And from the department of WTF:
In case you were wondering just how gross Newsweek could get in the pursuit of readers, here’s your answer: Piggy-backing on the huge PR success of the Royal Wedding to remind us that Princess Diana is STILL DEAD but if she WEREN’T MAYBE THIS IS WHAT IT’D BE LIKE. Here’s the problem: she IS dead, this is beyond tacky, and apparently Newsweek is now in the business of writing fanfic. Never mind the fact that, had Diana lived, William probably would never have been allowed to marry Kate Middleton — I’m of the opinion that it was Diana’s death that finally shook the Royal Family up enough to knock their heads out of the asses and into the present day, where they realized that forcing people to marry other people just because they’re “suitable” is a REAL BAD IDEA (not that Kate wouldn’t be considered suitable in every other way other than the accident of fate that had her born to regular people and not the Duke and Duchess of Whatnot). Never mind that the last time I checked, Newsweek was supposed to be covering, you know, news, as it is not called FictionalPrincessStoriesWeek. Never mind that the Photoshop job they did to age up Diana’s face makes her look like the Lady Cryptkeeper and not a middle-aged woman with amazing bone structure. Did no one in the course of this EXCESSIVELY MISGUIDED STORY even bother to point out that DIANA NEVER WOULD HAVE WORN A HAT THAT WASHES HER OUT THAT MUCH?
I am offended on multiple levels, is what I am saying here.
Comments (120):
That is disgusting.
unbelievably crass
Agreed! This is unbelievable! I subscribed to Newsweek for almost ten years – it was my entre into the grown up news world. I quit when it got too fluffy, and this is too tacky for words. Fan fiction – sick, sad fan fiction – is exactly the right phrase for it.
Ditto times infinity! I agree with everything you said. Plus, how horrible is that Photoshop job?
Well said, Fug Girls! This is so crass, low, and distasteful.
Jessica,
I heartily endorse your impeccable response to this utterly tasteless result of piss-poor editorial decision making.
Bravo, pip pip, and hear hear,
Andersonic TK421
gross. who would BUY that??
It’s really awful. I hope neither William nor Harry see it.
Tsk, tsk, Tina Brown. You should be ashamed.
Oy. Pretty much what y’all said, from GFY Jessica on down.
Truly cannot believe it.
this issue was delivered to our office yesterday and I actually thought it was a poorly considered joke — a la National Lampoon (yes, I am ancient). . .but from NEWSWEEK, really?!?!?!?
I’m speechless and appalled
Newsweek has jumped the shark. Who’da ever thunk it? THANKS, TINA BROWN! Egh.
Ergh… this is horrible, just horrible.
As a longtime-Newsweek subscriber (if it’s still printed with ink and disseminating news, I’ll subscribe to it), I was terrifically disappointed in the execution of this cover. Princess Fan Fiction is one thing (particularly on a slow news week – can we blame Tina Brown for wanting to sell magazines?) but… why not a side by side split of the REAL Diana at a comparable moment in time next to Kate? Photoshop-ing a deceased icon took a real leap over the dignity line.
I was mortified when I saw it. Not only is it tacky, but A) Diana would physically look much better and B) would not wear that outfit, especially that hat. Here’s my take on the piss-poor Photoshop job: They made it look bad on purpose, so conspiracy theorists wouldn’t start shouting that she’s still alive. Otherwise, their Photoshop “guru” should be canned,
what an effing joke. you deplorably disrespectful idiots.
Tacky and disrespectful.
Tina Brown, need we say more?
I couldn’t agree more! The tackiness of the cover pretty much sums up why I’ll never read/subscribe to Newsweek
Someone needs fired. Check that, a BUNCH of people need fired, because surely there’s no way in hell this did not get approval from a crapload of people before it hit stands.
Here here, Jessica!
My jaw dropped when I saw this. Beyond poor taste, this is so low, so crass and utterly disrespectful. Shame on you, Tina Brown.
Just when I thought Tina Brown couldn’t sink any lower in her quest for sales, she proves me wrong again. Jessica is offended on multiple levels because this cover is offensive on multiple levels. The Newsweek offices must be a total nightmare if no one felt they could speak up and stop this mess. (I refuse to believe that no one working under Brown realized that this was a terrible, terrible idea.)
