Applegate calls being at Emmys ‘a victory’

LOS ANGELES — She may not have walked away with the Best Actress in a comedy Emmy, but Christina Applegate has called attending Sunday night’s awards show “a victory” after beating breast cancer.

Applegate, who was up for the nod for her role in “Samantha Who?,” told Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell she was thrilled to attend the ceremony.

“One thing my mother always used to say when she was going through cancer, was she said cancer is a word, not a sentence, and being here and being in a dress and feeling good, it’s such a victory,” Applegate said. “You can get past this thing and all of those things that defines you as a woman. There’s so many other things that define you as a woman, so you know, I’m alive and I feel fantastic.”

In early August, it was revealed that Applegate had been diagnosed and was being treated for breast cancer. She had a double mastectomy and in mid-August declared she was 100 percent cancer-free.

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Applegate said during her cancer battle her “Samantha Who?” castmates were nothing but supportive of her fight.

“(They gave me) a lot of love and a lot of, ‘We’ve been thinking about you, and praying for you,’” she said. “They are such an amazing, loving group of people. I talk to my cast all the time and ... they came and visited me.”

Another person who was supportive of the actress during her battle was “Dancing With the Stars” contender and former ’NSYNC star Lance Bass.

“He came to the hospital,” Applegate said. “He’s such a great friend, he’s such an amazing person. We both sort of shared events with each other ... He’s a special person and he’s going to win ‘Dancing With the Stars.’”

Now back on the “Samantha Who?” set, Christina said she is happy to be once again engaged by work.

“It was great,” she said of returning to the production last week. “It was so nice to be back. It was so nice to kind of like focus in on something else, and be active. It was really — it was a great week.”