Online push gets White to host ‘SNL’

Betty White gets a charge out of catching people off guard. So it should come as no surprise that she’d envision an offbeat opener for her highly anticipated hosting gig this weekend on “Saturday Night Live.”

“I would love it if they’d introduce me – ‘Here’s Betty White’ – and … nothing. No applause. No nothing,” she says. “The audience just stares back at me. That would be fun.”

Fun maybe, but not a bit realistic. The celebrated showbiz veteran is much more likely to be greeted with a thunderous ovation that threatens to blow the lid off Rockefeller Center’s Studio 8H.

At the tender age of 88, White finds herself in the midst of a pop-cultural renaissance that is stunningly out of step with our youth-obsessed times. It’s a resurgence fueled by hilarious film and TV roles, prestigious awards and a much talked-about Super Bowl commercial that ignited an impassioned Internet crusade to land her on “SNL.”

As talk-show host Craig Ferguson recently told Entertainment Weekly, “To say, ‘I don’t like Betty White,’ is kind of like declaring that you’re a member of al-Qaida.”

The ever-modest White seems genuinely flabbergasted by the outpouring of adulation.

“It blows my mind,” she said in a conference call last week. “ … I can’t get over, at my age, what all’s going on. All I can do is roll with the punches, enjoy it thoroughly, and be grateful for it.”

Soon after breaking into television at the dawn of the medium, White starred in the sitcom “Life with Elizabeth,” for which she won the first of six Emmy Awards in 1952. In ensuing years, she made her mark on several variety and game shows.

Then came her two iconic roles: the man-hungry homemaker Sue Ann Nivens on the 1970s sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and the sweetly naive Rose Nylund of “The Golden Girls.”

Even after “Girls” (1985-1992) left the air – cable reruns continue to attract a new generation of fans – White never really went away. In recent years, she has guest starred in a slew of comedies and dramas, often playing the seemingly sweet elder who spews unexpectedly naughty or catty dialogue. She also did a stint on the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful.”

The current round of Bettymania began last summer with her turn as a feisty grandma who felt up Sandra Bullock’s breasts in “The Proposal” (“It’s like an Easter egg hunt!”).

Then there was her bawdy speech at the SAG Awards, where she accepted a lifetime achievement honor and told the star-studded crowd in deadpan fashion, “I actually know many of you, have worked with quite a few. Maybe had a couple.”

But what really turned the buzz into a roar was the irreverent Snickers ad in which White was clobbered in a pickup football game. It was seen by a record number of Super Bowl viewers, including David Matthews, a 29-year-old San Antonio resident who instigated the “SNL” Facebook campaign that has drawn 500,000-plus fans.

Thanks to that push, she’ll be on hand Saturday for what is expected to be the highest-rated edition of “SNL” in years.

Melissa Camacho, a professor of television and media studies at San Francisco State University, says White’s mischievous willingness to go against the grain allows her to maintain her mojo.

“So often you hear older women, especially in Hollywood, criticize how things have changed,” Camacho says. “But instead of moping and criticizing, she rolls right along with the times.”

Apparently, she has no plans to stop any time soon. Next week, White is set to begin work on a new sitcom for TV Land called “Hot in Cleveland,” which debuts in June.

She’ll also appear in the season finale of ABC’s “The Middle” (June 19) and in the feature film “You Again” in September.

But first comes the momentous “SNL” gig. As of last week, White had no idea what the sketch show’s writers would be asking of her.

“All I know is I have veto power if it’s something I really don’t want to do,” she said. “And they promised me I wouldn’t have to do any nudity.”