I, too, am offended by this. Mainly because how the hell can Tina Brown (or anyone else, for that matter) presume to know what Diana would have made of Kate Middleton.
With Michelle Bachmann running around saying that John QUINCY Adams was a founding father (when, at best, he maybe would have been a founding kid brother), Sarah Palin on her Will She or Won’t She Run? cross-country trip, and the total cluster fuck that is the US economy right now, I’m sure that Tina Brown could have found something else for the cover had she really tried.
So well said Jessica. If they were trying to appeal to royal watchers (like myself) they truly missed the mark. I don’t even want to see this in a store much less buy it. Tasteless beyond words.
I have nothing new to add. But I too am highly offended. Really, someone needs to be fired.
I agree with everything else that’s been said, but also noticed one other disturbing item. The hat they show on Diana was actually work by Kate recently – so wrong!!!!
Well said.
Wish I could go back in time and un-see this. Gag!
It MAY have been OK to have written a piece on “What would Diana have been?”, and it would have been oddly placed “fan fiction.” But photoshopping a dead woman is so beyond bad taste as to be appalling
what i mean is there should have been no “picture” of Diana–i bet the princes are none too happy with this, poor guys
Vulgar beyond belief. I am reminded of that “duet” of Natalie Cole singing Unforgettable with her dead father, the great Nat King Cole. At least that tacky endeavour had the willing participation of one of the subjects.
When this issue showed up in my mailbox yesterday, I too was “WTF”? The poor woman is gone – why do we (OK, not WE so much as whomever was knocked on the head by one of their commemorative Di & Charles plates and this harebrained idea popped into their noggin) have to drag her up from her grave to play a game of “What If…”? The world has moved on, as it should. Let the newlyweds enjoy their time in the light, and let Diana rest in peace. Newsweek, one word for you: TA-CKY.
There’s a book by Monica Ali that just came out this week in North America, and it’s fiction, but it’s basically that Diana faked her own death and is living in like, Nowhere, USA, or some crap. I would be so offended if I were her family. Heck, I’m offended now. It’s gross.
ew.
and eff off Tina Brown.
What the hell is wrong with us?
I’m still not sure which grosses me out more – that they’re doing this, or that Diana looks like a vampire who has been starved for a few hundred years and is contemplating snacking on her daughter-in-law. Seriously, seriously creepy picture. Princess Di would NEVER look like that, even if she was of the undead.
I can only imagine how FURIOUS William and Harry must be. I know I would be pretty pissed. This is just extremely offensive. I read a summary of the “article” and it sounded pretty awful. She’d be on Facebook, tweeting, on her third marriage living in NYC…right. Did an 8th grader who’s obessed with fanfiction write this?
Creepy, pathetic, tacky…….
But, we’re talking about it, right? Guess that’s what the attention whores at the magazine were after.
As soon as I saw this, my first thought was “Oooh, I can’t WAIT till GFY rips Tina Brown a new one for this!”
This goes so far beyond tacky, we need a new word for it. If I saw this on the cover of some tab rag, I probably wouldn’t think much of it, but News-effin’-week???? I think a groveling apology is in order, Ms. Brown.
I’m still in shock over this. I have no words to add to what has already been appropriately and rightly said.
This SHOULD (hopefully) be a career-killer for Tina Brown.
As ’boutique’ franchises have devolved (e.g., Coldwater Creek has become Chico’s; Chico’s has almost become Lew Magram, etc. – heh), so have mainstream news outlets, right?
TV news programming and weekly publications are now mostly a cross between the National Enquirer and (at best) My Weekly Reader.
So this should be no surprise.
However….gawd….Newsweek has officially thrown any pretense that they’re legitimate out the window. Absolutely grotesque.
If you’re going to do crazy photoshop, at least go all the way an get rid of the commoner in the background!!
It simply reeks of Tina Brown. And I use the word “reeks” advisedly.
This is unbelievably tacky, and shows a complete disregard to her surviving family. Like her SONS. Who were young when they lost her-it’s just so gross.
