Naomi Watts as Lady Di
No, it's OK, you're not hallucinating.
After a highly successful two-year rebranding operation powered by a royal wedding and a jubilee, this is exactly what the Palace doesn't need right now - new pictures showing Naomi Watts channelling the impossible glamour of Princess Diana on the set of a new film about the People's princess, "Caught in Flight".
The images are grabbing eyeballs around the world today and look set to make a big splash in tomorrow's papers in the UK after they were snapped on set in Croatia.
In the pictures, which prove the casting director is worth his or her pay packet, Watts looks very like the late Diana, Princess of Wales, although sticklers would argue that the hair might be more early Diana than late Diana.
Diana, who would have been 51 yesterday, died in a car crash in a Paris underpass in August 1997.
The British born actress is playing the lead in the new film, which covers the last two years of Diana's life. In many ways they were the most 'showbiz' years of her life, as, freed from royal protocol by her divorce to Charles, she went out of her way to promote herself in the service of her charitable endeavors, particularly the anti-landmine campaign.
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The Oscar-nominated actress has previously spoken about the controversial role, saying: "She is a part of our history, an incredible woman and fascinating but a tragic ending. The filmmakers came to me and it’s a good script and it’s very scary and I kind of wanted to say 'no' but I couldn't"
Props to the casting director, says the Royalist.
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