Whoopi and Disney
I adore Whoopi. Ever since I saw her Direct From Broadway show on HBO many years ago. I haven’t seen the 2oth anniversary version, though I would really like to. In the orignal HBO special, her character Fontaine, who is a junkie, goes to the Anne Frank house. It is a profound piece about race and humanity that I wish I could see again.
I was excited to see Whoopi join The View, which is one of my favorite shows to watch when I’m not really watching TV. I was terribly disappointed in her “rape rape” comment about Roman Polanski, for which she’s being skewered all over the net, and deservedly so. Still, I think she’s got an incredible talent for raising people’s consciousness through comedy.
I remember when she was filming in Sister Act and she was at war with Disney over the script. The script called for her to steal a tomato from a garden because she was on poverty rations or something. She didn’t like the idea of a perpetuating the stereotype of black people stealing so she refused to do the scene. In retaliation she distributed a t-shirt saying “Nigga-teer” with Mickey in blackface. I saw her discuss this on Arsenio (remember him?) where she said she was basically a Nigga-teer for Disney. Somehow the conflict got resolved and she’s continued to work for Disney, all the way up to today on ABC.
I haven’t been able to find any clips from the show, but here’s Whoopi playing “questions” on Whose Line — very funny stuff.
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