SHORT TAKES : Whoopi Promotes Role Reversal

NEW YORK — Whoopi Goldberg believes actors should be able to play all roles, regardless of race or sex.

“The part I played in ‘Burglar’ was written for Bruce Willis. ‘Burglar’ was his film, and he dropped out of it,” she said in the November issue of McCall’s magazine.

Goldberg, currently starring as the hotheaded, softhearted owner of television’s “Bagdad Cafe,” said, “That’s why my Broadway show was so startling to some people, because I could do all those characters.”

Those characters included a white “surfer chick,” a male druggie with a doctorate in literature and a 9-year-old black girl who lusts for long, blond hair.