Completely and utterly disgusting.
The article is even worse than that cover:
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/26/what-princess-diana-s-life-might-look-like-now.html
Glad we canceled our subscription after the re-design – this is truly disgusting.
In the immortal words of the silent-screen vamp upon seeing talking pictures in “Singin’ in the Rain”: “It’s VUL-gah.”
Man, shame on Tina Brown. She clearly can’t get over losing her role as Diana-interpreter to the world.
Just wrong on so many levels.
I have seen a lot of polls on this cover. Yet none of them has the options I would gladly check:
• It’s crazy/weird
• Why?
The New York Observer is referring to her as Zombie Diana. Sadly, spot on!
This CAN’T be real.
Well said! Thank you for this. Fanfic is what came to my mind the minute I laid eyes on the cover; I have been studiously avoiding any and all mention of this shocking affront to good taste and sensibility ever since (I’d add journalism too, but we are talking about Tina Brown, after all. This isn’t even suitable for Vanity Fair, yet alone Newsweek.). Horrible, demeaning and salacious.
The upside is that it’s been a good week for adjectives.
This makes me sad, you can’t say what a person will be like years after their lives have ended. That is just like writting a story about how William and Harry’s personalities would be different had they not lost their mother, or even how World War 2 would have turned out if the Queen’s uncle hadn’t abdicated his crown to marry his wife. It’s just all speculation and it’s just mean. Save it for the fan fiction forums please.
I subscribed to Newsweek until their redesign a couple years ago made every article look like an ad. I couldn’t tell the difference between the ads and the articles and I said, “Um, no.” I am so happy I am no longer giving them my money.
This is flat-out gross and not “news.” If they want to be a tabloid, fine, but change the name of the magazine to something less deceiving.
This is beyond sleazy, creepy and gross. “Fan fic” is the most charitable term for it but it’s really beneath contempt. I’m surprised the cover blurbs at the bottom don’t refer to Elvis sightings and UFO abductions.
She kinda looks like Ellen Degeneres.
This is plainly so sad, desperate and detestable. A poor idea to begin with, with poor execution and highly questionable reasoning — and who are the readers who will snap up this issue? Not people interested in insightful news reporting, oh no. It’s insulting on so many levels that they are hard to list out. It’s not only insulting to Diana’s memory, her family, the Royal Family, and England, but it’s insulting to the audience for Newsweek. It indicates how little Newsweek thinks of the news-consuming public. We are, in their minds, slavering idiots who spend our time wondering what dead celebrities would look like today (rather the way The National Enquirer and similar trash tabloids used to print “photos” of Marilyn Monroe’s wrinkly face peeking out of White House windows).
But someone will be shelling out money to buy this thing. I would wish it not to be so. I know it won’t be me.
ME, TOO. … although i do like that dress.
I will always have a deep level of respect for Lady Diana and I think if she were still here today, she’d still look beautiful! I like how they show Diana then and Kate now, and I’ll just leave it at that.
http://www.bravoerunway.com
Well said, Jessica.
It’s just wrong. Not to mention creepy.
I canceled my subscription over this. Newsweek had been getting steadily worse, but this? Come on.
i’m not that offended by it, actually. nowhere on the cover is it stated or implied that an article about how diana would have reacted to kate is inside. isn’t it remarkable that william’s wife is as much of a fashion icon as his mother was? isn’t that all this cover is saying?
I saw this on the interwebs yesterday and I thought it was joke! I can’t believe someone (anyone!) thought this was a good idea.
@ Carolina Girl: thank you!! I agree. It sadly doesn’t surprise me that this article exists in the world, but in a magazine that supposedly covers the news, even broadly defined? Absolutely disgusting.
Offended! You and me both, and many, many others. This is horrid, inexplicable, and indecent.
@Samantha, the entire inside of the magazine is devoted to speculation about what Diana’s life would be like today — including Tina Brown writing a piece saying she’d still be “attracted to dashing Middle Eastern men” or something — and how she’d feel about all kinds of things, including Kate. They even mocked up a fake Twitter and a fake Facebook page for her.
I find it so macabre.
