Whoopi Goldberg really stepped in it.

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

I know I usually post adorable pictures or videos here, but today, something a little different: an adorable story. Specifically, an adorable story about an 8-year-old boy named Dillon Helbig who snuck a hand-written book, Dillion Helbig’s Crismis Adventure, onto the shelves of his local library. The librarians found it, loved it, and asked permission to add a barcode to it so that they could lend it out. It now has a 55-person waitlist to check it out.

“Dillon is a confident guy and a generous guy. He wanted to share the story,” Hartman said. “I don’t think it’s a self-promotion thing. He just genuinely wanted other people to be able to enjoy his story. … He’s been a lifelong library user, so he knows how books are shared.”

The staff librarians who read Dillon’s book agreed that as informal and unconventional as it was, the book met the selection criteria for the collection in that it was a high-quality story that was fun to read. So, Hartman asked Helbig for permission to tack a bar code onto the book and formally add it to the library’s collection.

Dillon’s parents enthusiastically said yes, and the book is now part of the graphic-novels section for kids, teens and adults. The library even gave Dillon its first Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist, a category the library created for him, named after the library’s owl mascot.

The book was about Dillon “putting an exploding star on his tree and being catapulted back to the first Thanksgiving and the North Pole,” in case you were wondering.

As the parent of an aspiring creative writer myself, this entire story warms my heart.

All Other TV News

Boy howdy, did Whoopi Goldberg just make a mess.

On yesterday’s The View, the women were discussing the recent trend of banning books in schools and libraries, namely one Tennessee district’s decision to ban Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust. The panel also discussed how some school districts are trying to ban books about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ruby Bridges. In what I think was an attempt to contrast the banning of those books to the banning of Maus, Whoopi insisted — over the protests of her co-hosts — that the Holocaust was “not about race,” but instead “man’s inhumanity to man.” Then she doubled down:

When one of her co-hosts challenged that assertion, saying the Holocaust was driven by white supremacy, Ms. Goldberg said: “But these are two white groups of people.”

She added, “This is white people doing it to white people, so y’all going to fight amongst yourselves.”

Yeah, so, the problem here is, of course, the Nazis were operating under an assumption of racial and genetic superiority to the Jews (and the Romas and the Blacks and the differently-abled and the gays and everyone else they found inconvenient, including communists and intellectuals), and so both groups, the Nazis and the Jews, would argue that the Holocaust was very much so about race.

In fact, my own husband’s family was targeted by the Nazis because of race, not religion: my husband’s grandfather was ethnically Jewish and had converted to Catholicism — he married a Catholic woman, they got married in the Catholic church. But the Nazis, they did not care, and my husband’s family was forced to flee the Sudetenland in the 30s for their own safety (with a side stop-over in Dachau).

Last night, Goldberg was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where she tried to explain that as a Black woman she sees the concept of race through the prism of skin color. Colbert pushed back, noting that maybe the Nazis and their concept of a “Master Race” might have been racially motivated in their efforts to exterminate the Jews. Whoopi seemed somewhat resistant before adding, “I get it. Folks are angry,” she said. “I accept that, and I did it to myself.”

Then this morning on The View, Whoopi opened with a formal apology, saying, “I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention. And I understand why now, and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things.” 

She added, “It is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race. Now, words matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, as I said, and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people, as they know and y’all know because I’ve always done that.”

The panel then spoke with Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League who argued that we need to understand the causes of the Holocaust to prevent another one.

Do not expect conservative critics of Whoopi’s to be impressed by these apologies.

Anyway … Happy Black History Month! Here is a guide to Black History programming on the networks, cable and streaming this month.

Amy Schneider has cast her vote for who should host Jeopardy! (Ken Jennings, obviously.)

The Godfather films (well, except for 3) are maybe my favorite movies. And I’ve made it well-known here that The Sopranos is the best TV show of all time. So yes, I did enjoy this amazing supercut revealing all of the Godfather references — obvious and subtle — in The Sopranos.

Rachel Maddow is taking a hiatus from her show for a few weeks to work on the film version of her Bag Man podcast about disgraced former Vice President Spiro Agnew. It’s being directed by Ben Stiller and produced by Lorne Michaels and this is just a lot of weird information thrown together.

New Mexico is going to require actors and crew to take gun-safety classes before handling weapons on set following the Rust incident.

So Tom Brady IS retiring after all. OK. Bye.

This isn’t TV news, but The New York Times is buying your new favorite daily distraction. They say they’re not going to put it behind a paywall … for now.

I mostly posted this story so that I could brag that I got it in 2 today.

