Princess Diana would have been fifty years old on July 1st, and if you ever wondered what she might look like today, the magazine Newsweek has taken out the guess work.

A photo-shopped cover of a fit Diana, walking beside her new daughter-in-law Kate Middleton, will grace the newsstands this week.

But, some already find it over the top.

Its so beyond the pale in terms of what is acceptable behavior, what should be considered journalism, said Tobe Berkovitz of the Boston University College of Communications.

Its not journalism, perhaps, but fascination with the royals reborn with the marriage of William and Kate.

Newsweek is trying to cash in on it, but it comes across as seedy.

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Buffalo, to put it mildly, has a serious branding problem.

To the majority of people across the United States, the image of our city remains suspended in a murky snow globe constructed sometime around the Blizzard of ’77. To them, it’s a decayed hinterland of little redeeming character whose residents long ago stopped trying to break free from the death-grip of inexorable decline.

We all know that to be patently false. But we can’t really blame them for holding that viewpoint, because until very recently, we’ve given them almost no reason to know better.

But thanks to a spate of small but important efforts to radically re-engineer the city’s brand name and its national image, there’s reason to believe the tide may soon turn.

The first and arguably most important shift toward recasting Buffalo in the national mind-set came with Visit Buffalo Niagara’s quietly radical, much-maligned “Buffalo. For Real.” camp

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The ‘Harajuku Mini’ collection will have products for babies, children, and tweens, between the prices of $3.99 and $29.99, the Huffington Post reports. The collection will have “Stefani’s playful, Japan-inspired aesthetic”.

“The first installment of Harajuku Mini hits stores and Target.com on November 13,” according to the Huffington Post.

What do you think about Gwen’s new endeavor?

NEW YORK — Jane Fonda says she’s been banished from QVC amid concerns about her political past. The network says it was a routine programming change.

Fonda was set to appear on the home-shopping channel on Saturday to promote her new book on aging, “Prime Time.” But the day before, she learned her segment had been cancelled.

In a statement posted on her website, Fonda says QVC told her of receiving “a lot of calls” from viewers criticizing her opposition to the Vietnam War and threatening to boycott the show if she was allowed to appear.

Fonda goes on to say she is “deeply disappointed that QVC caved to this kind of insane pressure” and declares, “I love my country.”

Paul Capelli, a spokesman for West Chester, Pa.-based QVC, confirmed Fonda’s cancelled appearance, but specified no reason.

“It’s not unusual to have a schedule change with our shows and guests with little or no notice,” he said in an e-mail. F

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BOSTON Long after the midnight premieres concluded, the magic continued for fans of the final episode: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

On Friday morning, people started lining up early at the AMC Loews Boston Common in downtown Boston for the first morning showing of the final film, the eighth in the series based on J.K. Rowlings books.  In keeping with the worldwide phenomenon of the series, not all fans were local.

Ten-year-old Oliver Matthews came here from Ontario, and he decided a city like Boston was the perfect venue to watch heroes Harry, Ron and Hermione take on the dark wizard Voldemort in one final, epic battle.

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There are exciting things happening in popular music these days. The problem is finding out about them.

With the collapse of radio as a connecting source of musical information, it seems that the music itself has gone into hiding, stuffed within its genre-specific cubbyhole, where fans of that specific style can find it, but the broader populace might miss it entirely. Great work is being done, but many an artist ends up preaching to the converted and failing to break into any sort of mainstream where new listeners might be reached.

Strict compartmentalization is not good for popular music, a form wherein cross-pollination of styles is akin to lifeblood.

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