Month: February 2022

Whoopi Goldberg returned to her co-hosting spot on ‘The View’ after a two-week suspension following controversial remarks about the Holocaust. The 66-year-old Goldberg returned to the show on Monday, February 14.  Goldberg’s two-week suspension was announced on February 1, after she had said the Holocaust “isn’t about race” during a discussion about a school board banning Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel ‘Maus.’

Upon her return, she mentioned how diving deep into sensitive topics was par for the course on the show. “I missed you all too. There’s something kind of marvelous about being on a show like this, because we are The View, and this is what we do, and sometimes we don’t do this [as] elegantly as we could. It’s five minutes to get in important information about topics, and that’s what we try to do everyday.”  Goldberg continued:  “I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away. I listened to everything everybody had to say, and I was very grateful. I hope it keeps the important conversations happening, because we’re going to keep having tough conversations. In part, because this is what we’ve been hired to do, and it’s not always pretty, as I said, and it’s not always as other people would like to hear.”

Following the backlash against Whoopi, the comedian apologized and discussed her comments on-air with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.  She said at the time: “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.”  Despite her apology, ABC News President Kim Godwin suspended Goldberg on February 1, saying: “While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.”

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Director Jason Reitman took to Twitter to pay tribute to his late father, “Ghostbusters” creator Ivan Reitman, with whom he worked on the sequel “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”. Ivan Reitman died in his sleep at his home on Saturday night. He was 75.

Reitman tweeted with a picture of him as a boy alongside his father: “I’ve lost my hero. All I want is the chance to tell my father one more story. He came from a family of survivors and turned his legacy into laughter. Thank you for the kind messages. Enjoy his movies and remember his storytelling gifts. Nothing would make him happier.”

Like his father, Jason Reitman has achieved great success as a filmmaker, receiving four Oscar nominations including two for Best Director for his work on “Juno” and the Best Picture-nominated “Up In The Air.” In 2019 that he took up the sci-fi film franchise that his father made famous and became director of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” with Ivan Reitman serving as a producer. The father-son duo promoted “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” together, with Jason Reitman saying at the time: “For 40 years, the one question I was asked more than any other was, ‘Are you going to make a ‘Ghostbusters’ movie?’ I decided now was the time because … I wanted to make a movie for my father and I wanted to make a movie for my daughter.”

Jason Reitman Honors Father Ivan Reitman: “I’ve Lost My Hero”

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