Goldberg smoked pot before Oscar win

LOS ANGELES, March 25 (UPI) -- U.S. actress Whoopi Goldberg admits in a newly discovered 1992 video clip she smoked marijuana before accepting her Oscar statuette for her work in "Ghost."

Goldberg's win marked the first time an African-American woman took home an Academy Award since Hattie McDaniel did so in 1940 for "Gone with the Wind," E! News noted.

TMZ this week posted online a video clip dated Aug. 9, 1992, in which Goldberg talks about how she calmed her nerves before the 63rd Annual Academy Awards.

"Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits," said the actress, who later served as Oscars host four times and is now the moderator on "The View."

"And I thought, 'I've got to relax,'" she recalled in the video. "So I smoked this wonderful joint that was the last of my home-grown."

She said when presenter Denzel Washington read her name as the winner: "I popped up. I thought: 'Oh [expletive] ... OK, up the stairs ... around to the podium ... there's millions of people, pick up the statue, get the statue.'"

Goldberg went on to give a heartfelt acceptance speech, during which she said: "Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted this. You don't know!"