#MeToo

Over on A&E, limited series Secrets of Playboy has been exposing the rot at the core of the Playboy brand, and the rampant — and hypocritical — abuse of founder Hugh Heffner who raped, drugged, and filmed women without their consent at his mansion. It’s not surprising — a lot of this came out before Heffner’s death. But what is special about this documentary is both the sheer volume of stories in one place, and that it reveals how a company that ostensibly stood for sex positivity and liberation established a system of exploitation and abuse against the very women it was supposed to be celebrating. The company has released an open letter vowing that today’s Playboy is not Hugh Heffner’s Playboy, and that they validate and support the women coming forward.

Prince Andrew reportedly wants Kevin Spacey to testify in his case. A+++ plan.

Chris Brown has been sued for drugging and raping a woman on his yacht, which is just shocking behavior for a man known for beating Rihanna.

Chris Noth isn’t in the trailer for the And Just Like That … documentary for some reason. You can watch it below.

Surprise: Bill Cosby’s people aren’t happy with the Showtime documentary, We Need to Talk About Cosby.

West Side Story‘s Ansel Elgort was accused of sexual assault against a 17-year-old when he was 20, and his co-stars were asked about it in a recent Hollywood Reporter interview to which they basically said, “~shrug~.”

Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney made news when she said she cut some topless scenes in the show that felt unnecessary to her. She also adds that she doesn’t think people paid attention to her acting before White Lotus because of her nude scenes in Euphoria. Not one thing here surprises me.

Kirsten Dunst also opened up about feeling “overwhelmed” while filming her first nude scene in Marie Antoinette.

I’m not counting chickens, but things are not looking great for Matt Gaetz.

People are awful, exhibit 1,903:

@clairesat

🥳🥳 #jeopardy #emotionaldamage #ripalextrebek #trauma #anxiety #funny #fyp #foryou

♬ Emotional Damage vs Pompeii – William Li

So apparently Sean Penn said some things about worrying that men are becoming “feminized” which would be dumb from anyone, but is especially dumb coming from a man who has been repeatedly and credibly accused of domestic abuse. But I’m not going to spend any more time on it because Thandiwe Newton’s got it covered:

This week, the right is really mad about Minnie Mouse wearing pants.

This and the anger over the M&M controversy is beautifully explained by a Reddit comment on an “Am I the Asshole” post. The original post was wondering if they were an asshole for telling their boyfriend that they were tired of explaining jokes to him after he didn’t understand why the original poster and their cousin thought it was funny that Tucker Carlson was so worked up over the de-sexification of M&Ms. I thought this comment did a great job of getting to the core of what is going on with all of these absolutely nonsensical and manufactured “outrages” from the right about pop culture:

Renewals

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

  • Killing Eve returns on BBC America and AMC+ on February 27.

  • South Park returns on Comedy Central tomorrow.

  • And Just Like That… The Documentary will premiere on HBO Max on Thursday.

  • Disenchantment returns on Netflix on February 9.

  • everything’s gonna be all white will debut on Showtime on February 11.

  • Take Note will premiere on Peacock on February 24.

R.I.P.

Moses J. Moseley, Walking Dead actor

Donald May, Edge of Night actor

Bob Wall, Martial arts master who acted alongside Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris

Carleton Carpenter, TV, film, and Broadway actor

WATCH THIS

Pam & Tommy: This new limited series tells the true story of the leaking of the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape. Series premiere. Hulu

Late Night with Seth Meyers: It’s Late Night‘s 40th anniversary, and the guy who started it all, David Letterman, swings by to celebrate. 11:30 p.m., NBC

The Real Housewives of New Jersey: A video about Luis leaks, creating drama for Teresa’s summer party in the season premiere. 7 p.m., Bravo

Raising Dion: Season two. Netflix

The Resident: Bell is faced with a devastating diagnosis in the season premiere. 7 p.m., Fox

My Best Friend Anne Frank: A film about the real-life friendship between Anne Frank and Hannah Goslar, and their tragic reunion in a concentration camp. Netflix

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Liam Neeson, Jenny Slate, Joshua Ray Walker
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: David Letterman, Adam Duritz, Hayley Brownell
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Faith Hill, Clarissa Ward
  • The Late Late Show with James Corden: Johnny Knoxville, Nick Offerman, Tolliver
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Quinta Brunson, Eric Bellinger
  • The Daily Show: Bakari Sellers
  • Watch What Happens Live: Teresa Giudice, Bob Harper

TUES. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Judge Steve Harvey
(new)		 Abbott Elementary
(new)		 black-ish
(new)		 Abbott Elementary
(repeat)		 black-ish
(repeat)
CBS FBI
(new)		 FBI: International
(new)		 FBI: Most Wanted
(new)
CW Superman & Lois
(new)		 Naomi
(new)		 Local
FOX The Resident
(new)		 The Real Dirty Dancing
(new)		 News/Local
NBC American Auto
(new)		 Grand Crew
(new)		 This Is Us
(new)		 The Wall
(new)

 

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