Who ever saw this one coming?
But fresh off her ratings bonanza as the oldest host ever of “Saturday Night Live,” with an MTV Movie Awards nomination in tow and now a surging campaign to host the Oscars – and re-host “SNL” -- the resurgence of Betty White couldn’t be at more of a fever pitch.
Thank Sandra Bullock.Indeed, the renewed interest in White started with the release of “The Proposal” last June, which White stole from both Bullock and Ryan Reynolds as the heart-attack-faking Granny Annie. And it was solidified when Bullock presented her the Life Achievement award at the Screen Actors Guild awards in January.
The role also garnered the 88-year old actress, who Bullock has called a “national treasure,” an MTV Movie Awards “Best WTF” Moment category nomination for her copping a feel of Bullock's breasts.
WTF is right.
“Betty White is comfort food; she is loved by every demographic,” says veteran PR agent Howard Bragman. “This recent resurgence is a snowball that started with her hilarious appearance on Comedy Central’s roast of William Shatner and 'The Proposal,' and just keeps picking up speed and size as it goes on.”
White’s agent Jeff Witjas told TheWrap that he thought the secret to her resurgence was “because she is cool, hip and has a youthful soul!” Tongue firmly planted in cheek, the Agency for the Performing Art rep also added, “plus a great agent.”
Not to mention the way she’s blended a bit of new media meets old, naughty meets nice.
“She's captured the collective cultural imagination because she feels present,” Jon Chu, director of the upcoming urban dance drama “Step Up 3D,” told TheWrap. “Initially it's just funny that she says vulgar things about sex and drugs. It's shocking -- but then her timing is spot on! And she seems to look at young people right in the eye and say, ‘I'm right there with you.’”
Indeed, a TV staple for over 50 years, White has just as often played naughty as she has nice, leaping from the lascivious Sue Ann Nivens on "Mary Tyler Moore" to the wide-eyed and sweet Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls."
Just before“The Proposal” came out, White reveled to a new generation just how good she was at the foul-mouthed former in a widely viewed punking of “Proposal” co-star Reynolds that White and Bullock did on Funny or Die.
Certainly the digital generation have been right there with White since earlier this year when the “Betty White to Host SNL (Please?)!” campaign began on Facebook.
Starting out small, the idiosyncratic social media campaign ballooned to over 500,000 Facebook fans after White’s rip-roaring SAG acceptance speech.
“Her remarks at the SAG ceremony certainly resonated with the public,” said Guild President Ken Howard, an old friend of White’s.
