The “Diana at 50” issue is, on the one hand, a...

The “Diana at 50” issue is, on the one hand, a heck of an attention-getting stunt for the struggling weekly, and a chance at last to show off some of that vintage Tina Brown shamelessness that’s been so restrained since she took over as editor in March. On the other hand, when you’re a magazine with the word “news” in your name, devoting a cover story to an elaborate piece of fanfic doesn’t exactly spell “journalistic credibility.” Come with Newsweek, won’t you, on a journey to alterna-2011, a place where a princess emerged unscathed from a Paris tunnel in 1997, and Helen Mirren surely does not have an Academy Award. On the magazine’s cover, a Diana with dark lines on her face to signify the cruel passage of time is disastrously Photoshopped next to the newlywed Duchess of Cambridge, while inside, the magazine imagines her gamely clutching an iPhone – the better to tweet from.

Mary Elizabeth WIlliams, Salon, Newsweek digs up Princess Diana.

We’re partial to Vanity Fair’s Exhumed Royalty Watch: James II at 310.