Newsweek ages Diana to 50 in ultimate photoshop disaster

It is "rather jarring," writes Matt Donnelly of the LA Times.

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dougrogers

Shopped! I can tell by the pixels!

(I can’t believe nobody said this yet)
musicman

That dude is now the most famous, anonymous, man in the middle ever without date.
- Anonymous
  
  That guy is probably security
ritholtz

Newsweek is still around . . . ?
Cocomaan

We did not renew our Newsweek subscription, yet they still send it to the house. The magazine is pathetic.
Anonymous

why?
Hamish Grant

The best part about this disaster is that it’s a double issue so it’ll be on the newsstands for TWO weeks instead of just one.
DeWynken

Whomever thought for a millisecond, let alone approved the cover, should be beaten with a mackerel. A right sound fishy thrashing, I say.
timquinn

This is Tina Brown having the last word. She is the obsessed one.
GregS

I, for one, welcome our new royal zombie overlords.
Jack

Has anyone told Tina Brown Spy magazine folded years ago?
andyhavens

I stopped paying for Newsweek more than 2 years ago, but they keep sending it to me. It’s never been worth the trouble to get them to stop. Now? Hmmm…..
Jake0748

I just heard mention of this a couple hours ago. But… HOLY CRAP!! Is that the actual cover they’re going to publish and put on news stands all around the planet??

I’m not educated in graphic design, and normally I don’t even notice Photoshop disasters until they are pointed out to me. But OMFG… This has got to be the ugliest, creepiest, most disrespectful thing I have ever seen on a magazine cover.

Are people really as undiscerning as this? Kind of makes me wish that asteroid the other day had found it’s mark. *sigh*
- Baron Karza
  
  Jake0748: I’m also stunned by the bland ugliness of that cover, but even more disturbed to see this speculative morphibation on the cover of a magazine with the word NEWS in its title. This is such a BS People magazine thing to even run with. I know Newsweekâ„¢ is no stranger to conflict of interest, accuracy and agenda issues, but this seems too fluffy and desperate even for them. And Ugly! Layout-wise, I mean. The illustration of Diana herself is really not that bad, just the concept and design of it…
strangefriend

@#$% Diana at 50. I want to see her ZOMBIE photo . . .
- Anonymous
  
  “@#$% Diana at 50. I want to see her ZOMBIE photo . . .”
  
  Look again.
- benher
  
  I think Zombies was the first thing we were thinking.
  
  Maybe Zombie Royals vs. Nazi Royals? Hello Hollywood paycheck!!
Anonymous

I never gave a damn about her then and I don’t now
blueelm

…awkward.
spejic

I thought that was her zombie photo.
blueelm

This seems more like some kind of disturbing art work… dead celebrities and what they might be doing now if they were still alive and appropriately aged.

Actually, those might yield some interesting pictures.
- Anonymous
  
  This is actually a great idea!!! pursue it!
Talia

Conversely, I love Life’s ‘Diana at 50′ cover. It’s quite tasteful.

http://www.amazon.com/LIFE-Diana-At-Editors-Life/dp/1603202196
lolosaka

It looks like an old Weekly World News cover!
Anonymous

newsweek sux.
human remains

I like it. I think it looks good.
Anonymous

I don’t think it’s disrespectful, no more so than if she were alive anyway (why do people that no longer exist require more respect anyways? Is dying an achievement now? I’d like my share of respect now please, while I can appreciate it, thanks.), but is bloody terrible.

That’s enough of a crime in its own right without getting sentimental about it.
Jake0748

And BTW, why did they have to put that complicated-looking frisbee/dinner plate on her head? Wassup with that?

And sorry if this is a double post. Lately I can’t tell if something has gone through or not. Browser just hangs. :P
Anonymous

I was in college when she died and thought she was 50 then. Age perspective is weird.
jeligula

Diana would look great at 50, nothing like what they are disrespectfully showing us.

And Jake0748? It ain’t the browser or your system. I have a quad core, 64 bit computer running at 3.9 gHtz with a 25 mbps cable connection, and it takes forever for anything to happen with Boing Boing. Everything about Boing Boing hangs like that. Everything. I have left with disgust on several occasions. I just don’t have the time to hang around and wait for their servers.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Just imagine if it were your job.
  
