Either the Internet Is Losing Its Mind or Whoopi Goldberg Is the Secret Host

Update: ABC debunks the idea, says it’s absolutely false. 

The Guardian is reporting that people have been discussing Whoopi Goldberg as the possible Oscar host. If so, and if they’re planning on springing this on the Oscar audience, are they hoping that word will travel fast on Twitter, blow up, and then blow up the ratings? Or are they spreading the news this way, feeding it out into the collective? Or is it completely wrong. No one knows for sure.

So why wouldn’t they publicize it? The Guardian brings up the — wait for it — “problematic” original thinking by Goldberg on Liam Neeson. I know, I know — how dare she actually have an opinion now, right? But there are still some out there unafraid and willing to, you know, actually speak their minds. Here is what she said:

“People walk around sometimes with rage, that’s what happens,” Goldberg said. “Is he a bigot? No. I’ve known him a pretty long time, I think I would have recognised … I’ve been around a lot of real bigots. I can say this man is not one.”

She added: “You can’t be surprised that somebody whose loved one is attacked is angry and wants to go out and attack. What he did go on to say … is that he realised that it was too dark for him, he went and got himself help.”

You can imagine if the Academy announced this early how the hive mind would react. Is this a clever way of dropping a host and subverting hivemind hysteria? I have no idea. Can I just say something for the record that if she IS the host? I will be a happy happy human on Oscar night. I love Whoopi Goldberg so much. She’s already hosted four times: 1994, 1996, 1999, and 2002. She’s brilliant in her Oscar-winning role in Ghost and in The Color Purple. But more than that, I have always admired her refreshing inclination to speak her mind, no matter the cost. So, here’s hoping.