Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said ABC’s suspension of Whoopi Goldberg over her comments about the Holocaust wasn’t necessary, arguing that Goldberg has already been forgiven by a key Jewish organization.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) noted that the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, “accepted her apology.”
“I think whenever there’s a learning moment like this, what’s super important is the relationship between that person and the community they’re making amends with,” the New York congresswoman told TMZ.
Greenblatt appeared on “The View” on Tuesday after Goldberg came under fire for saying that the Holocaust “wasn’t about race” during the show’s Monday broadcast.
The ADL head told Goldberg and her co-hosts on Tuesday that the Holocaust was a “singular catastrophe” that was motivated by a “racialized anti-Semitism.”
Greenblatt also tweeted that Goldberg was a “long-time ally of the Jewish community” and that her apology “is very much welcome.”
Ocasio-Cortez told TMZ that forgiveness from Greenblatt should suffice.
“I think we really kind of take the Jewish community’s lead on this and they seem to see that her apology was authentic and want to move on,” she said.
Goldberg first argued that the Holocaust went beyond race during a discussion on “The View” about a Tennessee school district’s decision to ban “Maus,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about a Holocaust survivor.
“The Holocaust isn’t about race. No, it’s not about race,” she said repeatedly. “It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.”
She then repeated the statement on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” that evening.
The host walked back the remarks on Twitter later that night amid widespread outrage.
The suspension handed down by ABC News president Kim Godwin drew furious reaction from Goldberg’s co-hosts, who felt it was unwarranted.
Other staffers at the network thought it took Godwin too long to punish Goldberg.
Article From & Read More ( AOC says Whoopi Goldberg suspension was unnecessary - New York Post )Jennifer Lopez had some fun during a morning show appearance on Thursday to plug her romantic comedy Marry Me which comes out in a week.
The 52-year-old siren brought up Hoda Kotb's recent split from fiancé Joel Schiffman when the Today show reporter pushed too hard for information on Jen's on-again boyfriend Ben Affleck.
'You don't want to talk about your personal stuff? Is that what it is, Hoda?' ribbed the Jenny From The Block singer who looked radiant in a green outfit with big gold earrings.
Showdown! Jennifer Lopez had some fun during a morning show appearance on Thursday to plug her romantic comedy Marry Me which comes out in a week. The 52-year-old siren brought up Hoda Kotb's recent split from fiancé Joel Schiffman
There was plenty of laughter but clearly Lopez had taken the upper hand in the interview and Kotb squirmed with a delighted Savannah Guthrie calling the jab 'mutually assured destruction.'
The exchange took place toward the end of the sit-down interview as Hoda held up Lopez's recent People magazine cover.
Inside the Bronx native had talked about how much she loved her on-again beau Affleck.
But when Kotb held up the cover she put her hand over the corner, which was a news story on her breakup from Schiffman.
Going too far? Hoda was asked plenty of questions about Jen's beau Ben Affleck; seen in December in Hollywood
Zinger! And that is when Lopez brought up Hoda's split from fiancé Joel Schiffman; seen with ehir two kids
JLo was on to Hoda's sneaky move.
'Why are you trying to block out the corner? You don’t want to talk about your personal stuff? Is that what it is, Hoda?' teased the mother of two who looked pleased with outing Hoda's strategy.
Jennifer's message was clear: it's not fair that you want me to talk about Ben when you don't want to discuss Joel.
All Hoda could say was, 'Touche.'
But the ladies laughed it off in what was an unusual interview exchange.
Gotcha: 'You don't want to talk about your personal stuff? Is that what it is, Hoda?' ribbed the Jenny From The Block singer who looked radiant in a green outfit with big gold earrings
The interview was not as smooth as one would have expected. Jennifer has been talking nonstop and to several outlets about her love for Ben but with Today she seemed to hold back.
When Hoda's costar Savannah Guthrie took a hard approach, JLo seemed to recoil.
Savannah treated the interview very seriously as she went for the big question: how exactly did Jennifer reunite with Ben?
The start: The exchange took place toward the end of the sit-down interview as Hoda held up Lopez's recent People magazine cover. Inside the Bronx native had talked about how much she loved her on-again beau Affleck
Smooth move: But then Kotb put her hand over the corner, which was a news story on her breakup from Schiffman
The two have never shared how, when or where they got back together in the spring of 2021.
Guthrie said: 'I know you don’t necessarily want to spill your guts about something that is personal and belongs to you. … But I think so many people can relate to the one who got away or the one you always wondered about. How did you find each other again?'
Savannah was right: Lopez did not want to spill.