  Also, if it just sits there, refresh the page and resubmit. It should keep your comment intact through the refresh. If it doesn’t, you should still be able to go back and retrieve it. But, yeah, it’s really bad lately.
Antinous / Moderator

Finally, Philippa Hamilton can turn that tiara and sash over to somebody else.

You have to admit that she does look spectral, which is appropriate, but I’m going to guess that Trinny and Susannah would advise the not-so-recently deceased against wearing vertical stripes. And is she wearing the Del-Vikings?
- Jake0748
  
  You know… for once, you’re not getting the point. The poor woman died some years ago. A lot of people liked her, some of us didn’t care that much. But her life was ultimately tragic (I mean, look who she married), and she died in some stupid fucking car wreck.
  
  At this point, does it matter what kind of designer clothes she was wearing? Come on, be a mensch.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Dude, it was 14 years ago. Too Soon is officially over. SNL was doing Elvis jokes before he was cold.
    - Jake0748
      
      Ok Dude. I get that too soon was over many years ago.
      Diana = Elvis, ok, if you think so.
      
      I guess what I really wanted to say is that magazine cover, to me, appears crude, exploitative, pandering, mean, unnecessary and vindictive. I’m not a fan of the British Monarchy or was I a fan of Diana’s. And sure, it’s fair game to make fun of her and her death.
      But I don’t see the correlation between her and Elvis. Elvis was a guy who sought out the spotlight from the beginning. Can the same be said of Diana? I am asking this seriously, not trying to be glib.
      - Anonymous
        
        Of course she didn’t like the spotlight, that’s why she spent most of her married life in the spotlight. Oh, wait.
        
        Of course she liked the spotlight, that’s WHY she’s so ‘loved’ by the idiot masses. If you;re a celebrity and you don;t want to be in the spotlight, then you’re not in the spotlight. Sure you’ll get the odd bikini shot when you’re on holiday, but generally it’s that celebrities PR firm that’s called the paps.
        
        Unless you’re cheating on your royal husband and trying to run away from the paps that is – that’s just journalism.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Elvis was a guy who sought out the spotlight from the beginning. Can the same be said of Diana?
        
        Hell, yes. She exploited the press when it was to her advantage and trashed them when it wasn’t.
        
        She wasn’t Ellie Mae Clampett before she married the PoW. She grew up next door to the royals and played with Andrew and Edward when they were children. Her sister dated Charles before she did. The Queen is her brother’s godmother. She knew exactly what she was getting into.
  - Jack
    
    She wasnâ€™t poor. She was extremely rich. She was a princess! And all evidence connected to her death points to her and her paramour egging on the driver of the car they were in to drive faster and faster.
    
    But in the case of this cover, itâ€™s bizarre more than inappropriate. I cannot imagine any human being on Earth looking at this and saying â€œWow! What amazing work! And it makes all the sense in the world!â€
    
    Would make more sense as an â€œAphex Twinâ€ album cover if that â€œAphex Twinâ€ guy put his face on their faces. MY IDEA! STEAL THAT!
teapot

Total Photoshop disaster, Newsweek! Even my phone and Hourface 3D can do a better job!

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/2966/dianau.png
Chuck

It’s as if someone happened to snap a photo at a tragically perfect time just as a life-sized Princess Diana themed Barbie Doll was hit in the head by a miniature manhole cover. (which was wrapped in a bow for some reason.)
Unanimous Cowherd

Um… I’ll fess up that I have a (gift) subscription to Newsweek, and the cover of this issue is hardly the worst bit.

Inside, they have mocked up a Diana Facebook page. It shows a status update of Diana accepting a friend request from Camilla Parker-Bowles. And Prince Charles indicates he “Likes” it. What were they thinking? Or what are they smoking? Stop it. That stuff will kill you.

The “article” keeps going on from there, with sample Twitter updates, various responses to current events, blah blah blah.

It is all utterly creepy, bizarre, disrespectful. The worst.
- styrofoam
  
  I was going to comment on exactly how lousy the article was as well.
  I saw the cover, and thought it was an abomination. This morning I flipped through the article and in addition to the facebook mockup (which I thought was terrible) it has a photo of her sitting in on a charity panel and donating a surprise $50 million to the cause.
  
