Critics divided over Leibovitz Queen portrait

LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) An American photographer famed for showing celebrities naked or bathing in asses' milk chose a more traditional pose for Britain's Queen Elizabeth, but Annie Leibovitz's new work sharply divided critics.

John Lennon appeared naked and Clint Eastwood was bound with ropes, but Leibovitz opted to have her subject in full evening dress for an official portrait marking the queen's visit to the United States yesterday.

Washington Post culture critic Henry Allen was not amused, complaining that the portrait of the monarch sitting in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace had ''all the personality of a marble bust of George Washington.'' ''I wonder if there isn't a line of people having to wait to have their picture taken in the same chair, the same costume, perhaps one of those little cut-outs you stick your head through,'' he told BBC Radio.

But British critic William Feaver was relieved that Leibovitz, who famously photographed Hollywood actresses Whoopi Goldberg in a bath of milk and Demi Moore naked and heavily pregnant, had opted for tradition.

''I think on these occasions tradition is good. You do not want to see Her Majesty breakdancing or bathing in a vat of asses' milk,'' Feaver told BBC radio.

Also obvious is the influence of Helen Mirren's Oscar-winning performance in the film ''The Queen'' which portrayed the royal family struggling to cope with a wave of public grief after Princess Diana's death in 1997.

Feaver called it ''a post-Oscar type production. It is the stand-in for Dame Helen Mirren in her own location being rather commanding but not really at ease with this army of American photographers glamming her up for Vanity Fair.'' ''Queen's Mirren Image,'' was the verdict of The Daily Mirror tabloid.

Critics said there was also a striking resemblance in the portrait with the monarch's mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who was famously captured by photographer Cecil Beaton in traditional poses.

Leibovitz agreed. ''I like tradition. Cecil Beaton's pictures -- they're very important to me,'' she was quoted as saying after her session with the queen, who leaves today for her first official visit to the United States for 16 years.

Evening Standard royal correspondent Robert Jobson felt it was the ideal regal pose.

''It is perfect for the American market. It is almost like a Victorian pose, very traditional,'' he told Reuters.

''Many believe this will be her last state visit to America.

They have given her a very grand feel.'' Reuters SYU GC0908