Los Angeles, July 7 (IANS) Actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg is currently stranded in Italy after nature unleashed its fury.

The country witnessed a volcanic eruption which has led to grounding of flights, reports ‘Female First UK’.

The actress has been enjoying a vacation on the island of Sicily and was due to return to work on her panel show ‘The View’ on Monday but Whoopi had to miss the episode as she was unable to fly back to the US because plumes of ash from Mount Etna led to the island’s Catania airport being closed.

Joy Behar stepped in for Whoopi on Monday’s episode of ‘The View’ and explained her absence, saying, “So you may be asking, ‘Why am I here on a Monday?’. I asked myself the same question. But [producer producer Brian Teta] begged me to come in. Begged me, on his knees, where he belongs. Why? Because we are down three co-hosts today. Whoopi is using the old volcano excuse. Watch”.

As per ‘Female first UK’, Viewers were then shown a video of Whoopi explaining her predicament.

She said, “I am in Sicily right now. Mount Etna, who is one of our active volcanoes here in Italy, decided to go off today. We have spent most of the day trying to get back to (the) United States and all of the airports are closed here. So I will be back as soon as I can. And I know that we got all kinds of stories about our different vacations. Well, I think my story just takes the cake! A volcano ate my homework”.

Whoopi was missing from The View’s line-up along with co-host Ana Navarra, who was unable to travel to the studio in New York City due to bad weather in Miami, Florida.

–IANS

aa/