Betty White tells reporters at Elton John's annual Oscar party that she'll be appearing on "Saturday Night Live" some time in the near future. And we know Betty doesn't lie!

"SNL" had been an odd gap in the resume of the woman who has done seemingly everything else in TV and film. Now I have a reason to watch at least one episode of the show this year.

She's now officially SAG's 2010 Life Achievement honoree. Doesn't she look beautiful?

Below, Betty works the SAG Awards room with SAG prexy Ken Howard. Apparently, she killed backstage too.

This is such sweet news. The Screen Actors Guild will fete Betty White with its life achievement award in January.

Is there anything Betty White can't do?

It's always a treat to open up the newspaper and see Betty White's smiling face.

Susan King did a very nice profile of Betty for the Los Angeles Times, tied to her role in "The Proposal," and it features a fantastic photo that captures Betty's joie de vivre. (It looks great in color online.) As readers of this blog know, the mere sight of Betty White makes me happy -- and I'm not alone. America loves Betty White. Long may she reign....

... A performer who is cut from the same cloth as Betty (friends say he's nice, normal, utterly decent and very talented) is starting to get his due as a comedy comer with the success of "The Hangover."

Ed Helms spared a few minutes for me on the phone last week in between his promo blitz in London for "Hangover" to talk about that pic, as well as his own backstory, from his youth in Atlanta to becoming a "Daily Show" correspondent to landing a plum job on "The Office."

The Nard-dog rules!

(Pictured right, Ed Helms mugs at the "Hangover" premiere with co-stars Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper and Heather Graham)

As a fan of all things Cloris Leachman, I was very happy to see the news about her selection as grand marshal of the 2009 Rose Parade cross the wire on Friday. After the week this country has endured, America needs a little Leachman.

How can you not love a performer who always seems to enjoy -- no, revel -- in what she's doing, whether the material is worthy of her talent or not.

And she doesn't seem to have taken a day off since she started working steady in television some 60 years ago. It's been quite a ride for this daughter of Des Moines, from her secretarial days on "Charlie Wild, Private Detective" (which ran variously on CBS, ABC and DuMont from 1950-52) to strutting her stuff on "Dancing With the Stars."

As an added bonus, Leachman is a good friend of Betty White. What's not to like?

Wouldn't you just love to know what Don Rickles and Kathy Griffin were talking about backstage at the Nokia yesterday during the final rehearsals for tonight's Emmycast!?! Maybe we can get it out of one of them at on the party circuit later tonight.

Nice to see that Lauren Conrad of "The Hills" (pictured right) got some extra practice on presenting technique.

It's now T-minus six hours and counting, and I'm just about to start making myself look presentable (it'll take a while). I'm heading down to the Nokia around 1:30 with Bill Higgins, Variety's intrepid red carpet warrior. If technology doesn't fail me, the first on-the-scene dispatch should come around 2:30 or 3 p.m., or as soon as something worth writing about happens.

Until then, enjoy this pic below of the first lady of television, the great Betty White, at Saturday's rehearsal.

(Pics by Mathew Imaging/WireImage.com)

Michael Feinstein did a special rendition of "Of Thee I Sing," and everyone called her a "national treasure." And they meant it, and then some.

Thursday night's tribute to Betty White at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on the occasion of her 60th year in television was Woodstock for Betty-philes.

(Hundreds were turned away at the door, causing some tense moments for security, but to my knowledge there were no reports of bad acid going around. Special thanks to ATAS staffers for hearing my pleas and letting me in a wee bit late -- infernal Hollywood Bowl traffic!)

It's no accident that everyone who came out on the stage, decked out with a living room sofa (the natural habitat of her fans), went on and on about how much they "adore" her. She is, in fact, adorable. Other superlatives that got a workout by longtime friends and coworkers trying to describe how much they love her Betty White-ness included: Kindness. Generosity. Joie de Vivre. Cheerful. Funny. Lively. Dedicated. A pro. Genuine. Spectacular. Animal savior. Always a lady. First Lady of Television.

The more than two-hour Betty bonanza included a reunion of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" cast. MTM, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Georgia Engel, Ed Asner and Gavin MacLeod -- the sight of them together again brought the sold-out crowd to its feet and a lump to my throat for sure. And it was telling about the spirit of that great MTM Prods. show that when "Mary Tyler Moore" co-creator Allan Burns was spotlighted in the audience, the cast got on its feet and gave him a standing o.

Betty's big night also commanded a rare public speaking appearance (and visit to the Valley) by "Golden Girls" co-creator Susan Harris. Harris announced that she'd downed a few tranquilizers for the occasion and instructed moderator Pete Hammond not to talk. (Ever the gracious host, Hammond kept quiet.)

