Posted on 06/24/2005 5:31:21 AM PDT by jimboster
Not allowed into Paris's chic Hermes By AP
PARIS -- Oprah Winfrey is suggesting she was turned away from the Hermes luxury clothing store in Paris because she's black and is calling the incident humiliating.
"People were in the store and they were shopping. Oprah was at the door and she was not allowed into the store," Gayle King, a friend of Winfrey who witnessed the incident, told TV show Entertainment Tonight.
"Oprah describes it herself as 'one of the most humiliating moments of her life.' "
UNLIKELY TO RETURN
King said it's unlikely Winfrey will shop there again.
"She's really OK. Her position is, 'I will shop where people appreciate my business, and I don't believe that any longer includes Hermes,' " King said.
The store appeals to the wealthy with their famous colourful scarves going for over $1,000 Cdn. each. Coffee mugs run over $100 while ties top $200.
A spokeswoman for Winfrey's Chicago-based Harpo Productions said yesterday the talk-show host plans to discuss what she calls her Crash moment when The Oprah Winfrey Show returns to the air in September.
Crash is a film dealing with race relations.
Hermes has apologized to the TV talk-show host, who is reputed to be a billionaire, for turning her away after saying it was closed for a public relations event.
Winfrey and "an entourage" unsuccessfully tried to enter an Hermes boutique on Paris' Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, Hermes said in a statement.
On that particular night, however, "a private public relations event was being prepared inside."
"Hermes regrets not having been able to welcome Madame Oprah Winfrey and the people accompanying her to give them all the attention and service that Hermes is committed to giving each of its clients in the world," said the statement, released yesterday.
"Hermes expresses its sincere regrets for any misunderstanding that these circumstances could have caused."
I could be that she was turned away because she arrived FIFTEEN minutes AFTER they had closed. Like my father always said about famous people: "They put their pants on the same as you and I, one leg at a time."
Next time, Oprah, get there on time just like all of us little people have to do.
You're nasty. I like it.
She is one of the richest women in the world, no?
She should just buy the store, fire everyone, raze it and stand on the rubble cackling like the evil villan-ess she is.
This is just too funny.
First of all, I don't know how it's done in France, but most merchants I know in the states lock the door around closing time. Those customers inside can finish their business and be let out, but the store generally does not let additional customers in.
Secondly, Ms. Winfrey's allegation of racism, which in this case is bogus, calls to mind the story I heard about Ho Chi Minh. Ho lived for a time in Paris, but he complained that Parisian society looked down its collective nose at him because of his race. As much as Europeans accuse the U.S. of racism, they themselves can be racist as well.
Forgive me, while I go and get a crying towel. (Sarcasm)
Aww, Oprah wasn't allowed in a store where she could buy a $1000 scarf. It's a Greek Tragedy.
So, Oprah believes she has the right to crash a private party simply because she's Oprah?
Excuse me if I don't see any racism in the store's decision to ban Oprah from the store.
If I ran a store, my policy would be "no entourages." If you can't shop on your own, you're either eight years old or else too stupid or snobbish to enter my establishment.
*coffee spew*
I read a previous account that she showed up without her hair done, presumably looking very ordinary and ugly (which she does without her personal make-up artist and hairdresser in tow to make the best of her features). They didn't let her in because she didn't look like one of their clientele-- not beause she was black, but because at that moment, she didn't look RICH.
Get a life, Oprah. You are one of the world's richest and most sucessful women. You love it when your fans adulate you. Don't you have enough? You can't handle one insulting moment when you have had the world at your feet for years?
PLEASE.
I'm sure all of her loyal followers will boycott Hermes also. Can they survive the loss in business?
If I was in her shoes, I would.
That or dating Steadman.
No, wait, I take that back. Dating Oprah is Steadman's most embarrassing moment.
This sounds like Oprah playing the race card, nothing in the article makes a credible claim that race wass the base of this.
This looks like a case of her big fat ego being out of control.
Reminds me of a story one of my troops told me about a place called Bubba's Ribs in Wis. The place is PACKED during the summer (the norm), when in walks Arnold and Maria (this is 1992 or 93) and they go to the head of the line.
Bubba tells them that the end of the line is outside.
Arnold says, "Arnold and Maria don't wait in line."
Bubba replies: "Guess you don't eat at Bubba's."
The crowd cheered Bubba as Arnold and Maria left!
I mean Hey they were having a private public relations event, they probably wouldn't have let anyone in, does anyone really think that a store is going to insult a billionaire on purpose. It was not because she is black, it was because they were having a private event.
LOL!
..wait a minute ..
Is this more humiliating when she admitted that she was a crack smoking ho at one point in her life? She said this on here show many years ago...
I wonder if I'll be able to walk in on a private event held at Oprah's castle or will I be tazed, beaten, and taken to jail by the bodyguards of the stars, the B.H. Cops?
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