Whoopi Goldberg may have charted an impressive decades-spanning career boasting dozens of acting credits, numerous accolades, and a long-running stint as moderator on ABC’s The View, but a recent career flop has reportedly dealt her a major blow. Earlier this year, Goldberg released her memoir Bits & Pieces: My Mother, My Brother and Me, but despite ample publicity in the weeks ahead of its release, the book seemingly failed to live up to expectations, leaving Goldberg “devastated.”
“Despite a whirlwind of publicity, the book has shockingly landed at number 800 on the bestseller list after just a few weeks,” a source revealed to Closer.
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Officially dropping in May from Blackstone Publishing, Bits & Pieces: My Mother, My Brother and Me largely focuses on the two biggest influences in Goldberg’s life: her late mother, Emma Harris, who died in August 2010, and her brother, Clyde K. Johnson, who passed away five years later from a brain aneurysm. Described as an “intimate and heartfelt memoir” and “a moving tribute from a daughter to her mother, and a beautiful portrait of three people who loved each other deeply,” the book chronicles Goldberg’s life from growing up in the projects in New York City to her rise to fame. The memoir also features “deeply personal stories” and revelations, including Goldberg reflecting upon her cocaine use during the ’80s and her father’s sexuality, writing that her mother was subjected to electroshock therapy, and revealing the important advise Elizabeth Taylor once gave her.
Goldberg reportedly had high expectations for the memoir and “thought she’d be as successful as Prince Harry and Britney Spears,” both of whom released memoirs of their own in recent years. (Harry released Spare in 2023 and Spears dropped The Woman In Me that same year.) Goldberg’s hopes for the memoir were so high, in fact, that Closer’s source said she “even hoped it would be turned into a movie – but that’s unlikely to happen after such disappointing sales!” The source added that Goldberg “is devastated by the flop, questioning how such a high-profile release could fall so flat.”
Although Bits & Pieces: My Mother, My Brother and Me may have been less successful than she had been hoping, Goldberg still has plenty of other things to celebrate. Goldberg remains one of just 19 people to achieve the EGOT, having taken home numerous awards throughout her career, including taking home the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2001. Her many acting credits include Ghost, Sister Act, The Color Purple and more. She can currently be seen moderating The View, a role she has held since 2007.
