I knew Whoopi Goldberg and she’s not nearly as dumb as Reason’s Damon Root implies she is – or that her recent appearance on The View “fearing” the return of slavery under a John McCain Supreme Court might indicate. In fact, she’s quite bright and very well read. Back in the eighties, I worked with her on a screenplay and spent time at her Malibu house (on a private cove beach, inaccessible to the public – natch). That house was piled high with books on all subjects, many of them political, including stacks of dog-eared paperbacks in her bathroom. So I’d bet my house she had a pretty good idea that “slavery was already illegal before the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment,” per Spooner and Douglass, as Root writes.
No, Whoopi is just a fake – quite willing to say and do anything she wants to make a point or, even more, for her own self-aggrandizement. Her attendant disrespect for John McCain – who on other occasions might even lay down his life for her – is contemptible. But it’s typical of her class in Hollywood where extreme narcissism outweighs any sense of reality or decency.
Back when I was working with Whoopi, I found her behavior in equal parts charming and egotistical. (No longer, of course) That was during the Reagan-Gorbachev summit. I was commissioned by Universal Studios to write a script for Whoopi in which she would play a member of the White House press corps. The studio sent me to DC for research where I spent time drinking bourbon and branch with Marlin Fitzwater and flying on the “zoo plane” with, of all people, Brit Hume, whom I then disliked because he was the sole member of the press corps I met who actually seemed to like Reagan (times change, no?). Anyway, the movie was never made. I guess the studio finally never believed Whoopi as a member of White House press corps in those days. Too silly. Nowadays, she is the press corps – or a leader of it, in her own way. So it goes.
[SELF-PROMOTION ALERT: You can read more of this in my memoir BLACKLISTING MYSELF, published by Encounter in January.]
It is also about the of-the-moment play to the audience. After the comment was made, there was all the faux relief. She played for laughs and gotcha. Yet, no matter how well read she is, it comes across as ignorant instead of clever. It comes across as cheap instead of insightful. If it will get a reaction from the audience, she’d throw all the books into the garbage. What is happening now across the board with McCain-Palin appearances is the media play for cotton candy, the instant sugar rush and the hope people will talk about them. There’s no such thing as bad publicity. Big media is in financial trouble and they desperately need eyeballs.
For example, Andrew Sullivan as gone so far in the tank for Obama that he could never find his way out. But more importantly he wants to shock his old supporters and the right. He loves saying ridiculous things and getting more and more hits to his site, hoping to translate that into bucks. In part it is better to point out the silliness but not become hysterical about it. That simply feeds the beast.
I agree, Barry. And you will note, no link to Whoopi or The View. Only to Reason.
When I watched Whoopi’s strange slavery
There is a method to the MSM madness. With Obama and a solid majority of House and Senate they can get a new and stronger Fairness Doctrine on the books. With controls on both talk radio and the Internet the MSM can, once again, control the flow of information to the public.
Sorry, my toddler son pressed send before I finished typing. As I was saying … When I watched Whoopi’s strange slavery comment on The View, it reminded me of the equally strange and infamous blackface roast of herself she wrote for Ted Danson ten years ago.
Knew Whoopi in the the S.F. days and agree with Roger. Sometimes she can rise above herself. When she had a short-lived show of her own, I remember her interview of Charlton Heston and it was great and they got along well.
Sometimes she can be endearing. Remember the time when she hosted the Oscars and came out wearing the different dresses (this one was Elizabethan) that had been nominated for Best Costume? “I’m the queen — the African Queen!” or simply, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the most beautiful woman in the world…Sophia Loren…”
If Roger has been to her place, he may have seen her collection of blackface figurines?
“If Roger has been to her place, he may have seen her collection of blackface figurines?”
I don’t recall those, but it’s been a while. Over 20 years. I do remember seeing Whoopi’s first show live at the Comedy Store when she just arrived from Berkeley via New York. A sensation. We had never seen anything quite like that. (Mike Nichols sponsored her debut – or something like that – as I recall.) Later I think she became Hollywoodized in more ways than one. But that’s what Hollywood does – turns people into, well, blackface versions of themselves – but not in the Jolson sense. In her case, she plays the role of cheeky radical, programmed never to change.
