How many 88-year-old actresses experience a resounding renaissance in their careers decades after they’ve mastered the entertainment business from A to Z?

Betty White

There’s only one.

It’s the supersonic bubbly-spirited Betty White, defying all odds with her spectacular run of recent triumphs.

Let’s see, there was her brilliantly funny turn as Ryan Reynolds’ kooky grandmother in The Proposal, the 2009 film also starring Oscar winner Sandra Bullock; the hilarious Super Bowl Snickers commerical that had her tackled and thrown into the mud, watched by the largest television audience ever; not to mention the Golden Globe Lifetime Achievement award, which she accepted with the grace and wit that have become her trademark. Bullock joked that she finds White annoying, to which White shot back: “Isn’t it heartening to see how far a girl as plain as she can go?”

Comment on this story »

Mary Higgins Clark

Last night at celebrity hot spot Elaine’s, in came the Queen of Suspense, the great Mary Higgins Clark, looking radiant in a fur-trimmed evening wrap at the publication party for her latest thriller, a fantastic book titled The Shadow Of Your Smile. It’s all about a deceased nun who’s a candidate for sainthood and 31-year-old Manhattan pediatrician who becomes the target of those who don’t want her to inherit a fortune, the taut story featuring many of Mary’s trademark twists and turns.

Comment on this story »

Calvin Klein

Picture This: A 31-year-old writer with one book under his wing gets a letter from the former First Lady of the United States, admiring his biography of Vladimir Horowitz and inviting him to meet with her to discuss his next book project. After a few phone conversations, together, they decide to invite the king of American fashion to lunch to discuss the possibility of working with him on his autobiography.

Fact or fiction? I’m happy to report that I made the lunch reservation! And I’m thinking of it just today for reasons I’ll soon explain.

Comment on this story »

Swimming Pool

Ever wake up feeling anxious, worried, down, or depressed? Hello!

Approximately 20 million Americans are taking anti-depressants–and that number doesn’t include anti-anxiety medications and sleeping pills.

As for the cause of our collective angst, just about anything can trigger it–financial worries, stress about work, health problems, an accident of fate, phantoms from the past, relationship “issues,”or even rainy weather. And very often, there’s no reason at all, for moods are unpredictable, fluctuating for reasons even a forensic psychiatrist may never explain.

But like the weather, our emotional storm clouds do come–and then go. But rather than being a slave to our moods, and reactive to them, there is, I’ve discovered, a reliable and FAST way to turn a dark mood into a bright one. It’s a remedy that’s better than Prozac, and something I do every day that lifts me up when I’m down.

Comment on this story »