Whoopi Goldberg and Sara Haines traded light slaps mid-episode on Thursday’s The View, turning a chat about Meryl Streep into a brief burst of live-TV chaos. Justin Theroux was in the middle of recalling a moment working with Streep when the co-hosts started jabbing at each other.
Theroux had just said, “She’s an icon, she’s whatever, but you get to work and she’s just like every other actor who does incredible work,” when Haines appeared to lean into the praise and playfully jab Goldberg while trying to showcase her as an icon. Goldberg answered with an “Ow!” and hit Haines back, prompting Haines to nudge her once more. “I was just saying, you too,” Haines said as the two exchanged a few more taps, while Theroux asked, “Why is everyone hitting each other?” and then tapped Running Point costar Kate Hudson and Sunny Hostin. Goldberg shook her head and rolled her eyes before Theroux added, “Just a normal person,” and Goldberg replied, “ish.”
The exchange played like a joke that got a little out of hand, the kind of on-air moment daytime television lives on. It also landed less than two weeks after Goldberg told Hostin to “calm down” on the April 15 episode, after Hostin clashed with some of her costars over Marjorie Taylor Greene.
That earlier moment and Thursday’s back-and-forth show the same dynamic at work: The View can move from discussion to friendly collision in a matter of seconds. On this day, Haines was hyping Goldberg as an icon, Goldberg was swatting back, and Theroux was left watching the panel turn his Streep anecdote into a bit of slapstick.
For viewers, the answer is simple: yes, it was playful, and yes, it was real enough to make Theroux ask why everyone was hitting each other. On The View, that is often the whole point.