An online beauty website confused a picture of Whoopi Goldberg on the red carpet at the 88th Annual Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night for a photo of Oprah Winfrey. The website has since deleted the Tweet and apologized, but not before it was retweeted hundreds of times along with shocked responses, along with an Instagram post featuring Winfrey herself.
The website, known as Total Beauty, tweeted the shot of Goldberg in a shoulder-revealing gown, showing off her ink in that area with the caption: "We had no idea Oprah was tatted, and we love it. #Oscars."
Of course, Winfrey does not in fact sport a bevy of tattoos on her shoulder, and the picture was actually that of Whoopi Goldberg.
The faux pas was all the more glaring due to the timing. This year's Academy Awards were famously boycotted by numerous high-profile African-American celebrities, including Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, rapper 50 Cent and director Spike Lee, over charges of racism, which was also the theme of host Chris Rock's opening monologue. Goldberg, who has hosted the ceremony in the past, sported her signature dreads at the event, a hairstyle that Oprah has never had, and the two barely look alike other than the color of their skin.
Although the tweet was deleted once the site realized its error, it wasn't before creating a firestorm of reactions on Twitter, most of which remained in good humor. It turns out Oprah wasn't at the Oscars at all, but was instead enjoying the ceremony from the comfort of her couch, wearing her pajamas and socks in the company of her BFF Gayle King and her daughter Kirby Bumpus.
When the trio learned of the Tweet, King sent out a photo on Instagram of Oprah and Kirby sharing a "WTF" expression as Winfrey holds up her smartphone with the offending post.
"@Oprah & favorite daughter watching #Oscars & seeing @totalbeautyeditors snafu! We all love @whoopigoldberg but we don't all look alike Jeeeze!" wrote King.
Total Beauty sheepishly issued a Twitter apology stating, "We'd like to apologize to Oprah and Whoopi, as well as everyone we've offended. It was our error, and there are no excuses. We're sorry." The site then offered to donate $10,000 to any charity Goldberg and Winfrey choose.
Although various celebrities and others tweeted their reactions, perhaps the best of the bunch came courtesy of African-American actress Holly Robinson Peete, who alluded to the racism controversy when exclaiming, "Come on @TotalBeauty. There are only a few of us there smh."
