'Glee' Enlists Whoopi Goldberg for Multiepisode Arc

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Whoopi Goldberg

Fox's Glee is adding another Oscar winner to its ranks.

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Whoopi Goldberg has booked a multiepisode role on the Ryan Murphy/Brad Falchuk musical dramedy, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

As first reported by TV Line, The View co-host will play Carmen Tibideaux, a theater veteran and professor at the New York school that Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) have applied to. 

Goldberg, who won her Academy Award for her supporting turn in 1990's Ghost, is slated to first appear in Glee's May 1 episode and could stick around for three episodes and likely deliver the key verdict on the musical duo's aspirations of attending NYADA.

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The talk-show host becomes the latest in a long line of high-profile guest stars to pop in to the musical dramedy and the second Oscar winner, joining Gwyneth Paltrow, who won an Emmy for her turn as substitute teacher Holly Holiday.

Colfer and Michele's characters, as well as co-star Cory Monteith's Finn -- all graduating seniors -- will remain with the Fox series next season, with Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly alluding to "some version" of a show within a show for Season 4.

"People are going to graduate, and their story lines will carry on through graduation into Season 4, also keeping the William McKinley High School paradigm intact and building in elements of characters who have graduated," he said in January. "It's a very cool way they've figured out how to do that."

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Michele told The Hollywood Reporter: "Ryan has come up with a brilliant, groundbreaking idea for how to include us graduating high school seniors into next season, and it's really exciting. We don't want to give away the new formula, but Cory and I are so excited to be coming back next year. When we heard Ryan's plan, it really made us even more thrilled."

Plans for the future of Glee became murky after co-creator Murphy told THR in July that the trio would not be returning for Season 4, with co-creator Brad Falchuk telling fans at Comic-Con days later that the trio "are not done with the show after this season."

Falchuk noted that a New York-set spinoff revolving around the trio as Colfer and Michele's characters moved toward their Broadway aspirations was among the ideas being explored at the time. “That was something we were planting as a possibility, but we didn’t get much further than that,” he said in July, noting that the seeds were planted during the Season 2 finale, when the cast went to New York.

Reilly officially pulled the plug on the proposed spinoff in January.

Glee returns at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 10; its Season 3 finale is scheduled for May 22.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit