Academy Award-winning actress Olivia Colman has been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II — the monarch she is about to play on the Netflix royal family TV drama ‘The Crown.’
Colman was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, in the annual Queen’s Birthday Honors list.
The performer won a best-actress Oscar this year for playing 18th-century monarch Queen Anne in ‘The Favorite.’ She plays Elizabeth in the upcoming third season of ‘The Crown,’ which is currently in production.
Colman said she was “totally thrilled, delighted and humbled” by the honour.
The queen also made singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, 64, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE — an honour far from his roots in Britain’s punk and new wave scene during the 1970s.
In a website post entitled ‘In Her Majesty’s Secret Service,’ Costello said he spoke with his mother before deciding to put aside “old doubts and enmities” about the crown and his country’s past as the British Empire and “muster what little grace I possess” to accept the honour from the 93-year-old monarch Friday.
It was a task Costello made more palatable by dedicating the award to his grandfathers, who fought “for King and Country” during the First World War, “and because my Mam told me to do it.
“To be honest, I’m pretty tickled to receive this acknowledgement for my ‘Services To Music’ as it confirms my long held suspicion nobody really listens to the words in songs or the outcome might have been somewhat different,” Costello wrote.
Other recipients of this years’ Queen’s Birthday Honors include British-Sri Lankan rapper MIA, whose real name Mathangi Arulpragasam, 43, and Andrew Roachford, the singer-songwriter behind the band Roachford. Both were made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, for services to music.
The honours are awarded twice a year, at New Year’s and to mark the monarch’s official birthday in June. (Elizabeth actually was born on April 21, so celebrates twice, as well.) They acknowledge hundreds of people for services to community or British national life.
In descending order, the main honours are knighthoods, CBE, OBE and MBE. Knights are addressed as “sir” or “dame,” followed by their name. Recipients of the other honours have no title, but can put the letters after their names.
