Whoopi Goldberg made sure her view was heard and seen on Tuesday’s episode of The View.
During a heated debate about Miranda Lambert’s recent headline-making concert — in which she stopped the show to publicly call-out a fan for taking selfies — the EGOT winner exited the stage, telling co-hosts Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin “I’m leaving!”
“They don’t want to be there,” Goldberg, 67, had said to the panel, many who argued that they could see both signs of the debate. “If they paid money for the tickets, they came to see her. So if she’s singing, at least show a little respect. Acknowledge [that if] you can see her, she can see you too! … She can see what you’re doing and she can see that you’re ignoring her. It’s like being a lounge singer. You go into a bar, somebody’s at the piano, and nobody’s listening! That’s what it’s like for her.”
But Hostin, 54, didn’t agree. “I’m not split on this at all,” she said. “I’m going to take as many selfies as I want if I pay $757. I’m sorry, that’s just me.”
Whoopi Goldberg leaving the set of ‘The View’.
Source: The View/YouTube
That’s when Goldberg pushed back. “You know what? Stay home,” the Sister Act star said. “If you’re going to spend $750 to come to my concert, then give me the respect of watching me while I do my thing, or don’t come!”
“Turn on the television, girl,” she quipped to Hostin, standing up and walking off the set.
Seemingly confused, the co-hosts asked Goldberg, “Where are you going?” And though it appeared Goldberg was upset, turns out, there was a sweet reason she was leaving the set.
Walking in the audience, Goldberg revealed she was the to take a selfie with a special audience member. “I want to take a picture with this marvelous woman, who is 91. So, we’re going to do a selfie, just me and you,” she said, asking the woman to snap the picture before signing off for the segment. “Will you push that button? We’ll be right back.”
“I’m gonna stop right here for a second, I’m sorry,” the country singer told the audience as she was starting to play her 2016 single “Tin Man,” according to clips of the moment. “These girls are worried about their selfie and not listening to the song.”
“It’s pissing me off a little bit,” added the Palomino singer. “Sorry, I don’t like it. At all. We’re here to hear some country music tonight. I’m singing some country damn music.”
One of the women who was a part of the selfie later said she was “appalled” by the incident. “It was 30 seconds at most,” social media influencer Adela Cali, who later posted the picture to Instagram, told NBC News. “We took the picture quickly and were going to sit back down.”
Calin recalled that she and her friends had tried to take photos before the Las Vegas show had kicked off Saturday night, but “the lighting wasn’t great.” Instead, she asked a fan behind the group to take a photo of them before it ended. “We just couldn’t get one good picture,” Calin said. “We were so excited because I think we had the best seats in the house in the whole theater.”
Miranda Lambert in Las Vegas. John Shearer/Getty for Miranda Lambert
After Lambert’s words, Calin said the concert “was not the same.” She explained to Good Morning America, “I thought, I feel like I’m being back in school and me and my friends did something that annoyed the teacher and she scolded us so she told us to sit down.”
“Everybody was having such a great time. We would stand up at times and dance. It was great energy. But after that happened it was just, um, it was not the same,” Calin said.
A rep for Lambert had no further comment.
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