Whoopi Goldberg by Donna Svennevik/ABC
Four-time Oscar host Whoopi Goldberg teared up on Monday's The View after the ladies brought up her exclusion from what looked like a tribute montage to past hosts on Sunday's telecast. In turn, Gil Cates, who produced the show, called Whoopi to apologize. "That piece of film was made to honor 80 years of Oscar's most memorable moments," he told TV Guide. Because of the show's crash production schedule after the end of the WGA strike, Cates saw the montage only days before it aired. "I never realized that Whoopi wasn't in it — and she hosted two times for me! And Steve Martin's not in it, I now realize. I feel badly for him, too. It was just totally an oversight." Not that he's calling Martin with his mea culpa. "No, Steve's not that kind of guy."
Cates is embarrassed "that anyone would think there was any reason that Whoopi wasn't included, except by accident. We did use a very major piece of her in the piece on [winning] supporting actors. She thanked me for calling, and told me how much she loved the Oscars. She's cool with it." Goldberg was cool on Wednesday's View as well, relating Cates' call to the audience. "I know him as a great gentleman," she said, "so we moved on from that."
Was Cates sorry enough to ask Whoopi to host next year or at least to present some major award? "They haven't asked me to [produce] it next year, so it would be presumptuous of me to do that," he answers. — Ileane Rudolph
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