'whilst' goof

I took it as a clue that he embraced his Irish heritage. One assumes he either wrote or approved his bio, so he made that little change as a nod to his roots. Were there British spellings of other words, such as "colour?"

Never used in American English? You're absolutely wrong. Whilst has historically been used in American repartee as well as in American literature. If you're not aware of that, then perhaps you're not as aware of American history or American culture as you should be. And you don't have to go all the way back to colonial days. I remember characters using the word "whilst" in some of the novels by Mark Twain and Bret Harte, for example.

It's not common but not like it's not used. Some of you are getting so weird about this topic.

This reminds of a comment on You Tube on a "QI:Quite Interesting" video (A British comedy panel show) about the show's claim that Americans call a quarter "two bits."

An American steadfastly argued that the show was completely wrong because he had never used or ever heard anyone else use the term and therefore it couldn't possibly be accurate. In other words, he showed his ignorance.

I'm also American and I've used the word "whilst", used the word "petrol", and used the word "aeroplane." I guess I should stop because I've been breaking some sort of law of the natural universe.

Promise me, no matter how hopeless things get, keep on trying, OK? Keep coming chin-up, OK?

Your notion that any given word is 'never used in American English' is simply preposterous. Of course Americans say whilst. Not all of them, obviously. But the assertion that none do is just stupid.