Whoopi Goldberg for Public Service. Goldberg serves on the national council advisory board of the National Museum of American Illustration. Goldberg has been married three times — in 1973 to Alvin Martin (divorced in 1979, one daughter); on September 1, 1986 to cinematographer David Claessen (divorced in 1988); and on October 1, 1994 to the union organizer Lyle Trachtenberg (divorced in 1995). She was romantically linked with actors Frank Langella, Timothy Dalton, and Ted Danson, who controversially appeared in blackface during her 1993 Friars Club roast. She has stated that she has no plans to marry again, commenting "Some people are not
Whoopi Goldberg statements taken by some to condone football player Michael Vick's dogfighting. In 2009, she opined that Roman Polanski's rape of a thirteen-year-old in 1977 was not "rape-rape", later clarified that she had intended to distinguish between "statutory rape" ("unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor") and "forcible rape". Goldberg was a staunch defender of Bill Cosby from the outset of his rape allegations, asserting he should be considered innocent until proven guilty, and questioning why Cosby had never been arrested or tried for them. After learning that the statute of limitations on these allegations had expired and thus could not be