My 1st Blogging: Betty White Calls SAG Award Win 'The Biggest Surprise'

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Betty White Calls SAG Award Win 'The Biggest Surprise'

'Hot in Cleveland' star wins for outstanding female in a comedy series.
By Aly Semigran

Betty White onstage during the 2011 SAG Awards
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Screen Actors Guild most certainly still has nothing but love for Betty White. Last year's Lifetime Achievement Award recipient took to the podium once again, this time for outstanding female in a comedy series for her work in "Hot in Cleveland."

A stunned-looking White — who bested the likes of odds-on favorites like Jane Lynch ("Glee"), Tina Fey ("30 Rock") and Sofia Vergara ("Modern Family") — received a standing ovation from her peers as she made her way to the stage, stopping to give a peck on the cheek to this year's Lifetime recipient, Ernest Borgnine.

Presenter Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") assisted White up the steps to the stage, to which she joked, "They had to get the old broad up those stairs and that's not easy!

"I cannot believe this," the always-crowd-pleasing White told the audience.

The first-time SAG nominee — who has enjoyed a major Hollywood comeback over the past few years thanks to "Cleveland," a "Saturday Night Live" hosting gig and the 2009 comedy "The Proposal" — said of her win Sunday night, "This [is] the biggest surprise I've ever had in this business."

White said she felt very lucky and happy to still be working at the age of 89. When the audience cheered her on, White quickly cracked back, "You didn't applaud when I turned 40!"

She then turned the focus of her speech to her "Cleveland" co-stars Jane Leeves, Valerie Bertinelli and Wendie Malick: "We can't wait to go to work every day," she said.

White, who wore a charming blue dress and sequined jacket, said of the ensemble cast, "It sounds like a cliché to say we're family. We're more than family. We fell in love on the first day we worked together, and it's still like that."

Then, in true Betty White fashion, the actress playfully groped the back of her SAG award and cried "Ooh" while feeling up the nude male statue. She then gripped the statue from the front, garnering laughs throughout the auditorium as she concluded her speech by stating, "On top of everything else, I cannot say 'Thank you' enough."

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