Whoppi Goldberg labels ‘The White Lotus’ “The Caucasian Lotus”
Whoopi Goldberg has labelled HBO’s black comedy The White Lotus as ‘The Caucasian Lotus’ – find out why below.
The third season of the show is currently airing every Sunday night in the US, with UK viewers able to watch it via Sky Atlantic or NOW every Monday morning. The fourth episodes airs tonight (March 9).
It was a scene from episode three, however, that prompted actor and presenter Goldberg to rename the show. In the show, three friends, played by Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon and Leslie Bibb, are reuniting on holiday and realise during one conversation that one of them voted for Donald Trump in the most recent election.
Watch the scene in question below, which has proved to be divisive among fans of the show.
It is Bibb’s character that makes the reveal, causing her two friends to try to suppress their shock and disgust at the revelation. Bibb’s Kate later overhears her friends sharing their honest opinion about their friend’s exposed politics after they think she has gone to bed.
During an episode of The View after the episode aired, Goldberg said: “The White Lotus – or, The Caucasian Lotus, as I call it – is about ultra-rich people going to exotic locations. But, there’s a conversation from the latest episode that a lot of Americans can relate to these days.”
The majority of the obnoxious rich guests at the titular luxury hotels in the three season of The White Lotus have been white, with the most notable Black character being Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda, who was introduced as a staff member of the hotel branch in Hawaii.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bibb revealed that the Trump scene was actually written and filmed before Trump announced he was running for election again in 2024. “I feel like Mike had binoculars into the future because when we did it, it just didn’t feel [timely anymore],” she explained. “I was like, ‘We already did that. That was in the past.’ I don’t even think Trump was running when we did it – it was in January or February of last year or something, so yeah, that was pretty wild.”
In a four-star review of The White Lotus‘ third season, Nick Levine wrote for NME: “A little sweetness definitely helps to balance out the prevailing saltiness. As the season progresses, the sneaky intricacy of White’s plotting begins to yield surreal, shocking and genuinely hilarious moments. No one can write a scene where one character pretends not to remember another quite as exquisitely as White. Tanya may be gone, but this transgressive soap opera remains unique and completely jaw-dropping.”
In January HBO confirmed that The White Lotus has been renewed for a fourth season. Details surrounding season four have yet to be announced but it will welcome fans of the hit series “to a new destination”.
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Max Pilley
NME
