Annie Leibovitz calls Timothée Chalamet ‘Little Prince’ amid uproar over Vogue shoot
By Rob Redding
Editor & Publisher
New York, NY. Nov. 28, 2025, 2 p.m. - Today’s episode of CNN’s Amanpour is set to intensify scrutiny of Vogue’s handling of its recent cover shoot with global superstar Timothée Chalamet. The shoot, photographed by the legendary Annie Leibovitz, has drawn backlash after she privately referred to Chalamet as a “little prince.”
Asked about the AI-generated, cosmic-styled controversy surrounding the images, Leibovitz replied, “Yes, out of this world.” She continued, “Timothée was supposed to be the little prince, but I couldn’t really tell him that.”
The Little Prince is a French novel published in 1943 about a young prince who visits different planets. The cover of the book, which was banned by the Vichy regime, looks very similar to the photo of Chalamet. The Vichy regime banned the book because they thought its messages of independence and questioning authority might encourage people to resist them. They wanted to control what people read and believed.
Still, some of his most ardent fans have criticized her handling of the subject. On the cover, Chalamet appears nonchalantly posed against a cosmic backdrop, with other images showing him in mid-fall or viewed from behind. The treatment of shooting Chalamet, who is white, from behind is similar to other controversies around her Black subjects.
Leibovitz’s work with Black subjects has also long stirred debate, raising questions about representation and the “white gaze” in editorial photography. Her portraits of figures such as Simone Biles, Viola Davis, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson were criticized for dim lighting and muted tones that seemed to flatten rather than illuminate their presence. In 2019, one of her images displayed at Arizona State University was even accused of resembling “blackface,” prompting its removal after student complaints.
While Leibovitz herself has not made public statements about race, critics argue her stylistic choices reveal a lack of sensitivity to Black skin tones and cultural resonance. These controversies form an important backdrop to her Chalamet shoot, underscoring how silence and aesthetic decisions can carry heavy cultural weight.
(Rob Redding is known as America's Independent Voice. His show, Redding News Review Unrestricted, is available exclusively to subscribers on his website, ReddingNewsReview.com).