Jennifer looked a little guarded as she told the ladies if they wanted the story of how she got back together with Ben, they could hear it from her backstage and not with the cameras on.
I got you babe: Jennifer's message was clear: it's not fair that you want me to talk about Ben when you don't want to discuss Joel. All Hoda could say was, 'Touche'
The Second Act star then put her line in the sand.
'I think what we learned from the last time is that love, when you are lucky enough to find it, is so sacred and special and you have to hold a little bit of that privately, and that’s what we’ve learned. But we’re very happy, if that’s what you’re wondering about,' said Lopez.
That is when Hoda reached for the People magazine issue in which Jennifer had been more candid.
She went there: Savannah treated the interview very seriously as she went for the big question: how exactly did Jennifer reunite with Ben?
NOPE: The two have never shared how, when or where they got back together. Guthrie said: 'How did you find each other again?' Savannah was right: Lopez did not want to spill. Jennifer told the ladies if they wanted the story of how she got back together with Ben, they could hear it from her backstage
The interview ended with laughter and Hoda noted that JLo would be back on the show later with her Marry Me costar Maluma.
When JLo was back, she had on a snakeskin outfit with her hair back as she spoke to Hoda and Jenna Bush.
Maluma said he felt good to star in the film: 'I always dream about this, acting, Hollywood... it was nice working with Jennifer for the first time.'
This is all you get: The Second Act star then put her line in the sand. 'I think what we learned from the last time is that love, when you are lucky enough to find it, is so sacred and special and you have to hold a little bit of that privately, and that’s what we’ve learned. But we’re very happy, if that’s what you’re wondering about,' said Lopez
Hoda brought up that the two had good chemistry and Maluma said it was 'easy.'
And Maluma said he was a bit 'nervous' to work on the movie. 'I loved working with them,' he added.
Kotb brought up that the media talks about Jennifer's character in the movie, and she said she 'understood' that.
She noted that even when she had heartbreak she still had to sing and perform and do the interviews.
'You get to see what really happens,' said Jennifer who noted she had to work through heartbreak in the past but that she plastered a smile on.
Part two: When JLo was back with her costar, she had on a snakeskin outfit with her hair back as she spoke to Hoda and Jenna Bush. Maluma said he felt good to star in the film: 'I always dream about this, acting, Hollywood... it was nice working with Jennifer for the first time'
The setting: Hoda brought up that the two had good chemistry and Maluma said it was 'easy.' And Maluma said he was a bit 'nervous' to work on the movie. 'I loved working with them,' he added
Lopez was then asked about Ben again.
'When Ben and I were younger and we were together, we were just out there with our relationship. When something is sacred like that and you put it out there, you kind of say to people it’s yours to do with what you want…We’re just at a different place in our life. We’re going to try to keep as much as we can sharing our happiness but at the same time keeping it very sacred and close to our own hearts.'
Hoda said having kids makes in a different 'dynamic.'
She said her kids are now 13 - they will turn 14 in a matter of days - and 'they have opinions about the world and their lives.' She added, 'You have to be conscious too to talk about your private life' because the kids at school will say something. 'It's about being respectful to them,' she noted.
Also during the interview Maluma noted that he was 'single' and did not have a girlfriend at the moment.
Hoda noted Jenny looked so 'peaceful' and Maluma said she had a 'bright aura.'
It was also shared that Hoda has a small part in Marry Me.
The Ben question: Lopez was then asked about Ben again. 'When Ben and I were younger and we were together, we were just out there with our relationship. When something is sacred like that and you put it out there, you kind of say to people it’s yours to do with what you want…We’re just at a different place in our life. We’re going to try to keep as much as we can sharing our happiness but at the same time keeping it very sacred and close to our own hearts'
Movie AND music: Not only is Marry Me a film but there is also a soundtrack with Maluma
Beginning with a pair of high-profile O.J. Simpson series in 2016, pop culture at large has transformed into a revolving door of public figures misconstrued by the mass media of a quarter-century prior
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According to the calendar, the 1990s ended. According to film and TV, they merely went on hiatus. In 2016, the scripted miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and the eight-hour documentary O.J.: Made in America premiered within months of each other, to equally rapturous acclaim. The former swept the Emmys, taking home nine trophies; the latter won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In the half-decade since, the coincidence that brought both projects to air at around the same time has evolved into a more widely applicable playbook.
