Whoopi Goldberg Actively Tried to Stop One of Her Films From Being Released

Typically, when a star releases a new movie, they promote it as much as possible. But Whoopi Goldberg did the exact opposite, filing a lawsuit to stop one of her movies from being released in theaters. And it wasn’t the movie in which she solves crimes with the help of a talking dinosaur.

In 1988, Goldberg starred in The Telephone, an experimental comedy-drama about an unemployed actress who spends most of her time cooped up in a small apartment making phone calls. It’s a bit like an avant-garde play (specifically Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice) crossed with a Bob Newhart sketch, but not as good as it might sound.

Oddly enough, The Telephone is the only film ever directed by actor Rip Torn, of The Larry Sanders Show, Men in Black and Drunk Bank Robbery fame, who was once famous. And it’s…