A “new” Betty White documentary appears to heavily recycle an older TV doc.Getty Images
A little White lie?
Movie producers are promoting a “new” documentary called “Betty White: A Celebration.” But it appears the flick is at least a partial rehash of a doc on White that was released in 2018.
It’s set to be in 1500 theaters on January 17.
An eagle-eyed fan of the late Golden Girl — who had been was excited to head to the theater to see something new on White — pointed out to Page Six that in the trailer for the film, interviewees like Ryan Reynolds, Carol Burnett, Alex Trebeck and Valerie Bertinelli are wearing the same exact outfits as in interviews for 2018’s PBS doc, “Betty White: First Lady of Television.”
Upon further inspection, the “Celebration” trailer footage of White’s celeb friends all saying her name appears about one minute into “First Lady,” which ran on Netflix in several regions from January 2020 until January 11th of this year.
There also seem to be some of the same clips used from White’s television career and footage of her work with animals.
“Celebration” is produced by Mike Trinklein and Steve Boettcher, the director of “First Lady.”
A rep for distributor Fathom Events, which is putting out the doc in theaters tells us “There will be some footage included from the 2018 film but the majority of ‘Betty White: A Celebration’ is new content.’”
When asked for specifics, they sent us a press release. While it didn’t fully clear things up, it does say that White spoke with them just a week and a half before she passed away on New Year’s Eve of a stroke.
“‘Celebration’ includes one particularly poignant exclusive — Betty’s final on-camera appearance, recorded just ten days before her passing,” says the release. “Its special message expresses Betty’s deep appreciation for her fans — and demonstrates that even in her final days, she never lost her sense of fun.”
It also appears to have added new guests like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Jay Leno.
Boettcher recently told ET, “I think what’s fun about the film is that it shows Betty in kind of quiet moments. Betty at home, Betty with a few friends, Betty with animals, and it kind of shows, maybe, another side of Betty. Off the stage and out of the limelight, but still the Betty we all know and love.”