Um, I saw that you guys had mentioned it on your twitter feed, but hadn’t actually had a chance to come back and look at it until now. Holy moley, that makes me want to vomit. Thanks, Newsweek!
Completely unnecessary, gauche, and utterly disrespectful to the family, as well as the readers of the magazine.
I’m embarrassed on Newsweek’s behalf and find it in line with the decline in their “reporting” over the last years.
If you want to write a speculative retrospective, that’s fine. Just put in the op-ed section where it belongs and restrain yourself from photoshopping a cover.
Gross.
Beyond wrong, wading into the dark realms of swamp and muck.
Anybody else remember how Tina Brown acted out when she was near the end of her reign at The New Yorker? The profile of the dominatrix, etc.? I think this may be what we’re seeing here. She’s pushing the shock button as a way to broadcast her own boredom.
She’s done it before, is what I’m saying.
As for the disgusting cover: I’m just glad she didn’t go all the way, to some kind of walking-dead two-out-of-three with Princess Grace. She certainly could have.
Tina Brown has lost her mind. Again.
Horrible, tasteless, rude and offensive to anyone with working eyesight. Newsweek owes the royal family and the rest of the world a major apology.
Thank you for covering this. I find it beyond trashy and exploitative. Sadly, I doubt the new owners of Newsweek care for one second how many people they offend as long as they’re getting linked to and talked about. Journalism? What’s that? It’s shameful and disgusting.
I stumbled across this abomination on page two of the trashy U-bahn newspaper that they hand out in Vienna where I live. The sad thing is that the article more or less said, ‘Diana walks next to her daughter in law, resplendent in a Chanel suit…’ GROSS. Clearly the macabre, tastelessness of the picture was lost on the Austrian editor.
UGH. So gross.
Need to change the masthead to “NEWSWEAK”
I cant imagine how awful it would feel if this were MY mother, being exploited in the public eye, yet again, for someones personal financial gain. Its not bad enough that she was hounded by the paparazzi, that paparazzi were directly involved in her death, and that as she was dying, paparazzi CONTINUED to take pictures of her. This is a new low, and it is shameful, and pathetic. It makes me want to cry all over again for her two sons.
I do wish FictionalPrincessStoriesWeek was a thing though, maybe not a magazine but maybe like one week a year where we get to celebrate fictional princess stories
I’d like to send her to the Tower for this tasteless, disrespectful gaffe, but in lieu of that, one can only hope this debacle is a career ender for Tina Brown….
There aren’t enough words to describe how horrified I am right now.
You took the words right out of my mouth Fug Girls! Especially regarding the photoshopping of poor Diana – so gross and definitely NOT what she would look like at 50. This really shows Tina Brown’s true colors….
I’m gobsmacked! Who in their right mind would think this was at all suitable…on so many levels. I’d expect this of the National Enquirer or Weekly World News.
I saw this online yesterday and I immediately felt so, so sad for William and Harry. Did Newsweek even consider her children’s (or any relative’s) feelings on this? When you lose someone, it is normal to wonder “what would they look like now” or “what would they be doing now?” but those are thoughts that belong to family and friends for discussion — they should not be a vehicle for Newsweek to make money. Horrifyingly sick and sad.
Yeah, so I cancelled my subscription over this. Kind of wished I had remembered to do it before my Nook downloaded this issue but whatever. Just an icky looking picture and an icky article.
It is so offensive!
Horrid. Just horrid. What the heck was oh- EVERYONE AT THE MAGAZINE thinking?
…And she wouldn’t have changed her hairstyle in 20 years?
(I mean, in addition to all the other gross things about this story.)
Honey-bunnies, my guess is that it’s a tie-in to Monica Ali’s new novel, The Untold Story. Just heard about it on NPR today. Review in The Guardian in case you’re interested: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/03/monica-ali-princess-diana-untold
I am cancelling my subscription over this disgusting piece. Oddly enough, I got the sub through a donation to my local public radio station; hope they don’t offer Newsweek again as a gift…
Call me trite but even though I think- what? You tasteless morons, don’t you think William would love to see his mum with his wife, you thoughtless gits etc- my main reaction was ‘So, if Diana had lived to be 50 she would look 90 ?’ Holy photo shop disaster what did they do? Superimpose the late Queen Mother on a picture on Diana? She was a good looking woman who had time and money to take care of herself yet here she looks like a heroin addict who has overdressed for court. And Grey/Beige? Really…
In the poorest of taste
I feel the same way about using John Wayne in beer commercials. Once someone cannot control their own image, it should be left in peace. That it’s Newseek doesn’t suprise me at all; manipulating photos, photoshopped or not, to fit -or make – a story, is not a new thing for them.
