Tina Brown, editor of Newsweek, is raising eyebrows with her new cover story, “Diana at 50.”

In it, Brown envisions what Princess Diana’s life would be like now, had she not perished in a car crash in 1997. Yes, she probably would’ve used Twitter, and yes, she likely would’ve become a defender of her son William’s commoner bride, Kate Middleton.

But somewhere along the way, Brown veers into fantasy territory when she speculates on her imagined love life for Diana:

“Gliding sleekly into her 40s, her romantic taste would have moved to men of power over boys of play. She’d have [...] drifted into undercover trysts with someone more exciting—a high-mindedly horny late-night talk-show host, or a globe-trotting French finance wizard destined for the Élysée Palace. I suspect she would have retained a weakness for men in uniform, and a yen for dashing Muslim men. (A two-year fling with a Pakistani general, rumored to have links to the ISI, would have been a particular headache to the Foreign Office and the State Department.)”

Through the magic of Photoshop, the July 4 cover of Newsweek depicts an age-progressed Diana (see below) and the new Duchess of Cambridge, taking a stroll and chatting (as one does with a dead mother-in-law). The photo accompanying the article itself shows Diana with a few lines in her face, clutching a white iPhone (inset).

Brown’s résumé includes stints as editor at Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and London’s Tatler magazine as well as a bestselling book about the former princess, so she certainly knows her subject. But this in-depth level of guesswork and make-believe borders a bit on creepy fangirl obsession and Newsweek readers are complaining about the stunt on the magazine’s Facebook page and on Twitter.

Newsweek's Princess Diana at 50 Cover
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