Hollywood's ridicule of ageing Americans may be making them ill

Southfield, Michigan

HOLLYWOOD isn't just discriminating by gender and race, but also by age - and that might shorten the lives of underrepresented seniors who tend to be the butt of jokes rather than stars of the silver screen, a new study shows.

Of the 100 top-grossing films from 2015, just 11 per cent of the characters were 60 or older, less than that age group's 18.5 per cent share of the US population, according to the study by the University of Southern California and Humana Inc. Of 57 films that featured a leading or supporting senior character, 30 included ageist comments, according to Stacy Smith, director of the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at USC's Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.