Entertainment

White ‘Hot’

Either Jesus is so fond of Betty White that he set himself on fire yesterday as the ultimate publicity stunt for her new show “Hot in Cleveland,” or it really is hot in Cleveland.

I mean, really, could it be mere coincidence that right on the eve of her series, the giant six-story Jesus statue in Ohio, (OK, it’s near Cincinnati, but still) gets struck by lightning and goes up like a marshmallow over a campfire?

Well, either it’s Armageddon or proof that Jesus loves Betty. But you’d have to be in the Taliban to hate Betty — or her new show.

OK, in all fairness, her show is very much an ensemble affair — think of it as “The Golden Girls Have Sex in the City,” with White in the Sophia role and Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves as slightly banged up versions of Carrie, Samantha and Charlotte.

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The series opens with the three best friends on a flight from LA to Paris, on their way to commiserate with Melanie (Bertinelli) over the split with her husband and celebrate the publication of her book.

In rapid order, Melanie sees her ex on the plane with his 20-year-old, six-foot girlfriend and suddenly the plane has to make an emergency landing.

When they don’t die and do land in Cleveland (which, at first, is a kind of death to them), Melanie, Joy (Leeves) and Victoria (Malick) decide to go out on the town and knock back a few.

The first thing they notice is that the bar has more men than women. The second thing they notice is that everyone is not just eating fries — but cheese fries!

They’re invited to join a plumber (John Schneider) and his friends and, after a couple of not-lite beers, Melanie has her first one-nighter.

Why go to Paris? Why go back to LA? Hell, why not buy a wrench and settle down?

And that’s what Melanie does — she rents a perfect house in Cleveland — without realizing that it comes with a permanent caretaker who lives in the back cottage.

Enter Elka (Betty White) who bounds in carrying laugh-out-loud lines that are probably as old as she is — but really, who cares?

“Cleveland” is an old-fashioned sitcom — in the best and worst sense of the word.

There’s a laugh-track that’s loud enough for the dead to hear. And a lot of the jokes are straight out of the sitcom how-to handbook.

But that doesn’t mean that you won’t laugh every twice in a while.