Whoopi Goldberg's real name is Caryn Johnson, and she adopted the last name "Goldberg" at her mother's suggestion because a Jewish-sounding name gave her a better chance of making it in Hollywood. Goldberg has stated that her stage forename, Whoopi, was taken from a whoopee cushion: "When you're performing on stage, you never really have time to go into the bathroom and close the door. So if you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from."

Whoopi Goldberg hits out at people criticizing the cast of ‘The Odyssey.’ “If you don’t want to see it then don’t go see it. Why do you care who’s cast in it?…You don’t like Elliot Page? Don’t go see the damn movie.”