It makes us nostalgic for Fred Allen:
“You can take all the sincerity there is in Hollywood, stuff it into a flea’s navel, and still have room for six caraway seeds and an agent’s heart.”
[From Allen's Alley:]
ALLEN: Well, Senator, about our question [for the evening]. Do you think advertising has any effect on our manners and customs?
CLAGHORN: Ah don’t trust advertisin’, Son. Especially them ads politicians put in the papers around election time.
ALLEN: Uh-huh.
CLAGHORN: Ah saw an ad last election, it said—Elect this honest, fearless, hardworkin’ enemy of graft and corruption. I busted out laughin’.
ALLEN: Who was the candidate?
CLAGHORN: Me! So long, Son! So long, that is!
(Thanks to: http://www.americanheritage.com)
I long ago stopped reading Sullivan. Haven’t been to his site in years.
Whoopi …
Just because you read does not mean you are learned or even smart.
I have to say, if Slavery was illegal in the States prior to the adoption of the 13th Amendment a lot of people went through a lot of trouble for nothing.
But it’s typical of her class in Hollywood where extreme narcissism outweighs any sense of reality or decency.
Here is an impromptu.
http://tinyurl.com/6rhefz
and then right off the bat, a response.
http://tinyurl.com/646sh4
“…typical of her class in Hollywood where extreme narcissism outweighs any sense of reality or decency…”
The more I argue with my Upper West Side neighbors about the coming election, the more apparent it becomes that what separates us are not issues but fashion.
Although local politicians, (our sweaty Senior Senator, to name one such hack) whip up fear of guns, none of my neighbors ever sees a gun in real life that isn’t safely holstered on a policeman’s hip. Educated, sophisticated, middle class folk, neither they nor their children are ever likely to experience an unwanted pregnancy. If they did and it were illegal here, they have the wherewithal to leave the country and enjoy a safe abortion abroad followed by convalescence in a local spa.
Nonetheless, my neighbors get apoplectic on the subject of guns and abortion.
What gives?
In a youth driven culture, old is never in vogue. Physical disability elicits overt sympathy coupled covertly with cringing discomfort. It isn’t PC to denigrate national service but fear and contempt of the military is reflexive among my neighbors. Hence the nattering that McCain is an aggressive militarist. Old hat. More of the same. Part of the problem, not the solution. Bush redoux.
In truth, the old cripple is merely out of fashion. He was a handsome stud in his day but his day was BC. Dinosaurs walked the earth when McCain was hot. McCain’s brand of heroism went out with John Wayne, chrome bumpers and hulahoops. The old fart should have been put out to pasture long ago. Agism? Heaven forefend. My neighbors aren’t prejudiced against anyone.
Palin is even less with it. An offense to fashionable feminists everywhere. A fashionable feminist is urban and sophisticated. Devotes herself first and foremost to women’s causes. Eats frugally and healthily, gets her excersize in a gym, makes her career as an academic, editor, doctor, lawyer or social worker. Suffers daily tribulations juggling career and children which, as every true feminist knows, are diametrically opposed and can only mix like oil and water. Is divorced at least once. Is deeply wary of if not outright hostile to men.
In the movies, the only feminist who doesn’t fit this mold is a rural miner’s wife getting her consciousness raised by a visiting union organizer.
For the tragic thirty-five million American women living without a male partner, Palin is even more infuriating. A schoolteacherish, librarianlike, provincial who has it all. A hunk who helps with housework and the kids. A career to die for with a position that demands and automatically receives deference and respect from men. Worst of all, she doesn’t suffer continual angst from a thousand and one sources.
Feminist? Palin doesn’t know the meaning of the word. Look at her position on abortion and gun control, f’godsakes.
Ah, the times they are achanging. Methinks Gloria Steinem, the NOW-hags and their fellow travelers in Manhattan and Hollywood are in for a shock. Come November, their presumptuous, longstanding conviction that they represent American women will be overturned. Millions of clear thinking, independent women are going to send the whole grisly grey lot down the memory hole.
david levavi:
You have foretold the Future. Thank you!
Curious that you chose to focus on Whoopi’s slavery comment. Hyperbole? Sure. A shoot from the hip comment? Absolutely. The most notable thing in the interview? Not hardly.
