Whoopi Goldberg Stays Civil—and Seated—With "Great Showman" Bill O'Reilly

"I know that if I cross a line, which I crossed...I knew I had to go," Goldberg told the O'Reilly Factor host, referencing her and Joy Behar's View walkout

By Natalie Finn Nov 24, 2010 7:30 PMTags

Whoopi Goldberg is fresh from a whirl in the No Spin Zone.

Making for what could have been a real head-butt of an interview, the View cohost visited papa bear's den the O'Reilly Factor last night to exchange words with Bill O'Reilly for the first time since she and Joy Behar split in the middle of his View appearance while discussing the so-called Ground Zero mosque.

First off, O'Reilly wanted to know whether she and Behar went and cursed him out backstage after he said, "Muslims killed us on 9-11."

"No, no," Goldberg said, recalling that she and Behar (she might not want to speak for Joy in this case) weren't mad at O'Reilly after he left The View. "I heard myself say the  B-word. I had to get up...Sometimes, at least for me, I know that if I cross the line, which I crossed because I heard myself say something I had no business saying...I had to go."

(For the supposed record, O'Reilly wasn't miffed, either. "That's why we[at Fox News] love The View," he said.)

"But the phraseology that you used when you say, 'Muslims killed us,' that's not..." Goldberg continued, going on to suggest that such a blanket statement was particularly misleading considering terrorists come from all backgrounds.

"I take your point," O'Reilly said politely. (Spoiler alert: They ultimately agreed to disagree.)

"I don't worry about so much what you think," she said. "But you're a really great showman. You are a great guy to talk to. But sometimes, I think you give yourself less credit—which is shocking, I know--thank you think [you deserve for influencing other people]."

Quite the lovefest, wasn't it?

"What is this bulls--t about 'Ms. Goldberg'? Stop that, Bill. Just call me Whoopi," she reminded him. 

They even joined forces on the hazards of an increasingly anonymous and vicious sound-bite-centric media—and their own place in it!

Before a commercial break, O'Reilly, true to form, quipped, "According to her book [Is It Just Me or Is It Nuts Out There?], she's finding society kind of annoying these days. I'm sure it centers around me."

"We accept things," Goldberg explained. "We have accepted a lot of things. We accepted that people don't need to have facts. That facts are no longer necessary."

"So we're all part of the problem?" O'Reilly asked.  

"I think so," she replied.