Why Did Valerie Bertinelli Once Give Betty White a Box Filled With Puppies?
Valerie Bertinelli had an “amazing time” costarring with the late Betty White in Hot in Cleveland, the TV Land sitcom that ran from 2010 to 2015. But when White was about to turn 90, Bertinelli recalled in a new interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, she and her costars had a difficult time figuring what gift to give the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Golden Girls alum.
“We would never know what to get Betty,” Bertinelli told host Drew Barrymore, before listing some previous gifts the cast had decided on for White, who was a noted animal welfare advocate. “We named an elephant after her. We named wolves after her. We did all this kind of stuff.”
When White’s 90th birthday came around in 2011, one person on set had a stroke of genius: “Someone on Hot in Cleveland said, ‘We need to get Betty a box of puppies just for the day,’ because she couldn’t get any new dogs. Her dog Pontiac was ill,” Bertinelli said. “So we just had a box of puppies, a big pen of puppies, the entire day when we were working. And she was in heaven.”
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The One Day at a Time alum also revealed that White came up with the names for Bertinelli’s dog Luna and her cat Nelson. (“She always wanted a cat named Nelson Eddy, so she gave that to me for Nelson,” she said of White.)
And Bertinelli told Barrymore that White was a “magical” presence. “You know, there are people that when they walk into a room, they kind of glow. You glow, too,” she said. “Betty had this aura about her of just pure grace and kindness and humor. I was so lucky, I got to work with her for five years. It was the best job. It was amazing. I learned so much.”
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