Whoopi Goldberg Reveals How She Really Got Her Stage Name in ‘Bits and Pieces’ Memoir
Whoopi Goldberg is able to shine a light-weight on how she acquired her stage identify. In her new memoir titled Bits and Items: My Mom, My Brother and Me, The View cohost recalled the second she didn’t wish to be referred to as her start identify, Caryn Johnson.
“As soon as I began getting elements in performs, I wished a reputation that sounded extra fascinating,” Whoopi wrote in her ebook through Us Weekly. “Caryn Johnson wasn’t it.”
Whereas working at varied stage exhibits, Whoopi mentioned that some folks began calling her “Whoopi” as a result of she “would typically let free with a fart. I added ‘Cushione’ to it — with a French pronunciation.”
When her first assessment was revealed, Whoopi confronted some questions from her mom, Emma Harris, in regards to the identify change. “After we talked on the telephone, she mentioned, ‘What is that this Whoopi Cushione?’” Whoopi recalled. “Effectively, it’s sort of my nickname. It’s like whoopee cushion with just a little French accent.”
“I defined to her the entire farting factor,” Whoopi continued in her ebook. “‘Effectively, should you’re going to alter your identify and need folks to take you critically, you want a extra substantial identify,’ my mom suggested me. I mentioned, ‘Oh, actually, nice namer of the celebrities? What do you suppose it must be?’ She mentioned, ‘Effectively, you must take one of many names from the household tree. How about Goldberg? That has a pleasant ring to it.’ That grew to become my identify.”
From that time on, “solely my household and some individuals who knew me early in my life nonetheless referred to as me Caryn.”
Again in January 2024, Whoopi first introduced her latest ebook undertaking would honor her late mom and late brother Clyde Okay. Johnson. “This ebook is devoted to my mom and my brother and our time collectively as a small, humorous little unit,” she instructed Folks on the time. “It’s devoted to anybody who’s discovered themselves on a scary path not of their selecting or coping with loss.”
Whoopi’s mom died in 2010 after struggling a stroke. She was 78. 5 years later, the actress mourned the demise of her brother, who suffered a mind aneurysm on the age of 65.
“This ebook is devoted to everybody who’s simply attempting to determine the small stuff,” Whoopi added, “in addition to the stuff the place you must be greater than you thought you can be and it’s devoted to like.”
Bits and Items: My Mom, My Brother, and Me is offered now.