Am I to believe you have no opinion on Joy Behar calling John McCain out on his less than honest campaign tactics?
I was not aware of the fact that Whoopi had ever been a slave. Is she channeling Harriet Tubman or something?
Apropos of “less than honest campaign tactics” mentioned by Obamabot Herb above.. Yes Herb, campaigns can get dirty and both sides do it. An amazing – growing – list of bizarre anti-Palin smears is here….
http://explorations.chasrmartin.com/2008/09/06/palin-rumors/
david levavi: Excellent post. There’s something else I would add. Your Upper West Side neighbors undoubtably spend a fortune just to ensure their child goes to the right kindergarten or elementary school, the first step on the yellow brick road that leads to Harvard Business School or Yale Law. As one of those provincials from the heartland, I have been amused by stories of the intense competition upper class New Yorkers engage in to ensure their tots get into the right grade schools. If little Isabella doesn’t make the cut at age 6, well, there go her chances for Harvard.
(It goes without saying that these same people wholeheartedly support the public school system and the teacher’s unions – just not for their kids. See Obama, Barack.)
After investing a fortune in your own and your child’s education because you sincerely believe that a degree from an elite university is the only possible route to success and happiness, what do you make of Sarah Palin? A woman with a degree from the University of Idaho who dares to mock the credentials of an Ivy League grad?
Many of us flyover types find that refreshing, but I can understand why it would horrify Mr. and Ms. Upper West Sider. It takes ‘em straight back to the ’80′s, when the Free World was led by a graduate of *gasp* Eureka College.
A. Randolph, so unattributed rumors are “campaign tactics” now?
I’m not sure about the wisdom of getting mad at Obama’s campaign for something they didn’t do…while simulataneously giving a pass to the McCain-Palin campaign for their continued dishonesty on earmarks.
Sully and BB aren’t giving McPalin a pass; just keep attacking with anything at hand on the keyboard, which is why it will be fun to attack BB’s daily defense of his hero the Austrian Sapling come this week in the LATimes. Heh heh…
the fact that Whoopi had ever been a slave..
Is as though because Whoopi refuses to wear her liberation/freedom as a badge of honor, she will make sure no one else ever claims to have been liberated/freed either.
OT:
I’m having one hell of a hard time finding a complete transcript (not just a complete transcript of one session but of the entire interview) of Sarah Palin’s interview with Gibson. Does anyone have a link?
I’m having one hell of a hard time finding a complete transcript
While you do that I have something easy.
If you go to Google anf click CBS Palin
see if your response is the same as mine up top.
Rumor Watch: Governor Sarah Palin
Now google CBS Obama
Candidates Profile
Nice…?
A lot of books in a house means the owner of the house is thoughtful? Ha!
Roger Simon is obviously a narrow minded right winger. What have right wingers got us? A COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY WAR IN IRAQ, COSTING, WITH BORROWED MONEY OVER 30 YEARS, 3,000 BILLIONS $$$$$ — That’s like burning down 30 MILLION homes worth $ 100,000 EACH !!! Think of nearly home in the Midwest burning down, that’s the stupid waste of this war. — AND 34,000 US troops killed or seriously wounded, losing arms, eyes, legs. The wounded will need care for 60-80 years, so the war will FINALLY be paid for around 2070-2090 !!! Great job Republican! You have made the US dollar, economy, and military WEAKER !!!
I figure some people here will not click on anything because of the fear to be taken someplace whatever….
So all i’m asking is go to Google and type CBS Palin register the response and then type CBS Obama – register that response.
If you can say after that experiment how fare the MSM is I want to hear from you because I have a deal you cannot and will not refuse.
Lem, that CBS Palin search returned a profile poll as its top item returned. It was dated 3 September, and the sample was taken on 1 and 2 Sept. That’s whey the percentages are what they are. The CBS Obama search just returns a bunch of eclectic web pages. As far as Rumor Watch: Governer Sarah Palin goes, who can believe anything they say? MSM is still running stories on her banning books, for Christ’s sake. MSM simple can’t be believed at this point. There has to be a growing percentage of people who realize this.
Great column, Mr. Simon.
