Whoopi and the Others: What Celebrities Got in Trouble For Controversial Claims

On Monday's live broadcast of the talk show "The View", Whoopi Goldberg happened to claim that Holocaust "isn't about the race", and immediately faced a strong public outcry.

Actress Whoopi Goldberg has already been suspended from ABC's show "The View" for two weeks and apologised for her controversial remarks about Holocaust, but, according to insiders cited by Page Six, she is in "deep s**t" and should be fired.

"The Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people - who they deemed to be an inferior race'. I stand corrected," she stated later.

However, it has not fixed the situation for Goldberg. The outrage over her remarks is fueled online by those who immediately recalled other controversial statements by people who, according to the critics, "were fired for less". Goldberg, in her turn, has only received a two-week suspension - something that a lot of people deemed to be a "free pass" that she got just "because she's black".

Twitter/screenshot

Twitter/screenshot

“Why does Whoopi seemingly get a pass when others don’t? Perhaps this time she won’t. Many at the network — including her fellow hosts — believe Whoopi is too controversial now for the show," one ABC insider told Page Six.

Gina Carano

Among the first names that immediately popped up in wake of the scandal around Whoopi Goldberg was Gina Carano, formerly star of the show "The Mandalorian".

Last year, Carano compared being a Republican in the United States to being Jewish in the times of the Holocaust.

"Because history is edited, most people today don’t realise that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbours hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?" Carano said back at the time.

Lucasfilm - the company behind the Star Wars franchise - was quick to immediately fire the actress, saying “her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable." Lucasfilm is owned by Disney - as is ABC, the network that broadcasts "The View".

United Talent Agency also dropped her as a client after her statements. Many have launched petitions to have her reinstated in "The Mandalorian", asserting that her fallout is a result of "cancel culture".

Roseanne Barr

Actress and comedian Roseanne Barr is another celebrity that faced public condemnation and was "cancelled" after she targeted Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to Barack Obama, in a tweet blasted by the public as racist. Barr said that Jarrett looked like the “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby”.

Twitter/screenshot

In this case, ABC also swiftly scrapped Barr's sitcom "Roseanne", with the network denouncing her statement as "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values."

Barr later apologised, admitting that her joke "about [Jarrett's] politics and her looks" was "in bad taste".

Marilyn Manson

The iconic rock musician Marilyn Manson has also discovered himself in the crosshairs of those willing to "cancel" him over accusations of antisemitism.

Particularly, actress Evan Rachel Wood said that Manson would call her "Jew" in a derogatory manner at the time when the two were in a relationship. When he was mad at her, the actress added, he would "draw swastikas over my bedside table". Additionally, Wood claimed that some of Manson's tattoos were "Nazi-inspired".

Following the allegation, Manson has been dropped by his record label and by the talent agency CAA. He has never admitted to any wrongdoing, dismissing the allegations as "horrible distortions of reality".

DaBaby

The scandal around American rapper DaBaby was among the most resonant of the year 2021. The now notorious rapper discovered himself in hot water after his Rolling Loud festival set in July, when he rolled out what many deemed as a homophobic rant.

Particularly, he told the crowd to put their cell phone lights up "if you didn't show up today with HIV/AIDS or other STDs that'll make you die in two-three weeks". This and some other remarks about the LGBTQ+ community swiftly got him grilled on social media, with some of the fellow musicians even moving to throw him away from the already recorded feats.

DaBaby later apologised for his remarks, saying that he had no intention to offend people.

J.K.Rowling

The world-famous author J.K.Rowling has been accused of "transphobia", with a movement to "cancel" her beginning back in 2018 when she liked a tweet that referred to trans women as “men in dresses", and then later mocked an article online that used the words "people who menstruate" instead of "women".

Despite the fact that Rowling positioned herself as a LGBTQ+ ally, many people were outraged by her stance on issues related to trans people, and the heated debates continue to this day. Rowling rolled out an essay where she tried to elaborate her views, assuring that she "loves" trans people and knows a lot of them, but also underlining her strong support for the concept of biological sex.

Most recently, she blasted the decision by Police Scotland to log in male rapists as women if they identify themselves that way. When she criticised the decision with a paraphrase of the quote from Orwell's "1984", she received a yet another wave of backlash - along with a lot of messages from people willing to side with her.

Additionally, Rowling is no stranger to accusations of antisemitism either: earlier in January, goblins from her universe of "Harry Potter" were blasted for allegedly being based on antisemitic stereotypes. The scandal was quick to receive pushback from people who defended the author and argued that sometimes "a goblin is just a goblin".