But much of the transformation of the Queen's image, from the chilly, notoriously philistinic matriarch who couldn't care less about Diana to an ever more droll and sympathetic mentor to pitifully grateful prime ministers is surely attributable to Mirren's superb acting, and to the writers who have increasingly depicted the monarch as – so long as you are not Margaret Thatcher – fabulous company.
On Thursday, news broke that "Mama June" Shannon, the unexpected matriarch of TLC's runaway reality hit Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, was in a relationship with a new man.
In the latter, she was the matriarch who is seen briefly at the beginning, sobbing while listening to the radio news about the riots in Paris in May 1968, but is soon revealed to be busy cutting onions.
On July 20th the Zi'adah family house in al-Bureij was hit by an Israeli bomb, killing six members of the extended family, including the family matriarch, three of her sons, and a 12-year-old grandson.
The book's thrust is that the prime minister abdicated power to Sonia Gandhi, matriarch of the family that has the Congress party at its beck and call.
Mr Douglas-Hamilton's researchers were able to observe the reaction of other elephants to the death of Eleanor, the matriarch of a group called the First Ladies.
But there is bad blood between Mr Yudhoyono and Megawati Sukarnoputri, matriarch of the PDI-P party to which Jokowi belongs.
The previous advisor, Kaushik Basu, who returns to Cornell University this month, was in close touch with Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, and had decent access to Sonia Gandhi, the matriarch of the ruling Congress party.
She blames the "unhealthy" joint Indian family.One fabulously rich family in Mumbai, whose matriarch wears "diamonds the size of birds' eggs", feuded for years over who controlled the servants.
Hatun, a matriarch with gold teeth, speaks of being beaten.
But the dynasty's matriarch, Sonia Gandhi, is unwell, while her son, Rahul, has run away from the Hazare controversy hardly reassuring, since he is the presumed next prime minister.
