Episode 46 - Whoopi Goldberg and 25 Years Later - The Color Purple Reunion

Oprah says that playing the role of Sophie in The Color Purple still ranks as one of the highlights of her life. She's ecstatic to have a reunion of the cast, starting with Whoopi Goldberg.

Whoopi Goldberg
Oprah starts be telling us that she and Whoopi haven't spoken or seen one another in years. Oprah tears up recounting how, this last summer, they came across one another at a gathering at Tyler Perry's house, and Whoopi came up to Oprah and asked if had done something. They both thought the other person was mad at them, and people kept telling each of them that the other person was upset with them, but once they spoke they realized neither of them had a problem with the other.

Emma
Whoopi had a very close relationship with her mother, Emma, and Oprah says that something she wrote about in her journal each night while filming The Color Purple was the amazing relationship Whoopi and her mother had.  Emma passed away recently, and the pain is still fresh. Whoopi says that her mother was unlike anyone she'd ever known because she was so comfortable being herself. Whoopi gets choked up, and Oprah asks if she can still feel her mother's presence. Whoopi says she's not sure, that sometimes she can't tell, but that her mother would never want her to dwell in the past. She and her brother left nothing unsaid, making sure that before she passed their mother knew how much she meant to them. The best thing her mother gave her was the exhortation to simply be herself, to be an individual and let people deal with it.

The View and the Billy O'Reilly Incident
Whoopi has appeared in over 50 films and has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (I can only think of Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock trying to win his EGOT). Oprah asks how Whoopi ended up on The View, and she says  it was because no one was asking her to be in movies and she needed a job. Oprah asks about the recent controversy in which Whoopi and one of her cohosts, Joy Behar, stormed off the stage when Bill O'Reilly was in a conversation with them about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero in New York City and it erupted. Oprah asks why she left, and Whoopi says she was getting to the point where she was going to say something that would either cost her a lot of money in FCC fines and/or get her fired. Oprah then inquires about Barbara Walters stating that to get up and leave was unprofessional, and Whoopi says she knew she made the right decision for herself, because she needed to walk away and cool down or she, "would have cussed him out."

Whoopi at Home
We see Whoopi in her home, a large place built in the '20s. She has a library spread out over three rooms. Whoopi's bedroom has gorgeous Italian deco furniture from the '30s. Whoopi's bathroom is literally half the size of my apartment, and we have a decent sized place! She's quite in love with her toilet and shows us its great functionality--the lid opens when you walk up. Swell. We see Whoopi hanging out with her daughter, granddaughter, and niece, and Whoopi jokes about teaching the children in her family to do the things she loves to do--cuss.

Danny Glover
Oprah invites out Danny Glover, who played the male lead of Albert in The Color Purple. Danny has been in over 60 films and so Oprah asks him what place the film holds for him emotionally. He says it's special because it was the beginning of all three of their careers in many ways. His grandmother saw the film he jokes that she was so angry, that she walked out saying, "That boy know he was better than to act like that." He says that she was 92 years old and for the next 5 years each time he saw her he had to bring a switch with him.

The Color Purple Cast Reunion
Oprah brings out others from the film and they talk about how they got their parts and how the film launched their careers. The actors and their roles were Willard Pugh as Harpo (he played Oprah's husband), Margaret Avery as Shug Avery, Akosua Busia as Nettie, Rae Dawn Chong as Squeak, and Desreta Jackson as Celie. Oprah also brings out Quincy Jones, the man she says, "made it all happen." He gets a long standing ovation from the entire cast and audience. Quincy Jones discovered Oprah when she was doing a morning talk show in Chicago. Oprah asks Quincy how he knew the book could become a film, and he simply knew in his heart. Additionally, everyone said it would be impossible to do a Black film, especially with Steven Spielberg, before anyone ever made Schindler's List into a movie.

Steven Spielberg
In a pre-recorded clip, Steven Spielberg is in his office and recounts telling Oprah that she got the part of Sophie. She was so excited that she threw her arms up and broke one of this space figurines. He says that he's sorry he can't be there at the reunion, but he just returned from filming a movie and is exhausted. He tells the cast that he loves them and they are still special after all of these years.

Favorite Lines
The cast recounts their favorite lines, and I've never seen the movie, but there are apparently some very funny parts because everyone is just rolling with laughter. After a break, we see a man (a jovial white man, of all things!) during a show Oprah did 12 years ago in Texas re-enacting one of her famous scenes. Oprah has him in her audience and he's grateful to be there. The actor who played Oprah's husband jokes with Oprah that he's the "only husband [she's] ever had" and, were it possible, I'd say Oprah busts a gut!

Oprah thanks everyone for being there, and lets us know that the Blu-Ray of The Color Purple will be out on January 25th.




Gospel Filter Review (GFR)
Hopefully this doesn't come across as punking out, but I still feel ick. Don't sleep much or well when I do. Am battling a migraine today, and looking ahead life has to keep rolling on. Since nothing grabbed my heart that I feel I need to write about, I'm not doing a GFR today. Some things occurred that I could write about, but I don't want to risk falling farther behind, so I'm posting this one as is!

Up Tomorrow
Once in a Lifetime Barbra Streisand Extravaganza