80-Year-Old Widow Is the Rage on Twitter
By COREY KILGANNON
Life became listless for Josephine Lamberti, 80, after her husband died several years back, so she turned to a grandson, Donny Brandefine, who she knew made those video “thingies’’ for the Internet.
“I was bored and I wanted some action, so I says, ‘Donny, you want to teach me the computer so I can, you know, tweet or something?’” Mrs. Lamberti explained Thursday in her home on Staten Island.
Mr. Brandefine, 24, a personal trainer with a knack for making videos that tend to be huge hits — like “The Facebook Workout” — saw a dual opportunity here: he could reinvigorate his grandmother and promote her on the Internet as a way to build his own online profile.
Because of his grandmother’s smile, he gave her the nickname Josie Dimples — J-Dimps, for short — and began making videos of her as a wisecracking grandma with a secret penchant for “Jersey Shore”-style, fist-pumping dance moves.
“I figured, let’s put Dimps to work here,” Mr. Brandefine said. “It’s obvious she’s not your average 80-year-old.”
Mrs. Lamberti is certainly a youthful senior. Despite suffering from sciatica and having to use a walker and a cane, she is a whirling dervish of energy. She is constantly dancing around her home and cracking up her three daughters, six grandchildren and friends with comic rants, like one about how distasteful she found a local senior center she had been persuaded to try out.
Between Mrs. Lamberti’s hilarious delivery and Mr. Brandefine’s wiseguy scripts, the videos found a strong audience.
Then a year ago Mrs. Lamberti began using Twitter as @J_Dimps and became an even bigger Internet sensation. She has more than 74,000 followers, and counting.
“I still don’t know what the heck is going on,” Mrs. Lamberti said with a laugh in her apartment, in a low-rise development in the Princes Bay neighborhood.
She has corresponded with or been retweeted by celebrities like Rihanna, 50 Cent, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Lopez.
“Shake it go ahead,” the singer Missy Elliott recently tweeted in response to a J-Dimps tweet. She also assured J-Dimps, “You’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Mrs. Lamberti began sending out funny snapshots on Twitter, including one of her “Tebowing” (praying on one knee like the New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow). Mr. Bieber retweeted a shot of her on her couch.
Some samples of her recent tweets:
“#ThankGod for these wrinkles and fake teeth…because guess what? It could be worse! Life is too short! SMILE ya bums!”
“#SometimesIWonder if I’m the only 80yr old that looks in the mirror and smiles.”
“#SometimesIWonder how I’m able to stay so sexy at my age of 80! My secret: Lot’s of red wine and meatballs!”
For her videos, Mrs. Lamberti wears a white headband bearing her nickname, and favors an “Everybody Loves a Player” T-shirt. She lists her interests as “dancing & cooking meatballs” on her Twitter page, and writes that her goal is to amass 80,000 followers on Twitter “before I die.” She punctuates many tweets with the hashtag #oldladyswag.
Old friends have been calling. In the last week, The Staten Island Advanceand People.com wrote about her. She is on her laptop every day checking her new followers and correspondence.
“It’s cured the boredom — it breaks it up for me,” she said. “If people can laugh over it, then I’m happy.”
“It’s cured the boredom — it breaks it up for me,” she said. “If people can laugh over it, then I’m happy.”
Other celebrity Twitter users who have retweeted or corresponded with Mrs. Lamberti include Rosario Dawson, George Lopez, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Khloe Kardashian. Mrs. Lamberti exchanges messages on Twitter with some of the players on the New York Knicks. Nate Robinson of the Golden State Warriors sent her free tickets when the team was playing the New Jersey Nets at the Meadowlands and met her after the game.
Former baseball player Jose Canseco tweeted: “Follow Josie Dimples she is 80 years old her only wish is to have 80k followers before she passes away let’s help her out please.”
Mrs. Lamberti grew up in Brooklyn and met her future husband, John Lamberti, in junior high school. They danced in many of the big Manhattan nightclubs and she once approached Fred Astaire at the Palladium and got him to dance with her, she said.
“I always liked to have fun,” she said, adding that when video cameras first came out more than 30 years ago, the family made comic sketches much like the ones she now makes with her grandson.
She moved to Staten Island 40 years ago and now works part time at a dance studio owned by her daughter (Donny’s mother) Donna Brandefine and amuses the students with her dance moves. If amassing 80,000 Twitter followers now seems certain, her next goal is unclear. For now, she will continue to go along with her grandson’s video directions, she said.
She moved to Staten Island 40 years ago and now works part time at a dance studio owned by her daughter (Donny’s mother) Donna Brandefine and amuses the students with her dance moves. If amassing 80,000 Twitter followers now seems certain, her next goal is unclear. For now, she will continue to go along with her grandson’s video directions, she said.
“I can convince her to do anything,” Mr. Brandefine said.
“Yeah, you hope,” she retorted.
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