Whoopi Goldberg cautioned fellow entertainers Debra Messing and Eric McCormack of “Will & Grace” against calling for a list of Hollywood conservatives during “The View” on Tuesday.
“Last time people did this, people ended up killing themselves,” Goldberg said, referencing the Hollywood blacklist of 1947. “This is not a good idea, OK? Your idea of who you don’t want to work with is your personal business. Do not encourage people to print out lists, because the next list that comes out, your name will be on and then people will be coming after you.”
Goldberg called voting a “great right” before calling on Messing and McCormack to study the history of the blacklist.
Co-host Joy Behar agreed, saying she was “against that type of thing.”
“I do believe that you should know if a company gave a lot of money to Trump,” she said, but “when it’s individuals, it’s stalking and you’re starting to endanger that person’s life.”
Sunny Hostin, another of the five hosts, questioned why someone attending a fundraiser wouldn’t be proud enough to let it be known that they had put their money behind a candidate.
The fundraiser is being held in Beverly Hills on Sept. 17, five days before the Emmys are held in Los Angeles, with a minimum $1,000 donation required to attend. Messing called for a list of all attendees to be published, saying that “the public has a right to know.”
McCormack followed that up with a similar call “so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t wanna work with.”
Reps for the two actors did not return requests for comment.
Goldberg and Behar found an unlikely on-air ally in conservative actor John O’Hurley, who sad Monday he was “embarrassed” for Messing and McCormack.