NEWSWhoopi Goldberg: Why I Defended Mel Gibson
July 15 2010, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
As each day another obscene hate-filled, racially-charged rant from Mel Gibson to his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva is leaked online, Whoopi Goldberg spoke out yesterday, defending her remarks that the Braveheart director isn't a racist.
"There has been a lot of hassle... in the media recently about moi because I had the audacity to say that I had some personal time with Mel that goes over years and years and said that I did not think of him as a racist," an impassioned Whoopi said on The View yesterday, reports PopEater.
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"If you had actually watched the show, you would have heard us say, and you would have heard me specifically say, 'I don't condone this. I don't think this is right, I don't think this is smart. But here's the piece of information that I have. My experience tells me that this is not a racist,'" she continued.
"Being a black woman, you'd think you would give me a little bit of leeway to have some feelings if I was around a racist."
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"People called my office and went off on the young lady that works there. You're going to call because you think that I'm doing something wrong," she said.
"And you do the same thing to this young lady, that you don't even know, that Mel Gibson supposedly did? Who are you?" she said, making a spitting noise. "You can kiss my behind."
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Whoopi made her case yesterday, after commenting on Monday's show: "I know Mel, and I know he's not a racist. I have had a long friendship with Mel.
"You can say he's being a bonehead, but I can't sit and say that he's a racist, having spent time with him in my house with my kids. I don't like what he's done, make no mistake."
However, her fellow hosts aren't so quick to forgive the actor. Joy Behar told The Insider that Mel is not welcome on The View. "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,"Joy said.