  It’s slash/fanfic. I kept waiting for Wesley Crusher to show up.
Antinous / Moderator

FYI – if you want to know if your co-workers are gay, look for the dark circles under their eyes the day after a royal wedding or funeral. I had my 25th Year Coming Out party the next day and everyone looked half-dead.
- facetedjewel
  
  I’m going to have to disagree a bit with you here. ‘Near royal’ is like white-water rafting Class Twos in August. Marrying into that family and becoming ‘royal’ was Class Fives in May. Same river but the demands being made on the people in the boat have ratcheted up considerably. At Class 5 even the spectators on the river’s banks are getting damp.
  
  Class II: (Novice/Beginner) Faster moving water with easily avoided rocks, holes, and waves. Danger to swimmers is still slight but care must be taken.
  
  Class V:(Expert) All of the characteristics of Class IV with the added danger of being longer and containing more continuous features that may not be avoided. There is serious risk to swimmers and others may be of no help.
  
  And let me add, I could give a shit. This is just my take on the price of fame and celebrity. Sought by many, however, it is a soul-sucking experience and few are able attain the spotlight and also rise above their addictions.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    But her sister didn’t just date Charles, she washed out of contention for the job by giving an ill-advised interview to the press. Diana literally saw her own sister savaged by the media for being herself while dating the Prince of Wales and then went on to do it herself.
    - facetedjewel
      
      I think that might say more about the relationship between the sisters, but I take your point.
      
      There was this story…that Diana had tried to back out of the wedding and was told by her sister (among others) that she couldn’t back out, it was too late, the invitations had gone out. (This stuck in my mind because I backed out of a wedding, then married him later independent of our parents.) Same sister?
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Don’t know. Relationship problems seem as common to the Spencers as to the Royals. I suppose with Barbara Cartland as your step-grandmother, that’s to be expected.
i_prefer_yeti

I think she looks great! I mean, wow, that’s big of her to show up and all seeing as she’s dead. Who’s she wearing?
Mister44

Unnecessary subject + bad taste + horrible execution = FAIL

I morn for the trees who died making this issue, and the coal burnt to power the Photoshop using computers.
Anonymous

Remember when Newsweek was a more or less serious NEWS magazine?
- Anonymous
  
  Yes. I’ve been out of the country too long, obviously – I was shocked to see this. I even had to ask my partner if there was another Newsweek (a UK version perhaps?). When did Newsweek become a tabloid?
Jack

Can the same be said of Diana? I am asking this seriously, not trying to be glib.

So you are saying that she married a child of the Queen of England and didnâ€™t know what she was getting into?

Susan Boyle had fame forced on her. Diana coying became a part of it and itâ€™s hard to swallow that whole â€œShe was just like us!â€ angle.
- Jake0748
  
  No Jack, I’m not saying anything. I’m just asking. Of course she knew that she would become famous and part of the royalty. But did he know that she was marrying a major weirdo, and that she would be constantly hounded? That’s my question.
  She was already a part of the aristocracy. I guess she knew what she was getting in to. But did she really understand how horrible it would be?
  - Jack
    
    But did she really understand how horrible it would be?
    
    The problem with your question is it can be applied to celebrity and fame in general. Knowing some folks who have flirted with lives in the public sphere I fully appreciate the non-famous life. Itâ€™s a soul-sucking experience that really doesnâ€™t help personal growth if you have a fragile persona. And sadly most folks who seek fame have profoundly fragile personas.
    
    I donâ€™t feel animosity towards the famous, but I could care less about their â€œpain.â€ Especially when they seek it out.
    
    Why is a conversation from the 1980s happening in 2011? Now that is the question.
kmoser

This can’t be Photoshopped; her pelvis is properly proportional to her head.
Anonymous

I aged NewsWeek 50 years, and they were out of business.
Nelson.C

As I understood it, it wasn’t the press that made her life miserable, it was being married to a man who loved someone else and was too weak-willed at the time to stand up to her mother-in-law.

But I might have that wrong, I didn’t actually pay a lot of attention to her when she was alive, and not much more afterwards.
teleny

Sorry, but I liked it. It needed to be said. We have elevated “do not speak evil of the dead” into some kind of posthumous apotheosis: by dying, a public figure suddenly becomes sacrosanct, a legend. No matter how awful their end was, their every misstep becomes smoothed over, and we’re treated to endless adoring “tributes”. If only….

