TV icon Betty White turns 99 on Sunday
The popular and enduring actress has no plans of slowing down.
Beloved actress Betty White turns 99 Sunday and has some wild plans to mark the big day — even in the pandemic.
The “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Golden Girls” star, who was born in Oak Park, Ill., in 1922, is a passionate animal advocate and eagerly shared how some cute critters fit into her century-adjacent celebration.
“You probably didn’t ask, but I’ll tell you anyway,” she recently told “Entertainment Tonight.” “What am I doing for my birthday? Running a mile each morning has been curtailed by COVID, so I am working on getting ‘ The Pet Set’ re-released and feeding the two ducks who come to visit me every day.”
White has been taking pandemic precautions very seriously. Her rep has said no one is permitted in her home “except those who must.”
“Betty White’s Pet Set” debuted in 1971. One of White’s favorite shows, the syndicated series starring the veteran actress is set to be re-released digitally and on DVD on Feb. 23, to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The series’ 31 episodes featured appearances by celebrities and their pets, as well as discussions concerning pet care, ecology and wildlife preservation. ( White dreamed of being a forest ranger before getting into show business.)
Celebrity guests include Carol Burnett, Doris Day,
Betty White turns 99 on Sunday.
Mary Tyler Moore, James Stewart, Della Reese, Johnny Mathis and their animals. Furry friends aside, the Emmy Award winner remains humble about her advancing years in interviews published last week.
“I am blessed with good health,” she said in People magazine, “so turning 99 is no different than turning 98.”
The wise and sunny star also noted that “a sense of humor” keeps her going.
“Don’t take yourself too seriously. You can lie to others — not that I would — but you cannot lie to yourself,” she added.
Driver, Gerwig to star in ‘White Noise’
It took long enough, but there might be no better year to embark on the proj
ect than apocalyptic 2021: Don DeLillo’s cool, tragicomic and catastrophic novel “White Noise” will become a movie. And Noah Baumbach, master of domestic catastrophe, will direct it, with Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig to star.
The National Book Award-winning satire, first published in 1985, tells the story of Hitler studies professor Jack Gladney and his fourth (or fifth?) wife, Babette. Their tidy Midwestern lives are upended after a train accident unleashes an “airborne toxic event.” The novel is considered one of the best by DeLillo, a leading author of heady, sweeping (and rarely adapted) fiction who went on to write “Underworld.” “White Noise” had a major influence on contemporary literature, up to Rumaan Alam’s eerie ‘Leave the World Behind,’ also slated to become a film.
Baumbach has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for original screenplay — for “The Squid and the Whale” (2005) and “Marriage Story” (2019), both of which explore the intricacies of divorce and both of which he also directed. Gerwig, Baumbach’s partner, has been nominated for screenplays of “Little Women” and “Lady Bird” — with the latter also earning her an Academy nod for director. Driver was nominated for best actor in “Marriage Story.”