“View” co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck was in tears Thursday after a discussion about the use of the n-word, in which fellow co-host Whoopi Goldberg told her the two “don’t live in the same world.”

During a segment covering Jesse Jackson’s recent use of the n-word while preparing to tape an interview on FOX News, Whoopi and co-host Sherri Shepard, who are both black, contested that the word has a different meaning for black people.

“It’s something that means something way different to me than it does to you,” said Shepard. “I can use it as a term of endearment.”

Shepard also said to co-host Barbara Walters: “I don’t want to hear it come out of your mouth.”

Hasselbeck contested that “We [blacks and whites] don’t live in different worlds, we live in the same world.”

Goldberg, who used the n-word repeatedly during the broadcast (it was bleeped out), said that “We don’t live in the same world. What I need you to understand is the frustration that goes along with when you say we live in the same world. It isn’t balanced.”

Hasslebeck tearfully replied that “when we live in a world where pop culture then uses that term, and we’re trying to get to a place where we feel like we’re in the same place, where we feel like we’re in the same world … how are we supposed to then move forward if we keep using terms that bring back that pain?”

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Whoopi Goldberg is set to return to the Broadway stage with a brief stint in musical comedy Xanadu.

The 2008 Tony Awards host will take to the stage later this month on a six week run ending on September 7th.

The 52-year-old will star in the musical as one of the show’s Greek muses, Calliope, she announced on Monday.

Goldberg says of her new role, “What better way to stick my toe back on to the Broadway stage than to join the amazing cast of Xanadu. It’s such a fun show and is definitely my sensibility… for me, it’s going to be unbelievable.”

The Academy Award winner has previously appeared on Broadway in Whoopi, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Goldberg is also currently producing a revival of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, which debuts this month.

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WENN

Preparing to host the Tony Awards on Sunday night has helped Whoopi Goldberg lose weight.

The Ghost star had no idea that spending two weeks checking out all the nominated stage shows would involve so much walking around New York.

She says, “I have gone, in the last couple of weeks, to every show that has been nominated – and I’ve lost a lot of weight doing it. There are so many shows… there’s not a bad show on Broadway right now. I’m moving around, you’re walking. I don’t move that much.”

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Whoopi Goldberg has criticized Denise Richards for exposing her young daughters on her upcoming reality TV show.

The former Bond girl was promoting her new program Denise Richards: It’s Complicated on Goldberg’s show The View on Wednesday when the Ghost star took exception to footage of Richards’ kids in the first episode.

Richards had to fight her ex-husband Charlie Sheen in court to get permission for the couple’s daughters to appear on the show, and Goldberg couldn’t understand why her guest didn’t want to leave her daughters out of the media spotlight.

She mused, “I cannot get past the fact that, if you want to protect your children – as you say you do, and you want to keep everything private, why you would take a reality show. Is it money?”

Visibly upset by the question, Richards went on to defend her decision – insisting she can’t understand why her show has caused such outrage.

She hit back, “I’ve been singled out. There hasn’t been one reality show with a family where there’s no kids… Every reality show has children in it. My kids are in this very little, they’re very sweet. They’re not child actors, I’m not forcing them to do anything. If they said, ‘You know what mom, I can’t stand all these people here,’ I’d say then it’s done. They’re my first priority.”

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Whoopi Goldberg is getting a whole new View of the stage.

The View co-host is slated to host the 62nd Annual Tony Awards next month, CBS announced Thursday.

“Whoopi Goldberg is everything you look for in a host she’s funny, she’s smart, she’s won every award there is,” Jack Sussman, Executive Vice President, Specials, Music and Live Events, CBS Entertainment said in a statement. “The industry has honored her and the audience obviously adores her. We’re looking forward to having her be our ringleader on the Tony Awards on June 15.”

Part of small and elite group of entertainers who’ve won the Big Four (Grammy, Oscar, Emmy and Tony), Whoopi is “thrilled” to be hosting the even for the first time. She has hosted the Academy Awards four times.

“I’m very excited to be hosting the Tony Awards,” Whoopi said. “I love Broadway and I’m thrilled to be doing anything for the first time. I’m going to have a blast.”

The Tony Awards will air live on CBS from Radio City Music Hall on June 15 at 8:00 p.m.

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Whoopi Goldberg has defended jailed actor Wesley Snipes and insists he has been used to “set an example” to the American people.

Last week, the Blade actor was handed a three-year jail term by Florida Judge William Terrell Hodges after, he was convicted of failing to file his taxes for five years.

But Goldberg is convinced Hollywood stars who break the law are being used as scapegoats by the U.S government in a bid to deter other people from criminal activity.

She says, “This is not unusual. With tax evasion, (the IRS) gets very, very agitated and if you’re famous they are putting you behind some kind of bar.”

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Whoopi Goldberg held back tears as she spoke of her disappointment at not being part of a past Oscars glory tribute on her daily talk show The View yesterday. The actress, who won gold for Ghost in 1990 and has hosted the Oscars, was left out of a montage of great moments from past shows, which ran throughout Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony.

Trying to see the funny side of the omission, Goldberg joked, “Undoubtedly, I p**sed somebody off once again.”

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