WHOOPEE FOR WHOOPI GOLDBERG

She is ...

Truthful.

Successful. Famous. Funny. Uniquely "somebody" -- in every area of life -- private and public.

In politics, the arts, her energy and more than her name are involved in charities (she'd call it "helping people"), in greening our country and other countries, saving children, saving animals, in education ...

I'm thinking in every direction, wondering if there's any area of one's existence -- that she's ignored -- hasn't done something -- hasn't been involved?

My eyes get bigger, my jaw drops, I'm jealous, admiring, amazed, inspired when I read her biography in Wikipedia (and read the book she wrote), and remember various occasions, when what she was doing intersected with what I was doing.

Yes, I met her at an IN restaurant, when she was going steady with Frank Langella, whom we knew, whom our business manager handled.

I was eating a delicious, very special, unusual, spinach salad that the restaurant featured. She was eating the spinach salad. Frank and JC were chatting a-mile-a-minute, with our business manager, who is an exceptionally articulate guy when it comes to show business.

Whoopi, in her growl-ish voice, joined in every once in a while -- mostly with an mmm, or lover-like, affirmed something Frank said.

I'm sophisticated. I've been all sorts IN places -- met all sorts of people (famous, infamous, superstars, politicians, nobility even). And I'm articulate, I express myself well, easily -- I'm not shy and sometimes, even like Whoopi, I open my mouth and butt into a conversation and say very clearly, what needs to be said.

Well ... my mind was going a-mile-a-minute ... I wanted to compliment her on her shawl -- on her marvelous hair -- on her love affair with Frank, whom I don't altogether admire, personally, because I knew from dining with the Langellas before they separated -- that his wife had done a lot of things to please him, obey him, fulfill what he wanted, even when it went against what she wanted .

And Frank (across from me at our table), with Whoopie was expansive, not controlling. He and my husband were having a warm. honest exchange -- not name-dropping, credit-dropping -- whereas in other conversations (at a various of parties when we've bumped into Frank), JC had to respond, and feed into Frank's concept, Frank's train of thought, Frank's accomplishments.

Whoopi's relationship with him had expanded him -- made Frank into a friendly, regular guy.

Oh yay, whoopee for Whoopi, I thought, as I hunched over my spinach -- yes hunched, hunkered down, and I don't eat like that -- I usually sit very straight, and take into my mouth exactly the right sized bites ... etcetera.

So I never told her, what I'm saying right now. And what I have to say now is double what I wanted to say back then (it was quite a few years ago... 10? ) Whatever the number, what Whoopi has been doing since then, reaches wider, has expanded, embraced more, has helped, participated in, achieved, accomplished ... has run me out of words.

I guess that's it. All I can say is Whoopee ... for you Whoopi Goldberg.