By Jason Chester and Bridie Pearson-jones For Mailonline
01:58 14 Nov 2023, updated 02:11 14 Nov 2023
Elizabeth Debicki has taken her remarkable portrayal of Diana, Princess Of Wales to the next level by recreating her iconic Vogue cover for the Radio Times.
The late Princess featured as cover star for the December 1992 edition of the fashion bible, five years before her tragic death, aged 36.
Debicki, who plays Diana in seasons five and six of Netflix drama The Crown, has since reenacted the pose ahead of the returning show’s launch on November 16.
The Australian actress, 33, wears a fitted black polo-neck sweater reminiscent of the one worn by Diana in her original shoot and models the same blonde hairstyle as she poses for the cover spread.
While the Vogue cover proved to be one of its biggest, the image – shot by French photographer Patrick Demarchelier – was originally intended for the cover of Diana’s 1992 biography.
Speaking to Radio Times, Andrew Morton, who wrote the unauthorised biography, admitted they eventually chose a photo by celebrated British photographer and filmmaker Terence Donovan, but only after disputing the fee.
‘He wanted £70,000 . . . when the going rate was £500,’ he explained. ‘He told us if the price wasn’t met, he would tell the world Diana was involved in the book. He had us by the crown jewels.’
Morton also claimed the upcoming final series of The Crown will ‘stir up the settled slit of loss’ over the royal.
The last instalment of the Peter Morgan biopic, which is released on Netflix on Thursday, will dramatise the weeks before the late Princess of Wales’s death and the fall-out within the royal family.
And Morton, who penned Diana’s ‘unauthorised, authorised biography’ five years before her death, said that the ‘gamey’ series is set to reopen closed wounds.
‘For many of us who lived through those dramatic days, it’s going to stir up the settled silt of remembrance and loss. Which is why The Crown team has been at pains to emphasise how sensitively the princess’s untimely death has been handled,’ he wrote.
He also recalled how he found out the then Princess of Wales had died.
‘Like millions around the world, I vividly remember that fateful day. I was staying with friends for the Edinburgh Festival and was woken by my host with the news. Disbelieving at first, when it gradually began to sink in, I booked the last seat on the morning flight to London.
‘During the journey, a Frenchman came over and handed me a note that said in effect: “I would like to apologise on behalf of the French nation.” At the time the French paparazzi, rather than a drunk driver, were being blamed for the crash.’
The emotional first four episodes cover the tragic car crash in Paris that killed Princess Diana in August 1997 – alongside her lover Dodi Fayed and their chauffeur Henri Paul – and the Royal Family ’s reaction to it, as well as the summer holiday Diana and Dodi enjoyed in St Tropez prior to the tragedy.
The Paris scenes were shot in the French capital, while a yacht was hired for the St Tropez scenes, although these were actually filmed in Mallorca.
For sensitivity reasons the exact moment of Diana’s death is not re-created, but there are controversial scenes in which Charles tenderly converses with an imaginary Diana in the cabin of the royal plane as he accompanies her body from Paris to London , and later when she also appears to the Queen.
Critics who have seen these scenes called them ‘farcical’ for portraying Diana as a ghost, but series creator Peter Morgan has insisted that wasn’t the intention.
‘I never imagined it as Diana’s ghost in the traditional sense,’ he told Variety magazine. ‘It was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she has left behind.’
The Crown was devised by Morgan after the success of his 2006 film about the Royal Family’s reaction to Diana’s death, The Queen.
And the series – which has earned 21 Emmys and dozens of BAFTA nominations, not to mention some criticism for its historical inaccuracies – covers the same ground, but using fresh information gleaned in the 17 years since the Oscar-winning movie was made.
In fact, the scripts had to be updated all the time as the Royal Family were plunged into headlines throughout the filming period, not only with the Queen’s death but also following the release of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare.
‘I assumed that Charles is an emotional and rather open-hearted guy in spite of the buttoned-up exterior he has to have in public,’ Dominic West, who plays the then Prince, told Weekend Magazine.
‘But when Harry wrote his book and said he never hugged him or anything, we had to change that slightly.’
The Crown season six, episodes one to four, will launch on Netflix from November 16. Episodes five to ten will launch on Netflix from December 14.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
