Betty White won an Emmy for her celebrated job of hosting "Saturday Night Live" at Saturday afternoon's 2010 Primetime Creative Arts Emmys, while John Lithgow took home the Guest Actor in a Drama award for his guest stint as the "Trinity Killer" on "Dexter" and Ann-Margret received a standing ovation after winning for her appearance on "Law & Order: SVU."
As usual, HBO led all networks in Emmy wins with 17. Its miniseries "The Pacific" was the most-honored single show, with seven Emmys.
Another two dozen Emmys will be handed out in a live telecast on August 29, including many of the highest-profile categories.
The Creative Arts Emmys show hands out more than 70 of the close to 100 Emmy Awards voted by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Awards given out at the show include honors for casting, art direction, choreography, cinematography, costumes, hairstyling, makeup, editing, lighting, music, sound, visual effects, stunts and technical direction.
Some awards for writing and directing are also handed out, as are the Guest Actor and Guest Actress categories.
White, who won in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, was not present to accept her award. But her "SNL" episode was certainly a winner: in addition to her own Emmy, that episode also won awards for its director and makeup artists.
Accepting his award for the Showtime series "Dexter," Lithgow accidentally thanked HBO.
Neil Patrick Harris won the award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his appearance on "Glee." He also won as the host of the Outstanding Special Class Program, the Tony Awards; he was originally not listed as a nominee for the award, due to an oversight by Tony producers.
Ann-Margret's win as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for "Law & Order: SVU" was one of the most well-received of the show.
"The Pacific" won two awards for makeup and others for casting, art direction, sound mixing, sound editing and visual effects.
In the Reality Show category, the Emmys were spared another controversial speech by Kathy Griffin when the colorful comic's show lost to "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution."
The category of Outstanding Reality-Show Host, which caused some controversy when it was moved off the Primetime Emmys show and into the Creative Arts show, went to Jeff Probst of "Survivor" for the third year in a row. Probst, who originally said he would not attend because he'd be shooting the upcoming season of his show, ended up flying in from Nicaragua the afternoon of the Emmys to attend.
Another closely-watched category was Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series, where Conan O'Brien was one of the nominees for his short-lived stint on "The Tonight Show." But O'Brien did not secure any additional revenge against the un-nominated Jay Leno; his show lost to "The Colbert Report."
