AY DIOS MIO
I had this in the headlines earlier because it was kind of an interesting story. Little did I know that it would blow up like this, and, as I am not fond of a single one of the viper-tongued, braindead harpies on The View, I figured I'd let y'all know what was happening.
You know, since you're as fond of Cinco Chicas as I am.
This all started Wednesday towards the end of the show when the winsome and generous Ms. Goldberg spoke rapturously about the qualities of a confection called the "Charlotte Russe." Goldberg said there's a bakery that made really good ones, and, as thoughtful as she is, when she called the bakery to have them made for her friends to help celebrate her birthday on the show that day...the bakery wouldn't make them for her.
Blew her right off.
Ms Goldberg would not name the bakery that treated her so badly for The View's sitting and broadcast audiences, but asserted that she had been so shunned thanks to her progressive political beliefs...
Holtermann’s Bakery in Staten Island will be suing Whoopi Goldberg & @ABCNetwork because Whoopi lied that the bakery refused her service because of her political beliefs.
— Zade Smith (@ZadeSmith4) November 15, 2024
The bakery has been having issue with a boiler causing limited baking and couldn’t do standalone orders.… pic.twitter.com/UobJoFaKZA
...and flat-out stated so.
...Goldberg told the audience her birthday order had almost fallen through due to what she claimed was the bakery’s objection to her left-wing political stance.
"They said that their ovens had gone down, all kinds of stuff, but folks went and got them anyway, which is why I’m not telling you who made them," said Goldberg. She claimed that her order wasn’t rejected because of her gender, but rather because "they did not like my politics."
In this day and age, nothing remains anonymous for long, and neither did the Staten Island bakery...
...Entertainment Weekly later identified the bakery as Holtermann’s Bakery, a 145-year-old family-owned establishment on Staten Island, by examining the Charlotte Russe desserts themselves. The packaging — pink polka dots on a white paper cup — allegedly was a tell-tale sign the desserts came from the family bakery.
...who were blindsided by the sudden hate deluge they received after the broadcast.
...Bakery owner Jill Holtermann denied Goldberg’s version of the events, explaining that the bakery’s issues were not politically motivated but stemmed from mechanical problems with their boilers, an ongoing challenge in their building, which was built in 1930.
"I said to Whoopi, ‘I can’t do it right now'," Holtermann told the outlet. "We have so many things going on with my boiler."
The orders had been placed two weeks before Wednesday's show aired.
...As news accounts detail on the kerfuffle, a call came into Holtermann’s from someone on “The View” two weeks ago. At that very moment when Jill Holtermann heard the order she could not forecast any commitments because the shop’s ancient boilers were on the fritz.
According to news reports, a show rep asked Holtermann for Charlotte Russe specifically for Nov. 6 and Nov. 13 broadcasts on ABC. Holtermann told outlets a woman ultimately showed up on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7:30 a.m. to pick up 50 pieces of the bakery’s signature Charlotte Russe.
...Holtermann emphasized to the reporter that “she was not aware of any affiliations that the woman who picked up the desserts on Wednesday morning might have had, with regard to ”The View" or otherwise.”
The report also indicated Holtermann sometimes denies long-range requests as the century-old building admittedly has equipment blips.
145 years is a long time to be in business. Locals who have been patronizing Holterman's for generations went berserk when they learned of the ugly aspersions cast by The View star and the follow-on abuse their favorite bakery was taking thanks to it.
...A teacher who declined to give her name said she was there to support the local business after the kerfuffle, and stopped by to pick up some vanilla cupcakes.
“I read she tried to order stuff and made a comment that she didn’t get served because of her political stance. That’s disgusting. Unbelievable, give me a break,” she said.
“She can basically put a place out of business by saying those comments live like that. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Another customer who declined to give her name defended the bakery against Goldberg’s disparaging remarks in characteristic New York fashion.
“I think that’s bulls–t,” she said.
And they began showing up in droves to support the embattled owners.
After #WhoopiGoldberg claimed that @Holtermanns Bakery on #StatenIsland refused to fill a large dessert order she’d made because of her politics, the lines are loooooong and constant here. A midday tour by the boro president aims to calm the controversy. More on @PIX11News. pic.twitter.com/JL2R3rP6Ga
— James Ford (@jamesfordtv) November 15, 2024
As the Staten Island Borough president says in the video below, Rutherford B. Hayes was president of the United States when Holtermans first started baking yummies for locals at 4 in the morning (NY State's oldest - established 1878).
I believe these entitled, overly privileged table-chatterers have been so used to speaking with utter impunity that any situation that doesn't work out exactly the way they intend - or they run into the individual or business who doesn't jump at the snap of their rich fingers - now becomes fodder for yet another public progressive fever dream/onstage meltdown.
This might finally be the situation where a runaway mouth clobbers one of them financially.
The beloved little bakery with the ancient, cranky boilers has become a cause célèbre, and everyone has fightin' words about Whoopi's vicious public slander.
Proud to stand with Holtermann’s Bakery after it was slandered by Whoopi Goldberg on @TheView. The type of elitism and ignorance demonstrated by her on her show is the reason why our nation has become so polarized. pic.twitter.com/YKxonoEeSY
— Mike Tannousis (@MikeTannousis) November 15, 2024
So here we are.
The bakery is flooded with goodwill, lots of customers, and tons of warm wishes. Is it enough to overcome the pages of Whoopi hate engendered by her comments that dominate any online search right now?
If it's not, perhaps they'll seek some legal redress from Goldberg and the show, as they are already being urged to in many quarters.
Regular folks aren't sitting quietly while hysterical bad actors ruin lives and businesses, however famous and formerly untouchable they once were.
Should legal war be declared (or éclaired), Staten Island stands firmly behind its worthy and time-honored champion in the Battle of Charlotte Russe.
And it won't be a cakewalk for Whoopi.
I usually hate these kinds of stories because they're so unfair, but I love them when the response is so incredible from a community.
I also hate them because now I'm starving.
Happy weekend, cupcakes.
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