Beginning with the Simpson shows, pop culture at large transformed into a revolving door of public figures misconstrued by the mass media of a quarter-century prior, many of them women. (The two most sympathetic figures in the current understanding of Simpson’s case are Nicole Brown Simpson and ex-prosecutor Marcia Clark.) It’s a trend that spans media, encompassing feature films, docuseries, scripted shows, and podcasts. Subjects of this group portrait now include Lorena Bobbitt (Lorena), Monica Lewinsky (Impeachment: American Crime Story), Tonya Harding (I, Tonya), Tammy Faye Bakker (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), and Princess Diana (Spencer, the fourth and fifth seasons of The Crown). One could even argue that Yellowjackets, the Showtime drama that stars former ingenues like Christina Ricci as the haunted survivors of a ’90s plane crash, is a more metaphorical exercise in the same underlying approach.
Last fall, the hosts of the popular podcast You’re Wrong About announced they were abandoning the show’s initial structure, which deconstructed the ’90s and early ’00s one media frenzy at a time. (Past topics included Harding, Simpson, Bobbitt, Bakker, and Diana.) The move was an early, self-aware sign that this particular form of revisionist history may be running out of steam. But Hollywood operates under a slower, more diffuse, and much higher-budget kind of groupthink, and at least for now, today’s retellings of yesterday’s tabloid scandals go on. The latest example, Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, does not inspire confidence that this specific strain of storytelling has much left to mine.
Starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan as the namesake duo, Pam & Tommy traces the series of events that turned a sex tape recorded on the honeymoon of Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee into an object of public fascination. As chronicled in the Rolling Stone article from which the eight-episode show is adapted, the true story is indeed stranger than fiction: The tape was stolen from the couple’s Malibu mansion in 1995 by a disgruntled electrician and former porn star named Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen, also an executive producer), who absconded with an entire safe in the dead of night after Lee abruptly fired Gauthier, refused to pay him for tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of work, and threatened him at gunpoint. Gauthier then cut the safe open with a demolition saw, discovered what he had on his hands, and partnered with a scuzzy pornographer named Milton Ingley (Nick Offerman) to sell copies of the tape online. There, the tape generated an estimated $77 million in revenue, almost none of which Gauthier saw himself.
The story is a prime candidate for the “hindsight is 20/20” treatment—or more precisely, Anderson is. A blond bombshell with breast implants who rose to fame as a model for Playboy, Anderson was widely mocked as a sex-obsessed airhead both before and after the tape’s release. (In an echo of the Simpson bonanza of 2016, Pam & Tommy arrives close on the heels of Secrets of Playboy, an A&E docuseries that takes a critical look at the legacy of Hugh Hefner and his publication.) There were even rumors Anderson and Lee had leaked the tape themselves. Anderson was rarely acknowledged for what she was: the victim of an appalling invasion of privacy, magnified by a technology whose impact was only just starting to make itself known. In a world where smartphone nudes are commonplace and many states have laws against revenge porn, we aren’t so quick to snicker.
But whether Anderson deserves our sympathy is a separate question from whether Pam & Tommy succeeds at telling her story. The creative team’s CVs suggest the show is well aware of the footsteps it’s walking in. Created by screenwriter Robert Siegel (The Wrestler, The Founder), the first three episodes are helmed by Craig Gillespie, who also directed I, Tonya; the writing team includes D.V. DeVincentis, who won an Emmy for penning “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” the Clark-focused episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson. (Other contributors include actress Lake Bell, who directs, and I Love Dick cocreator Sarah Gubbins, also a credited writer.)
Pam & Tommy borrows heavily, thematically and stylistically, from both these predecessors. Like I, Tonya, the show is brazenly maximalist—especially in the early episodes, which follow Anderson and Lee’s race from a nightclub encounter to a Mexican beach wedding in 96 hours. Obtrusive music cues either triple-underscore we’re in the ’90s (Fatboy Slim, Nine Inch Nails) or, more distressingly, contrast “classy” standards (Jerry Fuller, Carl Coccomo) with a “trashy” spectacle we’re invited to sneer at. (The honeymoon montage, which features Lee and Anderson having sex on a hotel balcony while she spills a drink in slow motion, is especially egregious.) The formal devices are often ostentatious, including a scene borrowed from Lee’s own memoir in which the rock star debates his own penis, voiced by comedian Jason Mantzoukas. Pam & Tommy may not break the fourth wall, but it does throw the kitchen sink at it to find out what sticks
Once the tape starts spreading like wildfire, though, the show pivots into People v. O.J. mode, performing image rehab for its heroine. In its first episodes, Pam & Tommy is more like Rand & Tommy, a damning, contemptuous indictment of two men whose need to prove themselves only blows up in their faces. Eventually, the focus shifts to Anderson, the only character for whom Pam & Tommy feels anything more tender than naked (if earned) condescension. The show even goes out of its way to make her especially innocent and undeserving; this version of Anderson is explicitly unaware Lee stiffed Gauthier, while the reality is more ambiguous. (Neither Anderson nor Lee was involved in, or gave their approval for, the production, so it’s unlikely we’ll ever know the truth.)
