bette Midler (who let’s face it isn’t exactly du jour). She’d probably be annoyed if a bunch of uneducated tedious celebrities were invited, “See ma’am, I invited them cuz you’re famous too!” And Bush is the gauche one?
May 9th, 2007 at 8:45 am
The Royal family hasn’t been doing celebrities for all that long at all. Horse trainers aren’t celebrities, for the purpose of this argument.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:34 am
I think fondly of the good old days when Edward VII used to get in trouble for associating with actresses.
The times may have changed, but the acting profession hasn’t.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:34 am
May I say, as that rare creature actually born within the borders of the District of Columbia, and life-long resident save for 2 years in Italy and 3 in Dallas, and a life-long participant in Washington’s political life (having been sacrificed to the cause by political parents) that the Beeb is clueless about what Washington is like?
There is no studied apathy where celebrities are concerned. Not here. The papers go nuts when movies are filmed here. We get breathless reports about where the stars eat, what they eat, how much they tip. Official Washington contorts itself to be seen in the presence of celebrities. Congresspersons, who do a fair amount of preening for C-Span cameras already, simply fall over themselves to be seen chummy with celebrities testifying before their committees for causes du jour (starring in a film featuring a social problem makes you an expert, did you know?). Washington audiences, similarly, have notoriously low standards –everything gets a standing ovation. Everything.
Nothing against the Queen, who is lovely, and whom people were vying to see, but the Beeb’s nuts if it thinks she was going to get anything other than a warm welcome. Where Washington manners fail, it tends to be in the direction of excessive slobbering.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:39 am
PS. Official Washington thinks Bush is gauche because he’s not that impressed by celebrity. Impressed? He has the temerity not even to be much interested in it.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Yeah, hence the “typical” about Roger Friedman’s piece. It’s not a guest list unless half of Hollywood is there, and naturally anyone would be insulted if half of Hollywood weren’t invited to a dinner in your honour. Sorry but what does that have to do with anything, except that journalists and the type of person who goes into politics is obsessed with celebrity so much that… Well. More wailing and gnashing of teeth.
May 9th, 2007 at 11:09 am
400 years ago this month (as her visit recognised) established the first permanent non-native settlement in North America which, in turn, gave birth to the USA and a military alliance which has been tested in two world wars and various other conflicts.
Huh, St. Augustines is North America ain’t it? So is my neighbor town of St. Marks, Pensacola?
May 9th, 2007 at 11:47 am
The English are so full of themselves. If it isn’t English, it isn’t worth mentioning, nevermind admitting existed in the first place.
May 9th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Additionally, it doesn’t seem to occur to the press that the White House protocol people might have consulted with the Her Majesty’s protocol people about the guest list.Diana got Travolta because that’s what Diana would like.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:23 am
No Half, that was just the customary BBC ignorance, they make that kind of mistake all the time. You can do that when you’re paid for by a poll tax and can send people to gaol for non-payment. Apart from Top Gear…..(see above).
Politics is show business for ugly people. And Segolene Royal.