Will Betty White Host the 2011 Academy Awards?

Perhaps you are among those wondering at least silently why the Betty White craze. Of late Betty White has found her way into sharing a movie with Best Actress Award winner, Sandra Bullock, picked up a life time achievement award of her own, appeared hosting Saturday Night Live and picked up a role on a summer replacement series. Could all of Betty White's second time around success set her up as a possible host for the 2011 Academy Awards? .

To the degree that the selection of the host for the annual awards show is influenced by public opinion, Betty White should probably still be in the running come host selection time in the late Fall. Her much heralded and well reviewed appearance on Saturday Night Live was in part the work of an aroused electorate that made their Betty preference known via the Facebook connection.

What works to Betty's favor as a possible hostess for the Academy Awards is that her popularity spreads across the generations. It's not just the older folks who remember Betty White as Sue Ann Nevins on the Mary Tyler Moore Show or on the arm of Alan Ludden her spouse and fellow show personality of later years, that might exert some pressure on this year's producers to select Betty. Their numbers are swelled by an apparent alliance of taste with the 20 and 30 somethings who find Betty to their liking for her outright outrageousness that insists on peaking out from under a veneer of innocence. Oh, and she is very, very funny.

What also works for Betty is the fact that currently there is no long running host of the Academy Awards Show waiting to take the mike. Last year's hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin really didn't look like they were standing in line for a second invite. One would assume that both have plenty on their plates, though of course no one likes to pass up exposure on world wide television for a few hours. The point is, choosing Betty White wouldn't mean ditching a Bob Hope type who was in the midst of a multi year run. The stage in fact is pretty much open for new ( or older) talent.

What doesn't help to further Betty White's chances to land the job as emcee for the Oscars is the fact that she is in fact 88 years old. Sure she has remained active, looks great and hasn't lost her sense of comic timing. But did I mention, she's 88. The kind of work that she has been doing of late has all been within limited settings: a skit, a short monologue, things happening on a small set, film footage that can be redone before it goes in the can. These are not the kinds of experiences that really lead to the kind of long draining night on stage that being the host of the Oscars can demand. What bright producer really wants to take a chance of putting Betty White in position to fail .

Or looked at another way, why would Betty White, intelligent show person that she is, want to trade in her wonderful career and the image she has been allowed to reprise of late for an Academy Award Show hosting job centering on movies. Betty White succeeded on television because she had great talent and comic sense. But somewhere in her talent storehouse Betty also must have had a good agent and the kind of good sense of self that directed her to select and stick with the roles that eventually made her famous.

Despite the adulation she has elicited from so many fans, would Betty White simply walk away from the possible hosting job of a lifetime. Who knows. But I wouldn't be surprised if Betty took the chance to parlay her refound celebrity into being on the show without being the host. It's always nice to be remembered but its seldom nice to be used. Betty White should continue her career as long as health permits but as a winner, not as a trophy for shows to use for their own gain.

Source: www.marriage.about.com