Dolly Parton Gets Standing Ovation at Screen Actors Guild Awards; Presents Lifetime Achievement Award to Friend Lily Tomlin

Posted on January 30, 2017

What was supposed to be a reunion of Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin—stars of the 1980 classic film, 9 to 5—at the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night (Jan. 29) turned out to be Dolly flying solo to present her friend Lily Tomlin with the SAG Life Achievement Award.

Dolly and Jane were set to present their co-star with the award, reuniting the three onstage after so many years, however, Jane Fonda was unable to attend the celebration. “The third member of our trio, Jane, I know you thought she was going to be here, we did too—she got sick at the last minute, she’s got the flu or some kind of crud,” Dolly said in her intro.

That didn’t stop Dolly from taking the stage herself, receiving a standing ovation from the star-studded crowd and presenting her friend, Lily Tomlin, with the SAG Life Achievement Award, but not before entertaining the crowd in true Dolly form—with some comedy, which is one of the many reasons we love her.

“Greetings from Dollywood, Hollywood. That is very sweet of you. My goodness look at this room, all these special people,” Dolly said after her standing ovation. “I almost didn’t get in—seriously I didn’t, they were holding me backstage, they kept wanting to see my IDs. Well, I think it was IDs, maybe it was just double Ds. Glad to get that off my chest.”

Watch Dolly’s hilarious speech from the SAG awards.

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