Whoopi to-do over smoking character

Anti-smoking advocates are highly critical of Whoopi Goldberg’s new television comedy series Whoopi, in which she plays a chain-smoking innkeeper.

The actress-comedienne smokes in three scenes during the 22-minute pilot episode, prompting the Reverend Jesse Brown, executive director of African Americans for Positive Imagery to comment: “We don’t need to see the tobacco companies’ messages reinforced by Whoopi or anyone else on television.”