Patti LuPone Curses Out Audience Member For Not Wearing Mask, Whoopi Goldberg Defends

During Thursday’s episode of the ABC talk show “The View,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg defended the Broadway star Patti LuPone after she cursed out an audience member for not wearing a mask during a recent performance of her show “Company.”

LuPone Goes Off 

“Who do you think you are? That you do not respect the people that are sitting around you!” LuPone said in a rant that also included various profanities.

When the audience member fired back by saying, “I pay your salary,” LuPone replied, “Bulls—! [Producer)] Chris Harper pays my salary!”

“Who do you think you are?” LuPone concluded. “That you do not respect the people that are sitting around you!”

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Goldberg Defends LuPone

Though some took issue with LuPone’s mid-performance attack on this audience member, Goldberg stood by it.

“Put the mask over your nose!” Goldberg said, according to Fox News. “You don’t want to infect the people on stage who are not wearing masks. Just do it right.” 

Her co-host Sunny Hostin agreed with her, saying that wearing a mask is a “simple ask,” and that not doing so was a “lack of civility” and a “lack of kindness.” Guest host Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former White House communications director for Donald Trump, made sure to note that “no one likes wearing a mask.” 

“But our grandparents stormed the beaches of Normandy, you can put a little cloth over your face,” she added. “And Broadway suffered so much under COVID. Finally, to be able to have it back, we need it. I think everyone needs the theater, it’s what our country needs right now.” 

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Goldberg Doubles Down

Goldberg then chimed back in to say, “And it says, when you go in, ‘Put your mask on.’ The people walk up and down the aisle with little signs saying, ‘Put your mask on!’”

Earlier in this segment, co-host Joy Behar had said that this entire incident was “another example of the audience feeling that they can participate in the show.”

“This is just a verbal abuse, but we know from what we have been talking about for weeks here about people going up to comedians and others and just doing – just smacking them when they don’t like what they are saying,” Behar said. “This is the same.”

While Broadway dropped its COVID-19 vaccine mandate last month, it’s keeping its mask mandate in place through at least the end of May. The Broadway League is set to reevaluate this rule at the end of this month.