Yet even as Anderson fell victim to the same institutional misogyny as figures like Harding or Bobbitt, her story proves much harder to dramatize in compelling fashion. That’s in part because her role in the tape saga is a passive one. Anderson has something happen to her—an undeniably awful situation, but one it’s still hard to draw out over six-odd hours, as Pam & Tommy inexplicably chooses to. Whatever their parallels to Anderson, Clark and Lewinsky were relatively active agents in their own notoriety, providing fuel for their respective series. Apart from attempting to sue Penthouse out of publishing stills from the tape on some spectacularly bad legal advice, Anderson is largely in the passenger’s seat.
It’s possible to imagine Pam & Tommy working as a movie, one that doesn’t have to belabor its points to fill running time. In this sense, the show is a classic case of form confusion, the increasingly widespread mismatch between a story and its chosen template. But Pam & Tommy worsens the problem by constantly spelling out its intended takeaways long after they’ve become obvious. “You’re a bad person,” Gauthier tells Lee. “Maybe I am,” he replies, “but what about Pamela?” The line is an inartful rehash of the statement made by focusing the pilot entirely on the two men, with Anderson on the periphery of a rivalry she’ll suffer from most. At first, Pam & Tommy lets the structure speak for itself, but it can’t resist gilding the lily.
Later in the same episode, Anderson delivers the speech that will surely serve as James’s Emmy reel. (With a platinum wig, redrawn eyebrows, and a breathy American accent, James delivers the kind of performance whose primary selling point is the actor’s extreme transformation.) “They can’t actually say that sluts don’t get to decide what happens to pictures of their body,” she cries of a judge who rules in Penthouse’s favor. Again, it’s a theme better conveyed by Anderson’s interactions with lawyers and talk show hosts, who embody the entitlement she’s trying to describe.
Such scenes make Pam & Tommy redundant, and not just internally. The show makes the same arguments as countless other ’90s-set projects, and rarely as well. Anderson rightly tells Lee the sex tape scandal will be far worse for her—“BECAUSE I’M A WOMAN,” she screams, the subgenre’s de facto slogan. Pam & Tommy’s struggles suggest we may be running out of high-profile tabloid stories to revisit, and that the cottage industry of said revisitations may be low on creative juice. The show’s heart lies with Anderson, but in spirit it may be closer to aging rocker Lee, struggling to admit his time at the center of culture has already come and gone.
Whoopi Goldberg was suspended from ABC on Tuesday after claiming that the Holocaust, a genocide in which 6 million Jews were murdered, had nothing to do with race, but it's not her career's only controversy.
"Let's be truthful about it, because the Holocaust isn't about race. No, it's not about race," Goldberg said.
Then, on CBS' "The Late Show," Goldberg told host Stephen Colbert, "I don’t want to fake apologize … I’m very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying."
She continued, "This was my thought process, and I’ll work hard not to think that way again."
It is not the first time that Goldberg has made Holocaust remarks. In 2019, she compared U.S. border facilities to a concentration camp, likely Terezín, also known as Theresienstadt, in which the Nazis used to transport Czech Jews to extermination camps and slave-labor camps. They also used it for propaganda efforts.
The Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. (Oscar Gonzalez/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Theresienstadt was a transport camp-ghetto implemented by the Nazis for their extermination pipeline during World War II. According to the United States Holocaust Museum, the camp featured abhorrent conditions to "hasten the deaths of many deportees, until the SS and police could deport the survivors to killing centers, [such as Auschwitz], in the East."
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS' MESSAGE TO WHOOPI GOLDBERG: ‘SHAME ON YOU’
Czech Republic; Terezin; former concentration camp; children visiting the memorial place - 1958 (ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
"There was a camp ... when the Red Cross was invited to inspect the camp in 1944, the Nazis hid the fact of what they were doing … And so they built a fake camp. And it was kind of like, no, everything’s fine here," Goldberg said in the discussion.
In 2009, Goldberg said that Roman Polanski's sexual abuse case from the 1970s against a 13-year-old girl was not "rape-rape."
"I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else, but I don't believe it was rape-rape," she said. "We're a different kind of society, we see things differently ... would I want my 14-year-old having sex with somebody? Not necessarily, no."