Harris spoke of how Betty never failed to "lift everyone up" every day she was on the set during the seven seasons of "Golden Girls." She confessed that the writers got lazy writing scenes for Betty's Rose character because of her skill at making even mediocre material sing.

And then Harris drop a few Montana-sized hints about the one person on the set that didn't entirely care for Betty's "up-ness," and it wasn't Rue McClanahan, who sent in a vid message, and it wasn't Estelle Getty, who was remembered with a round of applause at Betty's instigation.

"No lie, I love her and I admire her," Betty said of Bea Arthur, without mentioning her by name.

"They don't know who we're talking about," Harris said. "The hell they do," Betty replied.

Betty White red alert! The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is hosting a tribute to the thesp affectionately known on this blog as the First Lady of television.

The Aug. 7 event, "Betty White: Celebrating 60 Years on Television," is already sold out, even though it hasn't even been formally announced with an Acad press release. I noticed it as an events listing today on the Acad's emmys.tv home page. (Pic of Betty with Emmy swiped from that site.)

Among those set to appear are Ed Asner, Cloris Leachman, Mary Tyler Moore, Craig Ferguson (White makes semi-regular visits to "The Late Late Show," in a tribute to Craig's excellent taste), Bob Stewart, Gavin MacLeod, Tom Sullivan, Susan Harris, Valerie Harper and John McCook. Pete Hammond is set as moderate, and the event also promises a perf by Michael Feinstein. I'm there.

As Betty-philes know, her first paying gig on TV came in the summer of 1949 with her appearance on a local special hosted by singer Dick Haynes, on KLAC-TV, known today as KCOP-TV. From there she appeared on a short-lived (by weeks) comedy "Tom, Dick and Harry," starring three third-rate vaudevillians, and then she segued to game show "Grab Your Phone," according to White's 1995 memoir "Here We Go Again: My Life in Television."

Betty's first steady work came in November 1949 with the debut of KLAC's "Hollywood on Television," in which she was a "girl Friday" sidekick to Al Jarvis, then a top L.A. disc jockey.

"Hollywood on Television," by Betty's description, was a prototypical morning TV show. Betty and Al would chat about the headlines, interview guests ranging from human interest to celebs, have musical and how-to segments, etc. Five hours a day, five days a week of live without-a-net television. She did "Hollywood on Television" for about four years, and then moved into her first lead role in a scripted series, the syndie "Life with Elizabeth" (she did both shows simultaneously for a little while). No wonder she's so good.

Wonder why the Internet seems to be moving slower and slower these days? Maybe it's because of all the  18-34-year-olds out there hogging all the bandwidth.

Internet ratings provider has comScore let loose some eye-opening stats about Internet vid consumption. For starters, comScore estimates that U.S. consumers watched 11 billion Internet vids in April, running an average of 2.8 minutes a pop. The average Web surfer watched 228 minutes of video online during the month, with 18-34-year-olds being the heaviest-viewing demo at an average of 287 minutes. More than 70% of U.S. online users watched some online vid during the month. YouTube alone accounted for 4.1 billion, or 38%, of those 11 billion vids viewed, which breaks down to 49.8 vids for each of its 82.1 million viewers. MySpace ranked No. 2 with 481 million vids served up to 46 million viewers...

... The Disney Channel may help pull some of those people away from their computer screens next month with the smallscreen debut of its 3-D theatrical sensation "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds" concert pic. Mouse House will hand out free 3-D glasses at Wal-Mart Stores (while supplies last, which probably won't be long) starting July 5 in preparation for the pic's July 26 premiere on Disney Channel. There's also a brand-new "Hannah Montana" seg set to bow July 20 to whip up more enthusiasm for the concert pic. I'm thinking the "Best of Both Worlds" telecast is gonna be huge for Disney Channel -- maybe not "High School Musical 2" 17 million-plus viewers big, but I wouldn't be surprised if it comes close. Ask anyone who's done a blog post on "Hannah Montana" -- it's the gift that keeps on giving, traffic-wise....

"The Golden Girls" was among the honorees at this year's TV Land Awards, held Sunday at Santa Monica's Barker Hangar. Betty is all smiles with her former costars Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan.

L.A. pubcaster KCET-TV will pay tribute to multihyphenate Sydney Pollack on Monday by running Pollack's 2005 docu "Sketches of Frank Gehry," followed by a 1994 interview Pollack did for PBS' "Life & Times" with anchor Hugh Hewitt. Pollack, who died May 26 at age 73, was a board member of KCET for the past seven years. KCET prexy Al Jerome will offer host the on-air tribute and offer his own remembrances of the prolific Pollack...