I’ve heard a Conservative producer is holding a fund raiser for McCain-Palin. It would be great if ALL Hollywood conservatives emerged from deep in the closet at the same time. There is safety in numbers and people might be surprised as who else is Conservative as Andrew Breitbart discussed in a recent interview.
If not a fundraiser for McCain-Palin, a conservative/libertarian film festival would be another great venue for everyone to emerge from the closet. Suggestion: bring a business card with your specialties listed on the reverse side.
The bottom line in Hollywood is money. “The Passion” sells well? Great! Let’s release every kitschy Christ movie ever made including Martin Scorcese’s blasphemous atrocity, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST which I could not watch for more than five minutes — and I’m no longer a Catholic!!!
When Julia Roberts said that Republican can be found in the dictionary between reptile and repulsive, why wasn’t she told that her salary was being cut in half because she’d just pissed off half her audience?
Why don’t they tell the rest of these rebels without a cause the same thing? I I boycott a whole lot of Hollywood actors, directors and films. Jessica Lange, Leonard di Caprio, Martin Scorcese, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Annette Bening, Diane English, John Cusack, etc. . I support Conservatives in film. And I believe so would most of America.
Critics just don’t matter much anymore. The Internet lets us know which films are good and which are anti-war or anti-American.
I boycott all the time. Watched Charlie Gibson’s interview on ABC once. Will watch the other segments on FNC. Don’t like giving the enemy good ratings. And, believe me, they ARE the enemy.
The extent to which the MSM is willing to damage their credibility for the sake of Obama beggars belief. They ran with stories that had Daily Kos as the source, and treated the craven, misogynistic rants as legimate news stories. I don’t see how they will regain their reputation. How can they keep running stories that have been debunked? I think they collectively must be suffering from some form of emotionally-driven mass hysteria, clouding out all reason.
And then the real protypical bimbo Pam Anderson unrockes herself long enough to mutter venomously, “I can’t stand her. She can suck it.” LOL. No, Pambi, you’re the one that sucks it, as is well known worldwide.
OT:
There is a groundswell of support for McCain that the polls simply are not reflective of. Millions of democrats are going to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. Putting Sarah Palin on the ballot cinched it.
PUMA Pac
NOBAMA Network
I doubt if there is anyone in the country at this point that is unaware of trooper gate, that the investigation is headed up by an Obama supporting congressman, and that it involves a trooper that tasered a ten-year-old boy, drank on the job, and threatened to kill Sarah Palin’s father. The trooper was given a 10-day suspension. It will be a media circus if the investigation finds Palin at fault, but at point will anything the MSM says be even listened to? MSM heads will be exploding!
Steve: That’s a hilarious parody! What? You’re serious? Oh my. Well, while 3,000 Billions $$$$$ is a whole lot of Billions $$$$$, it should be paid off by 2030 at the latest! Far sooner than your student loan to Batsh*t Crazy University. So, you know, take heart…and also your meds, *especially* the meds.
OT:
Here’s some PUMA pictures from the Denver Convention
This one is a Video of PUMAs outside the convention chanting “That’s above my pay grade” and “Let the delegates vote”.
18,000,000 Hillary voters, and Oblah blah doesn’t select her as VP. What a colossal mistake. The PUMAs still would have been pissed, but probably the great majority of them could have been sweet talked back into the fold. They are hellbent on getting rid of Obama. If you take the time to comb through the sites, it soon becomes apparant that some real crooked dealing was taking place at the caucus level. Pelosi and Dean had to have been in on it. Remember how silent they were with all the sexism levied against Hillary. And Pelosi acting as if Obama was a messianic savior.
Ooops, there it is: The 527s are starting to come out.
Let me try that again: This should be a link to a 527.
OT: Wow, watch this video and see how spot on Dick Morris was during an interview with NewsMax. He definitely earned himself an uptick for political acumen. This interview takes place on the night before Obama’s convention speech. Morris says that McCain has the ability to defang the Democratic Party. This is 2 days before McCain announces Sarah Palin as his VP pick.
Morris: McCain can defang the democrats
Every blow someone like Whoopi strikes is a blow that pushes away the demographic Obama needs most to secure a victory. Ironic, huh?
