Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey was denied entry into an exclusive Paris boutique. Winfrey was denied entry into Hermes in Paris. When she tried the door, they refused her entry because they have been having trouble with North Africans.

THIS IS THE BULLSHIT RESPONSE FROM HERMES

“Hermes regrets not having been able to accommodate Ms. Winfrey and her team and to provide her with the service and care that Hermes strives to provide to each and every one of its customers worldwide,” the store said in a statement.

“Hermes apologizes for any offense taken due to such circumstances.”

BULLSHIT

The store said the incident occurred on June 14 around 6:45 p.m., about 15 minutes after the store closed. It said Winfrey and her team arrived at a time when “a private PR event was being set up inside.”

Harpo Productions spokeswoman Michelle McIntyre said Winfrey “will discuss her ‘crash moment’ when her show returns from hiatus in September.”

“Crash” is a film dealing with race relations. The phrase “crash moment” refers to situations where a party feels discriminated against on the basis of skin color.

The New York Daily News cited sources close to Winfrey as saying the talk show host was first rebuffed by a clerk and then a store manager. The Daily News reported Winfrey had gone to the store to buy a watch for singer Tina Turner, her dining partner that night.

McIntyre confirmed that account for CNN.

The New York Post, in its Monday Page Six gossip column, reported she was turned away because the store had been “having a problem with North Africans lately.”

In comments to CNN, an Hermes spokeswoman categorically denied that allegation.

“There was never any discussion of North Africans,” she said. “The story is not true.”

The spokeswoman said Winfrey came to the store 15 minutes after closing and a security guard informed her the store was closed and gave her a card, telling her she could come back the next day.

Surveillance videotape of the encounter supports the store’s account, according to the spokeswoman.

She said the CEO of Hermes has called Winfrey’s people to explain “the situation” and invited her to come back to shop in the store.

Rapper Cassidy is wanted in Philadelphia for the murder of a 22-year-old man during an April 15 shooting. A warrant for his arrest was issued on June 8.

Michael Giampietro, Cassidy’s attorney, said he expects his client will surrender himself to authorities on Friday morning. A police spokesperson said when he does, Cassidy will be charged with conspiracy, weapons possession and homicide.

According to police, Cassidy (real name Barry Reese) and two other men, armed with .45 and .40 caliber handguns, 9 mm pistols, AK47 assault rifles and 7.62 mm rifles, fired on three other men during an argument that unfolded behind a house in the rapper’s northwest Philadelphia neighborhood just before 1 a.m. on April 15.

One of the men who was shot, Desmond Hawkins, 22, of Philadelphia, died from a gunshot wound to the back. The two other men were treated at area hospitals for gunshot wounds and subsequently released.

Police said a second warrant was also issued for 23-year-old Abdul West, also of Philadelphia, who, along with Cassidy, was one of the three shooters involved in the incident. Homicide detectives have been unable to identify the third shooter. Police were not immediately clear as to what Cassidy’s connection might have been to the two other shooters. But according to a spokesperson for the department, all of the men involved “knew each other.”

The three victims were reportedly unarmed at the time.

Cassidy, the first MC of significance to be supported by Swizz Beatz’s J-affiliated Full Service label, will release his sophomore album, I’m a Hustla, on June 28.

Comic Dave Chappelle has met with executives at Comedy Central for the first time since his unscheduled “spiritual retreat” in South Africa forced the suspension of the third season of his show.

Comedy Central President Doug Herzog met with Chappelle Friday in Los Angeles, network spokesman Tony Fox said.

Fox would not talk about what was discussed and when — or if — Chappelle would return to the network. A spokesman for Chappelle did not immediately return a call for comment.

Chappelle had two unannounced performances at a comedy club in Los Angeles last week. He has said he left for South Africa because he was unhappy with the direction of his show, which had been scheduled to start a third season on May 31, and denied reports of drug or mental problems.

Meanwhile, Comedy Central sold another 400,000 copies last week of its DVD of the show’s second season, for a total of 1.4 million so far. The first season’s DVD has sold 2.9 million copies, the biggest-selling DVD of a TV series of all time.