Renee Zellweger parades around as Hasty Pudding honoree

Accompanied by Harvard men in drag, Renee Zellweger has been honored as the Hasty Pudding Theatricals woman of the year.

The actress rode in the back of a silver convertible Bentley during a parade through Harvard Square on Thursday. She waved to spectators who braved frigid temperatures and signed a few autographs, all the while capturing the event on her cell phone camera.

Hasty Pudding is the nation's oldest undergraduate drama troupe. By tradition, many of its male members wear women's clothes for the parade — one came dressed in a gold, sparkly dress.

At a roast after the parade, Zellweger helped spoof her voiceover animation work and danced in a fat suit, a nod to her roles in "Bridget Jones" and "Chicago."

She turned the teasing back on her hosts, calling the pudding pot she received "the nicest doorstop I've ever had."

"I have always had great faith that no matter the state of the union, that America's future was sound so long as Harvard continued to deliver us her brightest and best," she said. "And after what I have experienced and witnessed today, I can tell you that I'm going to really have to rethink all that."

The 39-year-old Zellweger won an supporting-actress Oscar for the 2003 film "Cold Mountain."

James Franco will be honored as the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year next week. - AP