Estelle Getty, 1923-2008

Picture it: Brighton, 2008. A plaintive wail rises up to the heavens from my home after I read that Estelle Getty, who played the equally lovable and irascible Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls, has died.

"Why God -- why didn't you take Bea Arthur instead?!?!"

Estelle Getty was 84, which means she was only in her 60s when she was on the Golden Girls back some 20 years ago. The AP obituary says she failed her first two auditions because she didn't look old enough. On the third audition she told a makeup artist, "To you this is just a job. To me it's my entire career down the toilet unless you make me look 80."

She had suffered from advanced dementia before she died early yesterday at Shady Pines. In the west wing.