In fact, it could be an Apple three-ring circus staged in three cities on two continents:

• San Jose, Calif. — Attorneys for Apple and Samsung will clash once again in Judge Lucy Koh’s San Jose courthouse in a hearing that will address a wide array of post-trial issues, including jury misconduct, that will determine how much, if any, of those $1.05 billion in damages Samsung will actually have to pay. Decisions could come before the end of the year.
• New York City — At 10 p.m. Eastern (9 p.m. Central) NBC’s Brian Williams will air a conversation with Tim Cook — Cook’s first televised interview as Apple CEO and the first of any kind since November’s management shakeup. The interview — conducted in part at Apple’s Grand Central Terminal Store and scheduled to air on Williams’ Rock Center show — will be for many Americans their first extended exposure to Steve Jobs’ successor.
• Beijing, China — On Friday morning in Beijing, while it’s still Thursday in the U.S., we’ll get to see what kind of crowd shows up for the release of the iPad mini, the first of this fall’s wave of new and updated Apple devices to go on sale in what may prove to be Apple’s most important market. The real potential show-stopper — the iPhone 5 — will arrive one week later.

UPDATE: Apple announced Monday that the iPad mini will also launch in South Korea Friday (while it’s still Thursday in the U.S.), adding another country — and another ring — to the circus.