But has Tina Brown every been ashamed of anything she’s done?
I just had a thought– Is this more offensive than the Fred-Astaire-dancing-with-a-vacuum-cleaner commercial? I’m going to to say way more, but I was pretty creeped out by that as well.
hate. hate.hate. this is appalling on so many levels. talk about redefining “ugly american.” that’s a stereotype we’re trying to recover from, thankyouverymuch.
OH! Dead celebs hawking household appliances and flooring.
ALSO TACKY.
The cover, the premise, everything is as morbid and tasteless as you all have described. However, I am most put over the edge by what you mentioned Jessica— that they actually SET UP a Facebook and Twitter for her????!!!? And presumed to know what she would *tweet* about and what marriage she was on? Ohhh. It’s all too much, unbelievable.
How sad. Apalling. I can’t even.
The whole thing disgusts me on so many levels, I don’t even know where to start. Newsweek USED to be a source for intelligent reporting. And now… Wait. I’ve got it. There was a horrible mix-up and that picture was actually supposed to be on the cover of The Weekly World News fronting an article about how Diana wasn’t dead at all and was secretly coaching Kate through royal life… Right? Because THAT would make SENSE. Much more sense than this tasteless mess…
I see the editorial staff at Newsweek has started smoking crack.
AMEN on all counts!!! And that pic of Pricess Diana is HORRIBLE!!!
The Daily Beast bought Newsweek and promptly ruined it.
I can’t wait for my subscription to expire.
cracked!
I don’t know what this magazine is but after this, I’m not even gonna try to get to know it.
im so offended too.!
cant believe someone sell this crap
Diana would have looked SO much better than that!
Brilliantly succinct as always. She was exactly my age (I’m like two months older), and *I’ve* aged better than this. This was a woman with gorgeous skin who was meticulous about her appearance. In short: ew, tackola, and ditto marks all around.
thank you, thank you, thank you again for taking my exact thoughts and making them wittier than I can. And for letting me know that I am not the only shallow person who thought (immediately) wow, I’m sure Diana would look much better than at 50, before I had the follow up thought, oh, and it’s really unkind to her family too.
Just got around to reading the article – it is so tasteless and foul that I actually caught myself cursing Tina Brown’s existence. Terrible.
I agree this is tac KAY but I hadn’t heard the allegation that Rupert Murdoch was tapping telephone lines. I’m off to look into that….
Amen.
And ya know? My mother is also dead. I would be BEYOND FURIOUS if some $@%# magazine decided to put this kind of crap about her on its cover. I feel for her boys.
Agree 100%.
Hugh Grant got involved!! Sorry this is OT on the awful Newsweek cover, but still very interesting….
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/23/988129/-Hugh-Grant-Bugs-a-Murdoch-B*gger!
It is disgusting and also, Diana would look sooooooooooo much more amazing at 50 than this!
That mess of a photo is beyond terrible! I almost cried thinking about her boys!
Apart from the appearance of a trickle of formaldehyde from the corner of her mouth, Diana would most definitely NOT look as Newsweek would have us believe.
Compare and contrast Madonna – three years Diana’s senior who looks better now than the Diana mock up. Diana would have more resources to look even better.
Of course they now both share the already mentioned formaldehyde, but that’s another story.
Well said, Jessica.
Thank you! My husband subscribes to Newsweek and I just saw this on our coffee table yesterday and had a similar WTF reaction. The story itself is just repulsive, with a mock Diana Facebook page (with wall posts from Fergie!). It is just completely bizarre and tacky.
agreed. ugh – it’s just awful.
Love, P
That’s just tacky. And morbid. And tacky.