Alive, Marilyn Monroe would have become a media joke, hosting a short-lived variety show, a Hollywood Square trying to play catch-up with a newer generation…About the best she could have been was to catch on Warhol/Capote’s coattails and live out her life as a Beautiful Person, uncomfortably watching the younger set have all the fun.

Kennedy would have never been forgiven for starting the Vietnam War.

Elvis would have kept on doing what he did: lurching around as a parody of his old self until people got tired of him. (Quick quiz: what’s Chuck Berry doing now? Pat Boone?)

James Dean? Who knows? As big as Brando? As much a failure?

John Lennon’s career would have drifted into recovery hell. “I’ve discovered my Higher Power, yeah, me and Ringo..”

In this light, I believe Brown to have been merciful…
artiefx0

To be honest, I don’t understand the uproar over this. My first impression of the cover was that the idea was “wouldn’t it be nice if Diana were around to see Kate Middleton’s marriage”– which strikes me as not so much exploitative as slightly touching.

Also, that’s a really badly compressed low-resolution image of the cover- it probably looks more professional in print.
- penguinchris
  
  Over-compressing and down-sampling is a well-known trick to make photoshop work stand out less. If it looks as bad as it does here, it can only look worse in the original resolution. It’s just badly done – really – and one does question why they felt it necessary to do it in the first place.
richsamuels

The Sunday Express were carrying this image on the front on err Sunday.

http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/254906/Princess-Diana-at-50
- Nelson.C
  
  Looking at that, I’d say she looks more sixty-something than fifty. I might be kidding myself, but I’m fifty and I don’t look that wrinkled, and I take absolutely no care of my personal appearance whatsoever. I can’t see a pretty thing like Diana ageing quite so badly.
  - Slightly Askew
    
    Sharon Stone, Michelle Pfeiffer, Olivia Newton John, Christie Brinkley, Rene Russo, Jamie Lee Curtis…the list goes on. All 50+ women who were beautiful in their youth and still are today. Apparently Newsweek believes Diana would have turned to Meth at some point in the last decade.
Thad E Ginataom

Oh for goodness sake… what’s wrong with being 50?

I’ll be 60 next year
Narmitaj

The the relevant article has a rather odd opening sentence: “After Dianaâ€™s death, nine years after the car crash in the Paris tunnel, I [...]“, which made me wonder briefly if the writer had condemned Diana to most of a decade in crippling pain before letting her buy a ticket to Zurich* in 2006, or something.

*Zurich is where a lot of terminally-ill Brits go to end their lives with Dignitas, as observed by Terry Pratchett a week or two ago.
Dan Mac

I think Alison Jackson’s artwork of the Royal Family bites a little closer to the quick:
http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/2008-alison-jackson-liverpool-biennial/1639

and her image of the Diana/Dodi baby:
http://www.welcomethelight.com/2010/05/princess-diana-was-killed-after-plan-to-frighten-her-went-wrong/
Palomino

Newsweak
DeWynken

All Aboard The S.S. Failboat!
Anonymous

Please remember, and remind others:
Diana would probably be alive today if she had worn her seat belt. The only survivor of that crash was, improbably, in the FRONT seat…but, he was also the only one wearing a seat belt.

I wish more people thought about this. It’s a perfect case study…and sadly, many (in least in my locale) still don’t buckle up.
William George

I wish they’d let this woman die already. It’s worse than Elvis.
- Anonymous
  
  someone please photoshop Diana and Elvis in a bar!
- Anonymous
  
  Is anyone else absolutely sick of hearing about Diana? You’d think she invented sunshine according to all the BS they print about her.
theawesomerobot

I wish I worked at Newsweek so I could quit my job.
- querent
  
  http://www.newsweek.com/company/jobs.html
Kimmo

Isn’t like, the only good thing about dying young the fact that you won’t grow old? Onya, Newsweek…
Anonymous

Well, in all fairness, they coulda dug up her corpse and put that on the cover.
Just sayin’.
Anonymous

I look forward to a “Newsweek at 100″ feature in 22 years, imagining what the magazine would’ve looked like, had it survived beyond 2012.
grimc

Formaldehyde.