The last surviving Golden Girl, -- now that Rue McClanahan died last week, -- Betty White is also the IT girl, hot on the football field, on Twitter, as Saturday Night Live host, and on a new television show. At a special screening of Hot in Cleveland, TV Land's first original sitcom, to air on Wednesday night, White, ladylike and elegant in black sequins, was irrepressible, her timing impeccable, shouting out: How do you like it so far?, just as the Crosby Hotel screening room went dark. Eighty-nine must surely be the new 50!
The show features a fabulous four, a winning Golden Girls formula that worked as well for Sex & the City. The conceit: 3 best friends (Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick) flying to Paris from home in Los Angeles, are grounded in Cleveland and find themselves hot in the heartland. Why go back to the place where they'd have to be pulled to perfection when they are perfect here? In due course, they find a Victorian house with its own pot-smoking, track-suit clad caretaker, played by Betty White.
Fresh from hosting the Tony Awards, the show's executive producer Sean Hayes introduced the program to a crowd that included Kristen Chenowith, Mo Rocca, Christian Siriano, Hoda Kotb, and, OMG, Raquel Welch. Funny woman Sandra Bernhard said she has an engagement coming up in July at the City Winery, and Mad Men's Bryan Batt has a new book out, She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother (Random House). Regarding his role as Salvatore Romano on the popular show's new season. he said, "All I can confirm is my character's not dead."
Fraser veteran Jane Leeves said working on the TV Land sitcom gave her a taste for Cleveland. Er, where was it shot? In LA.
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