ONTD

Lily is on the cover of this month's Q Magazine, click inside the cut for details of the photoshoot plus a bigger cover and other pix



At first glance it looks as if Lily Allen is happily posing with two black panthers on the cover of the April issue of Q, out today. But there is more to the image, shot by photographer John Wright, than meets the eye.

The truth is there was just one black panther and it was kept in a cage – although the bars didn't reach all the way to the studio ceiling so it is theoretically possible it could have jumped out had it really put its mind to it.

The Buckinghamshire-based private zoo, Amazing Animals, had supplied a second panther in another cage but it was not used in the shoot.

Wright says the shoot took all day on 5 January but the real work came afterwards, with about 100 hours of post-production.

The cover image is a digital composite of three images – a picture of Allen and two separate pictures of the same panther. There are about 20 variations of the cover, Wright said. In other shots, the panther is replicated so it appears there are three of them, making it look as if Allen is dancing with the big cats.

Allen had flown in from Caribbean, landing at Heathrow about 9am and making her way directly to the studio in central London, where the crew had been preparing since 7.30am. (OP note: this means it was done around Christmas time for those interested)

"I think she thought it was jolly good fun," Wright said. "She went from lying on the beach to being in a room with angry panthers but she was great and completely got the concept and did everything I asked of her. She wasn't sure about taking her top off but we got there in the end." (this sounds just a little creepy?!)

Allen's people apparently liked the panther concept to fit with her "more wild" image to go with her new album, It's Not Me, It's You, and the tagline on the Q magazine cover is "Sexy beast Lily Allen and her wicked, wicked ways".

Only the handlers were permitted to actually go inside the cage with the panthers. Allen posed for the shots separately and the images were digitally merged in post-production.

With more than 20 people in the room – including Q magazine staff, Wright's assistants, the animal handlers, the video production crew and Allen's entourage – there was the potential for it all to go horribly wrong.

Wright says there was an elaborate system of signals in place in case a panther got loose and the room needed to be evacuated, but happily this proved unnecessary and the handlers kept the animals calm.

Wright had photographed wild animals before – usually less vicious beasts actually living in the wild – but he had no experience with panthers. He said it was quite a challenge to work out how they would behave and what movements they would make, as well as communicate his aims to the handlers.

Wright, who grew up on a council estate outside Glasgow, worked on the picture desks of the Daily Express, Sunday Express and then the Daily Mail, before becoming a photographer nine years ago.

He has shot celebrities including Gordon Ramsay, Kevin Pietersen, Terry Wogan and Ricky Gervais, as well as fashion spreads and musicians such as Lady Gaga, Pete Doherty and Franz Ferdinand.



Pics from the Q microsite











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IDK she looks hot but I was weirded out about the guy convincing her to take her top off even though it's only the back. o well not like she's not done it before lol. the rest of the photoshoot looks great without it anyway, but that blurb on the other pictures sounds uber patronising too.