SlimFast, a diet company, cut ties with Goldberg after she made a sex joke about former President George W. Bush.
"We should keep Bush where he belongs, not in the White House," she said in 2004, while gesturing toward her genital area.
"We are disappointed by the manner in which Ms. Goldberg chose to express herself and sincerely regret that her recent remarks offended some of our consumers," a general manager of the company said at the time.
Goldberg later told Deadline that her bookings took a slump following the remark. When Barbara Walters offered her the job on "The View," it re-vamped her career.
Former President Bush at the White House (2009)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG SAYS 'THE VIEW,' BARBARA WALTERS SAVED HER CAREER AFTER 2004 GEORGE BUSH CONTROVERSY
Goldberg said in 2017 that then-President Trump isn't much different than the radical Islamist Taliban.
"We have had a leader who's repeatedly demeaned women, wants to defund organizations that benefit women, calling on the media to shut up, specifically wants to give preferential treatment based on religion. Are these values really much different than the Taliban's?" Goldberg asked.
Taliban forces block the roads around the airport, while a woman with Burqa walks passes by, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2021. (Reuters)
She continued, "This is what makes us different from everybody else. Our media, nobody tells our media to shut up and just take it. Nobody. That’s not American. That is the Taliban."
Goldberg defended NFL star Michael Vick after he pleaded guilty for his role in dog-fighting in 2007, saying it was a factor of southern culture.
Goldberg said, "He’s from the South, from the Deep South ... This is part of his cultural upbringing."
According to the Humane Society, dog fights can last two to three hours until one of the canines can't continue. The injuries dogs can sustain during this period can be "severe" and are "often fatal."
A Shih Tzu dog is pictured during a demonstration against animal abuse and condemning dogfights, in Tenerife, Spain (2017). (DESIREE MARTIN/AFP via Getty Images)
"For a lot of people, dogs are sport," Goldberg said. "Instead of just saying [Vick] is a beast and he’s a monster, this is a kid who comes from a culture where this is not questioned."
Joy Behar challenged her co-host, saying, "What part of the country is this? ... How about dog torturing and dog murdering?"
In 2008, dog fighting became a felony offense in all 50 states.
Judge Jeanine Pirro, co-host of "The Five," went back and forth in a tense disagreement over former President Donald Trump when Goldberg lost her composure. Pirro was on "The View" to discuss her book "Liars, Leakers and Liberals."
Goldberg said, "You know what’s horrible is when the president of the United States whips up people to beat the hell out of people. Say goodbye. I’m done. I’m done." The show promptly went to commercial break.
She later said to the audience, "So you saw me do something I very rarely do," she said. "I very rarely lose my cool, and I’m not proud of it and I don’t like it. But I also don’t like being accused of being hysterical, because that’s one of the things I try not to be on this show."
Pirro added on "Fox & Friends" that the heated exchange was only the tip of the iceberg. After the segment, Pirro said she was confronted by Goldberg, who hurled curses her way.
"She got up in my face ... [and] says, 'F you, F you," Pirro explained.
Then, according to Pirro, Goldberg began to yell, "Get the F out of this building."
Pirro said she had seen a lot during her time as a judge, "but that was abuse."
Pirro outside News Corporation at Fox Square on December 9, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Former co-host of "The View" Megan McCain said she left the view due to hostility from her colleagues. She frequently sparred with Goldberg, who in one instance yelled at McCain to "stop talking."
"Girl, please stop talking! … Please stop talking now!" Goldberg said.
"No problem, I won’t talk the rest of the show," McCain responded.
"I’m okay with that," Goldberg said.
ROCKLEIGH, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 12: Meghan McCain attends The Algemeiner's 8th annual J100 Gala on October 12, 2021 in Rockleigh, New Jersey. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
In addition to scolding guests and her colleague, Goldberg reportedly once reprimanded the audience during a commercial break.
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"The booing is f---ing us up," Goldberg reportedly said. "It's messing with everyone's mic. You can grimace and all that. All we hear is booing."
"I don't like what he did here, but I know Mel and I know he's not a racist," Goldberg said in 2010 on "The View."
She continued, "He may be a bonehead. I can't sit and say that he's a racist, having spent time with him in my house with my kids."
Behar was taken aback by Goldberg's stance on Gibson.
She said, "Barbara [Walters] would not allow him on the show … Barbara's Jewish, he's an anti-Semite, he's a racist ... so he's done."
Article From & Read More ( Whoopi Goldberg controversies: Trump, the Taliban, animal abuse and more - Fox News )
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