'Newsweek' basking in the bad publicity of Diana at 50?

The misadventure of Diana at 50 cover does not seem to have deterred the spirit of Newsweek as the editor-in-chief Tina Brown has come out with a rather bold retaliation.

Speaking to MSNBC in the heat of the controversy stirred by the cover story ahead of Diana's 50th birth anniversary, Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek and Diana biographer, has come out to seem like a believer of there is no such thing as bad publicity thumb-rule.

Brown's response to the rage against the beloved Princess Diana's resurrection went like this: “Well, it went absolutely viral in the last two days because the cover has created this huge debate. Some people think it’s kind of spooky and ‘Should we have done it?’ and others think it’s very effective. I think it’s a very intriguing package to show what she’d be like today.”

The controvertial cover of the latest edition of the magazine that is now on news stands features a digitally-aged Princess Diana. Kate Middleton is also seen on the cover. Penned by Tina Brown, the cover story goes on to elaborate how the Princess of Wales would still look stunning, while she embraces newer things that the world has to offer, such as an iPhone and Twitter.

Chilling with the Middletons. Tweeting from Davos. And still the people's princess. If not for that tragic night, what her life might look like now, the Newsweek article starts.

Diana would have been 50 this month. What would she have been like? Still great-looking: that’s a given. Her mother, Frances Shand Kydd, with her cornflower-blue eyes and striding sexuality, was a handsome woman to the very end. Fashionwise, Diana would have gone the J.Crew and Galliano route à la Michelle Obama, always knowing how to mix the casual with the glam. There is no doubt she would have kept her chin taut with strategic Botox shots and her bare arms buff from the gym. Remarriage? At least two, I suspect, on both sides of the Atlantic, Brown goes on.

The article also involved an imaginary Facebook profile of the Princess, with a relationship status that reads It's complicated.

Talking to Joe Scarborough on 'Morning Joe', 'The Diana Chronicles' author explained the inspiration behind the piece: I found it really interesting to imagine what she [Diana] would be doing now. The best way to communicate that was to put her in a situation where she's standing there with Cate Middleton. I wanted to make her a time traveler... A novel came out about how she was going to be living in suburbia and stuff -- I didn't see that at all. I saw Diana very much as being this kind of 'global mover-shaker' kind of a woman.

Brown's unshaken demeanor and convinced, if not convincing, argument defending the cover has yet again fueled the topic with many media observers wondering if the magazine is really basking in the bad publicity of the Diana cover. As Mediate puts it:

Today on Morning Joe, Brown was asked about the less than thrilled response and she mostly settled on the “no such thing as bad publicity” reasoning.

The video of Brown's response to Newsweek's Diana at 50 is embedded below:

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