During today’s portion of the Newsweek/Daily Beast Hero Summit in Washington D.C., Aaron Sorkin provided a tantalizing preview of the script structure he is relying on to adapt Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography.

Per a report by the publication’s TV critic Jace Lacob, here’s what Sorkin told Tina Brown:

“I hope I don’t get killed by the studio for giving too much away,” Sorkin said, “but this entire movie is going to be three scenes, and three scenes only, that all take place in real time.”

Each of the three scenes will run 30 minutes in length and Sorkin said they will be “all set right before three major product launches.”

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There was no sadder media news this week than Tina Brown’s announcement that Newsweek will be shifting to an all-digital model in early 2013. To cheer ourselves and perhaps some of you, dear readers, here’s a reminder of other entities launched the same year as Newsweek (1933) that are still mercifully around:

- San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge;
- The Lone Ranger, coming back hopefully bigger and better with Johnny Depp as Tonto;
- King Kong;
- MLB’s annual All-Star Game;
- Air France;
- FM radio.

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Had she lived, Diana would have turned 50 this month, and Tina Brown is cashing in on the birthday girl by imagining what her life might have been like had she lived.

The most jarring aspect of the story isn’t Brown’s speculations on who Diana might have slept with, feuded with, and sued, but the photoshopped images of the Princess, meant to depict what she woud have looked like at 50. The cover of Newsweek features one such image if Di, strolling alongside the daughter-in-law she never got to meet. The awkwardly ‘shopped image of Diana gives her an unreal, almost zombie-esque quality – hardly the sort of birthday homage fans would like to see.

The Ministry of Gossip blog over at the LA Times is running a poll to gauge reader’s reactions. So far, over 40% of respondents have said they found the cover “horribly offensive,” while only 9.65% say they love it.

Every once in a while, Daily Beast staffer Chris Lee helps Tina Brown and co. go for the jugular.

Earlier this month, the former LA Times music writer penned a piece entitled X-Men Sexploits: Tales of Debauchery from the Set, while this spring, it was a Newsweek op-ed about the preponderance in studio films of “full frontal dude-ity.” Now comes a very salacious interview feature with former WWE wrestler Joanie “Chyna” Laurer, who credits hardcore porn with rescuing her from a forlorn life of multiple suicide attempts.

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Dennis Quaid is making a lot of media waves today with his cocaine confessional in Newsweek. As he should – it’s an incredibly candid first-person recollection of how he fell down the white-powder rabbit hole in 1974 and came up gasping for air in the late ’80s.

But the bigger picture is the recurring feature for which he wrote the piece. Launched in the March 14th issue, “My Favorite Mistake” is quickly turning out to be a highlight of Tina Brown‘s revamped Newsweek.

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Andrew Sullivan is leaving The Atlantic and bringing his wildly popular blog The Daily Dish to Tina Brown‘s Newsweek/Daily Beast love child. Sullivan broke the news late last night.

The chance to be part of a whole new experiment in online and print journalism, in the Daily Beast and Newsweek adventure, is just too fascinating and exciting a challenge to pass up. And to work with media legends, Barry Diller and Tina Brown, and with the extraordinary businessmen Sidney Harman and Stephen Colvin, is the opportunity of a lifetime. Barry was the person who first introduced me to the Internet in the early 1990s, and we have remained friends ever since. Tina Brown needs no introduction, but to see her in action as we have discussed this new adventure over the past few weeks has been quite a revelation. The Daily Beast, in a mere two years, has made its mark on the web, with 6 million unique visitors last month, and an eight-fold jump in ad revenue over the last year. It will give the Dish a whole new audience and potential for growth and innovation. I’ll also be contributing columns and essays to Newsweek.

This is a huge get for Brown but it’s a tidal wave of a catastrophe for The Atlantic. The magazine posted its first profit in a decade last year, thanks largely to online revenue. It has until April, when Sullivan starts at NewsBeast, to figure out how compensate for the loss of Sullivan’s web traffic.

So far the reaction to the Huffington Post/AOL merger fall into a couple of different groups:

Anti-corporate reactionists: They don’t trust anything or anyone making money. They were already suspicious of Huffpo and then a giant corporation bought them. To anti-corporate reactionists the merger is just further proof for their already held beliefs. Their only news sources are alternative and if you’ve heard of it – it’s too mainstream. In a way they are happy about the Huffington Post AOL deal because it gives them fodder.

The Toldjas (sorry Nikki, it’s not copyrightable): As in “toldja Arianna only cared about her bank account” and “Toldja she was a Republican.” They are the “I never liked that site” people. They are the “It’s always been a digital tabloid” people. Yes, they’ve been waiting patiently on social networking sites for the opportunity to pronounce themselves as never liking anything so therefore they’re right about some things. Right-wingers also fall into this category. They’ve never liked Huffington Post and now take joy in saying “TOLDJA!”

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It’s been in the works for months, but the deal to merge Newsweek magazine and Tina Brown‘s The Daily Beast website is finally complete. As expected, The Daily Beast will be running the show. Brown will take over editorial operations for both entities and Daily Beast president Stephen Colvin will now be CEO of the joint venture. Pre-merger Newsweek owner Sidney Harman will be Executive Chairman.

Brown has been staffing up in anticipation of the merger. Yesterday it was announced she added exiled Village Voice writer Wayne Barrett and New Yorker staffer Peter J. Boyer to her crew. Not a bad way to start the week.

Press release after the jump:

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They were talking. Then they weren’t. They were thinking about doing something together, but those were really just rumors. Well, the truth finally comes out. Newsweek and The Daily Beast are tying the knot. Daily Beast editor-in-chief…well, and now Newsweek EIC too…Tina Brown broke the news last night on her site.

The Daily Beast’s animal high spirits will now be teamed with a legendary, weekly print magazine in a joint venture, named The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, owned equally by Barry Diller’s IAC and Sidney Harman, owner (and savior) of Newsweek. As for me, I shall now be in the editor-in-chief’s chair at both The Daily Beast and Newsweek, bringing with us as CEO my Daily Beast business partner Stephen Colvin, who launched The Week Magazine in the U.S., as well as Maxim, as president of Dennis Publishing. His dynamism has created 66 new ad campaigns for us since I persuaded him to join The Daily Beast a year ago.

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Any potential partnership between Newsweek and The Daily Beast is now dead in the water. On her site, The Daily Beast’s Tina Brown squashed the rumors she helped stoke earlier this month.

In a previous post, I mentioned that we were having some interesting discussions with the new ownership of Newsweek about possibly doing something together. The talks were indeed intriguing, but in the end we have decided not to pursue them further.

The Wrap has Brown’s memo to staff:

Hi guys,

There’s a report on the WSJ now saying we have decided not to go forward in any more conversations with Newsweek. The engagement was fun but the pre-nup got too complex. We wish Newsweek all the best. The Daily Beast is on a tear and any partnership we think about has to build on that incredible growth. Onward and upwards!

Too bad. We would have been curious to see what Brown could have done for Newsweek. One has to wonder what this means for the fate of the struggling mag, who’s lost most of its major talent in the last few months.

Previously on FBLA: Tina Brown Confirms ‘The Daily Beast’ Talks With ‘Newsweek’