Whoopi Goldberg: Her Journey from Poverty to Megastardom

The tone for this cut-and-paste celebrity bio of comedian and film star Whoopi Goldberg is set by the first chapter, an extended account of the infamous Friar's Club roast of Goldberg at which Ted Danson, her then-lover, appeared in blackface and told racially and sexually offensive jokes. After that, Parish, author of 88 volumes of entertainment journalism, attempts to sustain the controversy throughout, from Goldberg's rough New York childhood (where she was born Caryn Johnson), through her years as a performance artist and avant-garde actress, to her instant stardom with The Color Purple and subsequent career in less prestigious films. There's a good deal about her drug use as a young woman, her failed relationships and marriages, and her bad career choices, but because the book is based almost entirely on previously published and broadcast interviews of Goldberg, there is very little here that will surprise even readers who are only casually interested in Goldberg. But this is not entirely the author's fault. Many of the stories here--how Goldberg chose her stage name, why she prefers not to be called an ""African American""--have been told and retold. As one of the most garrulous interviewees in show business, and as the author of the currently bestselling Book, the performer who made her mark by being shocking seems to have little new to say. Filmography; eight pages color photos, 16 pages b&w photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)