Whoopi Goldberg’s offensive Holocaust comments on The View last week earned the actress a slap on the wrist, no doubt, but as Daily Mail reports, this isn’t the first time that she’s made problematic statements at the expense of the Jewish community.
Back in 1993, the Sister Act star – born Caryn Johnson – is said to have contributed a questionable recipe for “Jewish-American Princess Fried Chicken” to the Cooking in the Litchfield Hills cookbook.
While stars like Diane Sawyer and Eartha Kitt opted to share “roasted potato skins with scallion dip” and “summer zucchini soup with nasturtium blossoms” respectively, the 66-year-old instead opted to put her comedic talents to work on the project, although her jokes didn’t exactly land.
“Send chauffeur to your favourite butcher shop for the chicken (save the brown paper bag),” Goldberg wrote at the time. “Have your cook 1) Melt equal parts oil and butter 3/4 deep in a skillet over moderate heat. 2) Put flour, seasoned with remaining ingredients into a brown paper bag. 3) Rinse chicken parts and place in the bag.”
The recipe continues, “Then you tightly close the top of the bag (watch your nails) and shake 10 times.” Next, the starlet instructs readers to hand the bag to the cook, and go get dressed for dinner as the help preheats, cooks, and then plates the chicken before “[preparing] the rest of the meal while you touch up your makeup.”
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“In about half an hour, viola! Dinner is served! You must be exhausted,” Goldberg concluded. According to reports, the Anti-Defamation League took issue with the content at the time, describing it as “insulting,” “anti-Semitic,” and “a lousy recipe with insensitive ingredients.”
The comedian’s agent, Brad Cafarelli explained, “Maybe [critics] are not aware that Whoopi is Jewish, so she is certainly not anti-Semitic.”
In case you missed it, earlier this month, Whoopi Goldberg was suspended from The View for two weeks after saying that “the Holocaust [wasn’t] about race” on TV – read more about that here.
[Via]