Whoopi Goldberg scolded critics who attacked her boyfriend Ted Danson for appearing in blackface at a Friars Club roast, saying they should have expected tasteless, vulgar humor.
"We were not trying to be politically correct. We were trying to be funny for ourselves," she said at a news conference Sunday.Danson wore blackface makeup and huge white lips at Friday's closed-door roast in New York. The "Cheers" television star also used the word "nigger" several times and joked about his sex life with Goldberg.
The actress attacked talk show host Montel Williams for lashing out at Danson. She said Williams should have been familiar with the private club's 89-year history of ribald roasts and expected jokes to focus on sex, gender, bodily functions, religion and race.
"Perhaps Montel's show is not doing as well as it could be and this was his way of drawing attention," Goldberg said. She said if Williams were a real man he would have talked to her before going public with his criticisms.
A spokesman for Williams or his syndicated series could not be reached for comment Sunday.
In a telegram announcing his resignation from the exclusive male-only club, Williams wrote: "I was confused as to whether or not I was at a Friars event or at a rally for the KKK and Aryan Nation."
"When Ted made the jokes about the racially mixed kids, and everyone knows my wife is white and just gave birth to our child, I could see my wife start to cry. If that's what Whoopi and Ted find funny in their bedroom, it's not funny to the outside world," he said.
Goldberg said Williams left shortly after Danson started speaking and didn't hear the off-color presentations by others such as comic Robin Williams.
The actress, who has starred in several movies, including "Sister Act," said she was astounded by the controversy.
"We knocked Somalia off the cover of the New York newspapers," the actress said. "This is insane to me."
Goldberg read a statement from Danson in which he said he did not intend to appear racist.
"There was too much love behind my words to ever be misconstrued as racist," the statement said.
Goldberg said she herself had written much of the material for Danson and even found him the makeup artist who applied the blackface.
She said the actor was hurt by the criticism.