...I've been remiss in posting something on the fab time had by a bunch of us at Variety at Wednesday's party to toast the opening of Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood. (No, the cameras were not rolling behind the scenes in the kitchen, though I think by all rights they should have been.) The delicacies up for grabs around the party were yummy indeed -- I particularly liked the split pea soup, and there were mouth-watering little cubes of Kobe beef and the tastiest shrimp I've had in some time. The atmosphere of the place was user-friendly, with lots of space and rooms to roam through. On hand to raise a glass to Gordon on his L.A. debut were Fox's Peter Liguori, Kevin Reilly and Mike Darnell and his always-charming wife Carolyn; Sean Perry, Ramsay's rep at Endeavor; producer Thom Beers; and thesps Eric McCormack and Melina Kanakaredes. The guest who generated the most celeb-buzz was Ramsay's fellow countryman David Beckham, and his bow tie....

...I've also been tardy in noting the welcome news that John Moczulski has joined KTLA-TV as veep of programming and marketing. Moczulski's a seasoned industry vet and all-around good guy, having served stints in marketing and programming at Columbia TriStar TV Distribution, the CBS O&Os, KNBC-TV and KABC-TV. Most recently, Moczulski's been running a local TV sales ad sales firm TV 10s....

...Betty White alert! Betty was doing her part for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. on Thursday, taking part in a photo op at the zoo in an effort to tubthump for GLAZA's annual Beastly Ball fundraiser on June 14. GLAZA had a bunch of the eateries who are providing food for the ball prepare a veggie feast for the gorillas. The unparalleled Pink's Hot Dogs is on that list, and the Pink's people brought a raft of veggie dogs for the gorillas to inhale (isn't that how everyone eats a Pink's dog?) on Thursday. Betty, of course, is a longtime champion of our local animal kingdom and trustee of the GLAZA Foundation (interesting that in connection with GLAZA she uses Betty White Ludden). I'll take any opportunity to beautify this blog with the sweet smiling face of the first lady of television.

Betty White alert! The first lady of television will grace CBS' air as a contestant on the June 12 edition of "Million Dollar Password."

White, of course, was married to Mr. Password, Allen Ludden, for many years and logged plenty of appearances on the show in its 1960s and '70s, Goodson-Todman heyday. Ludden had such a graceful way of handing the cards to contestants on the original show, with its pop-up toaster clues.

In this Regis Philbin-hosted primetime incarnation of the show, White will be paired with "Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Susie Essman. Oughta be fun -- but be forewarned, contestants: White is a heck of a "Password" player.

(From years of watching vintage "Password" reruns, my husband and I have determined that the all-time greatest "Password" player was Peter Lawford. He put so much into it. Carol Burnett runs a close second.)

Whoo-hoo, it's a collision of two things I love: Betty White and "Ugly Betty."

The indefatigable Ms. White has booked a guest shot on the ABC dramedy, playing herself. Seg that begins filming next week finds Vanessa Williams' Wilhelmina (or Wilhel-MEAN-a, more accurately) trying to change her image as a nasty you-know-what, but she's dealt a setback when she's caught on a cellphone vid manhandling an older woman to snare a cab. The victim happens to be none other than America's Beloved Betty White...and really, what else do you need for a set up?

I've said it before, I'm sure I'll say it again: I adore Betty White. She stands for all that is good and fun in our business, and we know she's kind to animals. She can't be on the smallscreen too much for my liking. Go Betty, and "Betty"!

(Pictured above: Betty White gets into the spirit of shopping for free stuff at the Daytime Emmys gifting suite in June. Pic by Jesse Grant/WireImage.)

Can't pass up an opportunity to post a great pic of Betty White. She's the subject of one of PBS' "Pioneers of Television" docus set to air in the winter and spring '08 on the pubcaster. I did a lengthy sit-down with Betty in 2000 when she was marking her 50th year in television, and I can confirm that she is as lovely, gracious, funny and sharp as you'd hope Betty White would be. She's only piled up about 25 credits since then, from voice-over work on "King of the Hill" to semi-regular stints on "That '70s Show" and "Boston Legal" and now the CBS soap "The Bold and the Beautiful." Once her career got going in the early-early 1950s, when she was on the air live for five hours on weekday mornings, spinning records, riffing on the day's news and generally shooting the breeze on KLAC-TV (better known today as KCOP-TV Los Angeles), Betty has never stopped. She's an inspiration; we should all be in such good shape if we're fortunate enough to see our 85th birthdays (as Betty did on Jan. 22). To me she's not just a pioneer of television, she's the reigning first lady of television.