BTW, David Levavi, you have a real ear for Obama’s most rabid supporters. And, like Pauline Kael 40 years ago, they will surprised and shocked in November
Hey, Steve, I’ve got a question for you. I don’t agree that the Iraq war is as disastrous as you say, but even if it were, how can you blame it strictly on “the Republicans”? The majority of the Democrats in Congress voted to authorize it. They, like “the Republicans” relied heavily on intelligence produced by the CIA — and I guarantee you there are plenty of Democrats working at the CIA. The intelligence was reviewed and approved by the State Department — and I can guarantee you that the great majority of those working in the State Department are Democrats. The intelligence matched the intelligence gathered by the French, the English and the Germans — and I can guarantee you that those agencies are not dominated by Republicans.
What’s more, since 2006, Democrats have had control of both houses of Congress, yet they continue to fund the war. So, why is it strictly a “the Republicans” that are to blame for this disaster that has you so upset? Just curious how you decide who to blame…..
OT: Here’s an article that has the complete video of Sarah Palin’s exceptional speech in Carson City yesterday.
Three strategeries are now obvious:
1. Honor veterans and active servicemen.
2. “Always proud of America” (digging at Michelle Obama).
3. “God bless America” (digging at Jermiah Wright).
Regarding the video, Sarah Palin had the whole package going, looked very sharp. Well-coiffured. Parts of the speech are tailored to interests important to Nevada
I’m so pumped by the McCain/Palin ticket that I’ve started my own blog, where I’m amassing YouTube links, anything and everything that will sink Oblah blah (or cupcake, as he’s known in some circles). I’m shooting for an average of around 5 new ones a day.
Hi Roger,
I have never understood the so called “talents” of Ms. Goldberg. She’s not especially funny and definitely not pretty. So what’s the deal with her huge career? I imagine it is very similar to Obama’s. The people who cast her can claim that they aren’t racists and invite her to all their parties. What a trophy to have an autograph picture of Whoopi hanging on your wall. Match that with one of Obama and you are a bonafide decent white person.
The “live” audience of the View should have booed that hideous remark which came out of her mouth. McCain had to be out of his mind to even go on that Lefty show. His presence suggest that the View has some significance.
We really need to start ignoring people like Goldberg by not buying tickets to see the films they appear in.
Goldberg needs to read a few Civil War books. I lot of white soldiers died so she wouldn’t be a slave today. Does she think the slaves freed themselves? A Republican president suffered far worst attacks than George Bush in pursuing the very unpopular and bloody fight. And for this, Republicans are branded as slavers?
Lightin’:
Don’t use “batsh*t”, but instead “berniewardwhack”?
OT:
Holy Crap! Democratic state senator endorses McCain!
Dems are starting to distance themselves from Oblah blah!
Notice Obama’s new slogan: Change We Need
Should have been: Change I Need
More fitting to his psychological profile.
Change: What Obama’s campaign strategy needs.
Can we get to the real issue? When will Andrew Sullivan be committed to a mental ward?
A bit tardy, but I have to agree with RLS: Hollywood is like a machine for turning regular people into self-important flakes. I imagine it’s just the culture – your peer group inherited it from their predecessors, and you inherit it from them. Everybody wants their peers’ approval. Whoopi shows us what that approval costs.
Times do change – remember when Republicans use to hate John McCain, despite his service and former POW status?
Don,
“Times do change – remember when Republicans use to hate John McCain, despite his service and former POW status?”
You’re right. McCain is no conservative. But he’s very mainstream and he selected Palin to mollify the conservatives. He gets the voters in the middle and Palin gets the voters on the right. That should be enough to edge out the votes for the candidate with the most liberal voting record in the Senate and his v.p. candidate thats not much less liberal.
No McCain is no conservative, but he’s pretty smart.
“Times do change – remember when Republicans use to hate John McCain, despite his service and former POW status?”
I have major problems with John McCain and he wasn’t my first, second or third choice for the Republican nomination but he must’ve had some Republicans who liked him because he won the nomination.
Do you remember when democrats loved and respected John McCain? If not, go to this video to refresh your willful lack of memory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSpcxkKlEFA
One could say that many liberals hate John McCain because of his service and former POW status.