In the old days, this kind of thing could get your head chopped off. The French call it lèse majesté, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign. In this case the offense was committed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) against Queen Elizabeth II. What they did was not, technically, a crime here in modern times. But it was in poor taste and I am certain that Her Majesty's displeasure was firmly communicated to the BBC. She may have even said, "We are not amused." Who knows?

What happened? In promoting their upcoming fall shows, the BBC shared clips of an "A Year With the Queen," a sort of "Real World: Buckingham Palace" documentary in which a camera crew had permission to follow the Queen around. One clip depicted Her Majesty putting celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz in her place when she suggested the Queen remove her crown so as to appear "less dressy" for her official portrait photo shoot. My guess is Annie will not be getting that gig again.

A subsequent clip shows the Queen bustling down a hallway in her robes of state, making an aside to one of her staff, with the implication that she had stormed out of the photo session. Very diva of the Queen.

But all was not as it seemed. The two scenes had been edited out of sequence. The second scene actually should have been first, as it showed the Queen on her way to the photo session. Which she did not storm out of.

Now the media can get away with a lot. They can edit and cut and splice and portray anyone in a false light. That's the whole formula for most of the reality shows on the air ... that's how they ramp up the drama. 60 Minutes does this all the time too. Michael Moore's whole overrated movie making career is based on this kind of oh-so-clever editing. There is usually very little the victims of such false or slanted portrayals can do about it.

But when you're the BBC, playing "You got punked" with the Queen is a bad idea.

THE BBC has been forced to make an embarrassing apology to the Queen for suggesting she stormed out of a photo session after being asked to remove her crown. ("Royal apology crowns open-and-shutter case," TheAge.com)

You may commence groveling:

"In this trailer, there is a sequence that implies that the queen left a sitting prematurely," the BBC said in a statement. "This was not the case and the actual sequence of events was misrepresented.

"The BBC would like to apologize to both the queen and Annie Leibovitz for any upset this may have caused." (Pravda)

I don't know if that is sufficiently abject. The Queen was said to be livid. Livid, I tell you!

After initially apologising at lunchtime today, the BBC tonight issued a fresh statement trying to explain what it said was a miscommunication.

"The extracts shown from A Year with the Queen were supplied by RDF (the documentary's production company), who had made an early assembly of the footage several months ago," a BBC spokeswoman said.

"This assembly was never intended to be seen by the public or the press. Unfortunately, this assembly was given in error to the BBC personnel who were preparing the BBC One autumn launch tape.

"RDF did not have an opportunity to review the BBC One launch tape, but would like to apologise to the Queen and Annie Leibovitz for this error." (Times Online)

Organizers "used the sequence in good faith without any knowledge that the error had been made," per the BBC. (E! Online)

I think you're moving in the wrong direction, BBC. Now you're trying to weasel out of your mistake by blaming your sub-contractor, RDF. Although it was good of them to apologise too. But I think you're just digging the hole deeper now.

During a day of embarrassing internal wrangling, the BBC Trust, the body that oversees the corporation, said it would demand that Mark Thompson, the corporation's Director-General, explain the situation when he talks to next week's Trust meeting.

"The BBC Trust has requested the Director-General to give an account at next week's trust meeting of the events which led to the BBC issuing an apology about the trailing of a documentary about HM The Queen," a statement said. (Times Online)

Yup. You're in trouble. Possibly career-ending trouble for Peter Fincham, director of BBC One, who presided over the press conference at which the erroneous footage was shown and told reporters that it depicted the Queen storming out of the photo session. He says he has no plans to resign over the row.

Generally speaking, when you have to announce that you have no plans to resign ... it may no longer be your decision to make.