Whoopi Goldberg's View: She Didn't Smack a D.C. Housewife

The View defends Goldberg after White House gatecrasher Michaele Salahi claims the host hit her during the Housewives interview

By Natalie Finn Aug 05, 2010 3:40 AMTags

Who believes that Whoopi Goldberg got a little rough with Michaele Salahi today?

The View is up in arms over the Real Housewives of D.C. matron's claim that Goldberg hit her during the show, calling Salahi's accusation "completely unfounded and erroneous." (Which is funny, because it looked as if all of her castmates really were raring to hit her throughout their appearance.)

Sure, they ended up in a "heated exchange backstage, "show rep Karl Nilsson said, but that's only because Goldberg was forced to adamantly defend herself.

At first it appeared that Goldberg wasn't even involved with the Housewives appearance at all, interviewing duties instead going to Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd.

But eventually the camera pans and you can see Goldberg from the back, walking backstage after apparently encouraging Salahi to return to the subject everyone wants to know about: she and hubby Tareq Salahi crashing a White House State Dinner.

"I felt someone touch me," she remarked.

"That was Whoopi Goldberg," Shepherd said. "She don't come out unless she's passionate about something."

"Or hungry," quipped Behar.

And then Salahi seemingly had bigger fish to fry, what with Shepherd telling her she thought the reality-TV wannabe should have gone to jail for getting that close to the president without an invite.

But according to the Daily Beast, Salahi later accused Goldberg of more than a nudge, prompting Goldberg to confront her, screaming, "I didn't f----ing hit you! Did you say I f---ing hit you?"

The Salahis' lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said in a statement obtained by E! News that Michaele was in tears backstage and told a show producer she was upset that Goldberg had come up behind her and "grabbed her arm." 

"The producer went to get Ms. Goldberg, who then yelled a long series of profanities at Mrs. Salahi (yelling the word "f--k" or "f--king" at her dozens of times in a loud voice), accusing her of accusing Ms. Goldberg of 'hitting' her," Bloom says. 

"Mrs. Salahi said she'd never said that, got the producer back in the room, and the producer admitted that 'hit' was her word, not Mrs. Salahi's. Ms. Goldberg continued to verbally berate Mrs. Salahi, refused to apologize for her language or her on set behavior, and left the room."

Bloom also insists that the Salahis were invited to that White House dinner and that Shepherd and Behar weren't supposed to refer to the couple as party crashers, so Michaele found the overall experience "degrading and demeaning."

So was Salahi taking out her hurt feelings on Goldberg?

"Whoopi lightly touched Ms. Salahi to get her attention and said to her 'Excuse me, can you get back to the White House, please,' meaning could Ms. Salahi return to the original subject of the conversation," said Nilsson, The View spokesman. "After the show, Ms. Salahi and her husband accused Whoopi of hitting Ms. Salahi."

"As the broadcast clearly shows, the accusation was completely unfounded and erroneous," Nilsson continued. "After the show and after being told she was being accused of hitting Ms. Salahi, Whoopi proceeded to defend herself verbally from this baseless claim in a heated exchange with the Salahis."

Goldberg will air her thoughts on the matter on Thursday's show. We feel this is one person she won't be making excuses for.

Michaele Salahi, meanwhile, wrote on Facebook that she and Tareq would "address on Thursday Morning LIVE on National TV the outrageous abuse and exchange that took place on the ABC Show the View and a [sic] audio & video file from Whoopi Goldberg verbal attack to Michaele."

She's due on Today tomorrow morning so...we'll see something all right.

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You better believe Michaele Salahi isn't done telling her side of the story. Get the dirt on this feud and more (look out, Sal!) in the Real Housewives of D.C.'s first exclusive prime-time interview on The Daily 10 Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. PT!