Key Points
Valerie Bertinelli remembers her late Hot in Cleveland costar Betty White.
Bertinelli said White is “so present all the time” in her life.
She noted that making White laugh on set was always a luxury.
Valerie Bertinelli is remembering her friend and costar Betty White as she revisits their sitcom, Hot in Cleveland.
Bertinelli, 66, has been reliving the TV Land series, which ran for six seasons from 2010 to 2015, on her podcast Still Hot in Cleveland and said she feels White’s presence frequently.
In an interview with PEOPLE published Friday, Bertinelli noted that there’s “never been anything but happiness” when she thinks of Hot in Cleveland but that White’s loss is always felt.
“There’s the bittersweetness of not being able to enjoy this with Betty, but she’s so present all the time,” Bertinelli insisted. “I just feel like somebody that … How do I say that? Well, yeah, big. That someone that has such a huge aura, she’s always around.”
Betty White, ‘Hot in Cleveland’
Credit: TV LAND
White died in Dec. 2021 at the age of 99, just shy of her 100th birthday. A national treasure, White was a beloved member of the entertainment industry and regarded as a wonderful, and hilarious, colleague on set.
“Anytime that we could make Betty giggle and anytime that Betty could just go up and giggle [was a great memory],” Bertinelli told PEOPLE. “I mean, I think it’s a classic by now when you go to YouTube, and you watch ‘Bender Over‘ — that was her screen name — and we never got through that scene.”
On Hot in Cleveland, White played Elka, the sassy caretaker of the home three middle-aged best friends from Los Angeles—Melanie (Bertinelli), Joy (Jane Leeves), and Victoria (Wendie Malick)—rent after they unexpectedly relocate to Ohio when their Paris-bound flight makes an emergency landing.
“To make Betty laugh for all of us was the epitome,” Bertinelli added of the on-set vibe. “And I know Jane enjoyed that, as did Wendie and everybody.”
“I mean, we had so much fun,” Bertinelli told PEOPLE of the show’s cast and crew. “And I knew at the time, I said, ‘This will never happen again’ in my head. Every morning when I would wake up, I’m like, ‘I get to go to work, I get to hang with Betty, I get to hang with Jane and Wendy and Suzanne [Martin, creator] and Michael Burger and Todd [Milliner] and all the writers and everybody on the crew we just made lifelong friends with.'”
Bertinelli cohost her new “nostalgia-cast” Still Hot in Cleveland with former executive producer Milliner, as they explore the series season by season rather than revisiting each episode one by one.
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They welcome former cast members, writers, and others who worked behind the scenes to reflect on the show’s legacy while answering fan questions and sharing stories from set. Bertinelli said the podcast allows the team to “just enjoy being around that joy again.”
Still Hot in Cleveland episodes debut first for members of Bertinelli’s new fan community, Valerie’s Place, before wider release.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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