Whoopi Goldberg Won’t Attend Kennedy Center Until It “Becomes What Kennedy Center Was Always Supposed To Be”; Trump Appointee Calls ‘Hamilton’ Withdrawal A “Publicity Stunt”

deadline.com:

The Kennedy Center just lost another patron. Whoopi Goldberg announced on today’s The View that she will no longer attend Kennedy Center performances in light of the Donald Trump board takeover that has prompted a raft of changes at the venue including firings and show cancelations.

During today’s “Hot Topics” segment of the ABC daytime talk show, Goldberg and the rest of the panel were discussing yesterday’s announcement by Hamilton producers Jeffrey Seller and Lin-Manuel Miranda that they have scotched a planned 2026 Kennedy Center engagement of Miranda’s hit musical.

The decision, they said, was a response to the “recent purge by the Trump administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center…” Last night, Richard Grenell, the Trump-appointed interim executive director of the Kennedy Center, posted a response to the Hamilton producers on X, calling the cancelation “a publicity stunt.” “The American people,” Grenell wrote, “need to know that @Lin_Manuel is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically.

It’s clear he and Sellers [sic] don’t want Republicans going to their shows. Americans see you, Lin. Let’s be clear on the facts.