“Really?” I asked. “Tell me.”

Batting her eyelashes, Walters made like she was going to answer, then pulled up short. “I better not say any more. I’ll wait till you finish your article.” And, for a second, she had me.

“With all the things she has accomplished, Barbara could have left the stage twenty years ago, and her place would be secure,” David Westin says, noting also that, at ABC, “she’s not close to her contract being up.”

In January 2008, Walters is planning a two-hour special on the subject of human longevity. She, of course, is Exhibit A.

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Lloyd Grove
• Table of Contents: March 5, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!