Editor’s Note

O On Monday this week, Betty White, who played the slyly naive Rose Nylund on the hit 1980s show, The Golden Girls, would have turned 100 years old. She died on the last day of 2021. To mark the occasion, Google gave her a beautiful web tribute: if you googled her name on the day, “Thank you for being a friend” written in calligraphy appeared on the screen as rose petals cascaded over your search.

On the day of her death, actress Julianne Moore wrote her own tribute to the “golden oldie”, in which she quoted White: “Why do people say ‘grow some balls?’ Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.”

It would be easy to imagine White’s words uttered by Kim Cattrall in her role as Samantha Jones in an episode of Sex and the City. For various reasons, Cattrall isn’t part of the Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That — and that’s probably to her credit. Regardless of the merits of the storyline and production, what people seem most interested in is the way the characters have aged — and who wants that kind of pressure?

So, it was interesting to see posts on social media this week comparing the ages of the four dames of The Golden Girls (53 and 54 years old at the time the show was created) with the three left in Sex and the City (54 and 55 years old). The posts noted: “Amazing how different our view of women at that age is now — though the obvious differences are due to hair and styling. It’ sa wonder that Elnett is still in business. And those dumpy house dresses? Had to go!” But then again, can you imagine how the

Sex and the City gang would look in some of the get-ups worn by the characters in the new season of Euphoria — the subject of this week’s cover story?

Though we’re all still fully obsessed with it, age really is just a number and, as Betty White would say, “The older you get, the better you get. Unless you’re a banana.”

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