Shirley Jones is showing no sign of quitting

LOS ANGELES — What's this — the matriarch of the Partridge family in bed with a 24-year-old stud? It happens in "Grandma's Boy," a boisterous comedy produced by Adam Sandler's company.

"It's a different role for me," Shirley Jones says with a laugh, acknowledging her rise to stardom in "Oklahoma!," "Carousel," "The Music Man" and other squeaky-clean movies.

"People ask me, 'Why would you want to do a role like this?' I say, 'Look, I've been Mrs. Partridge for many years. Let's face it — I won an Academy Award for playing a prostitute in 'Elmer Gantry.' This is the kind of role that at my age (71) it's fun to play."

The fun starts, she related, when three housemates — played by herself, Shirley Knight and Doris Roberts — find a jar left in the kitchen by a previous tenant. The contents look like tea, so they heat up a brew. What they're actually sipping is hashish. That's when things get wild with a group of fun-loving young men.

A possible antidote to "Grandma's Boy," which opens today, could be "Hidden Places," which airs on the Hallmark Channel on Jan. 28 at 9 p.m. Being a Hallmark production, it's gotta have heart and nothing to upset the family.

So, appropriately enough, Jones plays an old lady with glasses, long gray wig and men's clothes who has been banished to a back bedroom by her Depression-era farm family. When the father dies, his daughter and two children face losing the farm. Aunt Betty, called Aunt Batty by her relatives, comes to the rescue.

From sexual grandma to goofy aunt in the same month — just another chapter in an amazing, unending career that has seen every form of show business except the circus.

But who knows — that could be next.

Shirley Jones lives in a rambling, hillside house in suburban Encino with her husband and manager, former comic Marty Ingels, and three dogs.

The pets bark noisily at an arriving visitor, then turn downright friendly. When the noise dies down, Jones settles onto a soft divan for an interview. She'll be 72 on March 31 but shows little evidence of her calendar age, except for the snow-white hair, close-cut with stylish bangs.

She demonstrated her resilience last summer when she starred on Broadway in "42nd Street," playing opposite her son Patrick Cassidy. "I hadn't done a show in 38 years, and I had four songs and five costume changes," she remarked. "I'm no kid, and I said to Patrick, 'I'm not sure I can make eight to nine shows a week. I'm not sure I can sing that much, even though I'm still doing concerts.' Patrick said, 'I'll take care of you,' and he did."