Afficionados know that Whoopi Goldberg’s parents didn’t name her Whoopi and their last name wasn’t Goldberg. In fact, she was born Caryn Elaine Johnson, and only took her stage name after someone made a petty joke about flatulence. Her double identity proved a very useful disguise when the bawdy comedienne’s Soho loft sold: City records showed Wednesday morning that Caryn Johnson—Ms. Goldberg, that is—sold her two-bedroom apartment at 101 Wooster Street to Thrillist.com founder Benjamin Lerer and wife Emily. They paid $2.985 million.
The “unique loft situated in the heart of SoHo” was originally listed last summer at $3.9 million through Sotheby’s International Realty. In October, The Journal reported that the apartment had gone into contract, but since then there hasn’t been much news of the apartment or its exposed brick and extremely high ceilings.
Mr. Lerer, whose lovely daily email newsletter is mostly geared toward luxury-loving urban metrosexuals, is not too worried about renovations. “We are going to do a few small things,” he told The Observer, “but we’ll move in in a few weeks. We’re really excited! We knew right away when we saw the apartment.”
With “divine custom details throughout the loft” and a “dramatic entertaining space with both opulence and integrity,” to quote Sotheby's, it would be hard not to be thrilled. That’s a pun.
But where will The View’s banterer go now that her Soho digs are sold? According to Cindy Adams she has a few homes to choose from—in upstate New York, Vermont, and the Hamptons.
