Tina Brown dishes the dirt on her new biography, The Diana Chronicles

THE UNSINKABLE TINA BROWN After a few quiet years, the queen of media reclaims her throne

Few editors in the magazine world attain the kind of iconic success that imparts first name status. There is Anna, there is Graydon, and then, of course, there is Tina, the controversial and charismatic editor whose gossipy new bio of Princess Diana, The Diana Chronicles, was released last week with typical fanfare, with profiles of the author gracing the covers of USA Today, Newsweek, and New York magazine all in the same week. From Tatler to Vanity Fair to the New Yorker, Tina Brown has transformed the magazine industry in ways large and small. Along the way she's also had some very public defeats, most notably the $50 million collapse of Talk magazine, which she launched with former Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein in 1999 and shuttered three years later. But the ordeals haven't seemed to slow her down. After a brief attempt at a TV career and a few quiet years researching her book, she's back in the spotlight. Last week, her party for the book, hosted by Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer, attracted more luminaries than the Chateau Marmont at Oscar season.

"They slammed me for writing about Roseanne in the 'New Yorker.' Now you turn on the nightly news and it's wall-to-wall Paris Hilton on CNN!"A day later, Radar editor in chief Maer Roshan, a friend of Brown's since they worked together at Talk, spoke with her about her wild media ride and the controversial princess who has fascinated her for over 20 years.

TINA BROWN: Hello? Can anybody hear me?

MAER ROSHAN: I can hear you. But you sound like you're underwater.
I feel like I'm underwater. I just spent an hour and a half in a studio, perkily chatting up my book for Entertainment Tonight.

I'm in my office with the shades drawn recovering from your party
last night. What a blast. Michael Bloomberg, Barry Diller—all your boys
were there.
Wasn't it fab? I had a great time. I couldn't believe Bloomberg showed up. He said he was going to do a stop by, but then he stayed for practically an hour.

A TAN IN FULL Brown with Mayor Bloomberg at her June 11 book party

He seemed very jovial.
Very jovial, and sporting a billion-dollar tan.

And was that Harvey Weinstein holding court in a corner? Someone was
trying to start an evil rumor that he'd crashed.
No, Harvey was on the guest list! He came with Tom Freston. And I'm glad he did. I wanted it to be a fun, inclusive event. You know, come all ye faithful. And come all ye unfaithful as well.

So ... the book. Several writers have noted the similarities between you and Diana, both physically and personally. The same adjectives are deployed to describe the two of you: "ambitious," "savvy," "seductive," "superficial." Do you think you have a lot in common with her?
God, I like to think I have nothing much in common with the airhead daughter of a pedigreed Earl who left school, became a nanny, and married a prince with a tenacious mistress. I don't see much of a resemblance, to be perfectly frank. Except for a haircut. But the truth was I had more in common with Camilla Parker Bowles's haircut, if anybody cares to examine my coiffure on my first Today Show.

But Diana's been a constant in your career, from Tatler to Vanity Fair to Talk. What explains your fascination with her?
When I became editor of Tatler, we were all completely focused on the next round of British upper class girls who were utterly different from Diana—girls who were posing for Andy Warhol's Interview and doing coke off people's furniture. Suddenly, along comes Diana with her pearls and twinsets, bragging about how she kept herself "tidy" for the Prince of Wales. We all thought who is this odd retro creature from the '50s and '60s?

What most struck you about Diana when you first met her?
Her incredible youth. She always had this incredible skin. It was really her great beauty, her coloring—intensely English, with pink cheeks and great big, blue, soulful eyes. You don't really get it in the photographs. Also her height—it really was supermodel height, particularly when she was in heels.