Betty White is about to embrace the role of hipster nonagenarian.
The indomitable Golden Girl will celebrate her 90th birthday in a televised special set to air January 16, Access Hollywood reports.
The same night marks the premiere of her latest project, Off Their Rockers, a hidden-camera show in which old fogies punk the young.
"Forget everything you ever thought about senior citizens because they have a sense of humour and they have a sense of fun just as much as anybody else," Ms. White said.
Ms. White's singular brand of humour has been dubbed "the Candy-Coated Chili Pepper" because "it starts out sweet and then zaps you with a zinger," wrote The Globe and Mail's Johanna Schneller.
But the surge of White Fever may be a sign of an age-defying boomer fantasy. Ms. White claims to have shunned plastic surgery (aside from having her eyes done in 1976), yet her face remains dewy and the accolades keep rolling in.
Last year, her TV show Hot in Cleveland garnered her a Screen Actors Guild Award and her latest book hit The New York Times hardcover non-fiction bestseller list, alongside titles by Steven Tyler and Tina Fey.
Talk about a role model for the hip-replacement set.
Groovy grandmas are all the rage on YouTube, from the 90-year-old swaying to LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem to the 97-year-old granny sashaying to Wii's Just Dance 2.
The videos are cute but a wee bit objectifying.
The pressure on Ms. White to remain forever feisty hasn't escaped the makers of a spoof public-service announcement "paid for by Grandchildren for the Ethical Treatment of Betty White." Protesting her 50-hour work weeks in Hollywood, the "grandchildren" call upon the industry to "leave Betty White alone" or else "she gonna break her hip."
Susan Jacoby, author of Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age, noted that Betty White has become a poster child for aging. Outside of TV land, though, half of people over 85 will get some form of dementia – and no amount of exercise or antioxidants can change that, she said.
Kudos to Ms. White for living the dream. But maybe we should call her a freak of nature and leave it at that.
Do you expect to look – and act – as young as Betty White when you turn 90? Do you have a game plan for that?