George Galloway blasts the Senate

We are having a conversation about a media personage being refused entry to a parisian shop after closing time?

Ironically, this kind of thing can assume an importance out of all proportion, especially when a racial motive is claimed.

its only handbags

McT, What you say is true, but Oprah is not just a black media personage.

Don't bet on that, c.i.

People who have never heard of Hermes, and people who don't like Oprah, will start shopping there.

Then again, most people who can regularly afford to shop at Hermes won't care spit one way or the other about how anyone else is treated by Hermes (and doesn't read the kind of papers where that sort of thing is reported).

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blatham, we've had a couple of threads on the issue addressed by Hobsbawn. I think my grandmother might have been right all along.

ehBeth, We'll have to agree to disagree on this point. We'll have to wait and see.

In mythology, was Hermes like Neptune?

I suppose I could google it....I use answers.com, do you?

Good morning, all.

Good night, McT.

Poseidon > Neptun.
Hermes > Mercury.

Oh yes, I knew that really.

But I forgot. I am very old.

Since when have you a problem with age, McT?

I'm feeling like I'm twenty...

Oprah Winfrey plans to discuss Hermes Paris shop incident on television Fri Jun 24, 2:16 PM ET

CHICAGO (AFP) - US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is convinced she was turned away from a Hermes store in Paris because she is black and she plans to tell her millions of viewers about it, a spokeswoman said.

"Oprah does have plans to discuss the incident on air when she returns in September," the spokeswoman told AFP.

Winfrey, who was recently named the most powerful celebrity in the US by Forbes magazine, has also decided to boycott the store, the spokeswoman confirmed.

The luxury goods house issued a public apology Friday after Winfrey called Robert Chavez, president of Hermes in America, to complain.

Hermes said in a statement that Winfrey was denied entry on June 14 because she arrived after standard business hours and while a private PR event was being set up inside.

"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.

"Hermes apologizes for any offense," it said in the statement.

But according to a report in the New York Daily News, Winfrey believes she would have been admitted to the store had she been a white celebrity.

"If it had been Celine Dion or Britney Spears or Barbra Streisand, there is no way they would not be let in that store," a friend of Winfrey's told the Daily News.

Winfrey's spokeswoman confirmed the Daily News report.

The spokeswoman also confirmed that store clerks recognized Winfrey when she asked to pop in for a moment to buy a watch for her friend singer Tina Turner.

Winfrey, who earned 225 million dollars last year (186 million euros) has some 30 million US viewers for her chat show which is rebroadcast in more than 100 countries. A former television reporter and Oscar-nominated actress, Winfrey rose from modest means to build a global media empire that also spans books, magazines and movies.

Not to continue the "off topic" topic, but...

I don't see that the US beef industry went under because of Oprah's comments. I doubt Hermes will see much of a problem.
1. It is in France where they don't seem to care about the viewpoint of Americans. Oprah might as well be claiming that France use more English in their every day language. Paris is still the fashion center of the universe.
2. Oprah is the hero of the common woman. Not too many of them go on shopping trips to French high class stores. It could well become an anti-Oprah statement to sport an item from Hermes. Picture Paris Hilton proclaiming she shops there because of it. (A silk tie from Hermes costs $145 online.)
3. A couple of US stores may suffer but worldwide I don't see Japanese refusing to shop there because of Oprah.

Back on topic.......

It would really be an international icident of they had turned away George Galloway. :wink:

Forbes claimed Oprah to be the "most powerful celebrity in the US." I don't think it meant it will affect the Japanese. We'll just have to wait and see. I still believe Oprah has great influence in the US, and Hermes has stores in the US.

It is very possible that Oprah, megazillonstar though she may be in the USA, is not nearly as well known in European countries (especially France, which does not carry much in the way of English-language TV programmes) as the other people she mentioned, Barbra Streisand, Britney Spears, Celine Dion.

Strange as it may seem.

excuse me but what special talent does this Oprah woman have?

Does she sing or dance or tell jokes? What does she do apart from asking other people questions? Quite willing to believe I have missed something here, but what?

McT and Steve, We're not talking about Europe; we're talking about how much influence Oprah has in the US. My god, don't you people listen?

She was, at one time, a radio announcer, then worked in television as an announcer and news reader. She became very popular in Chicago for a morning news/variety program, from whence her current career.

Also, we're not talking about the Japanese.

Thanks for the info set.

Of course I've seen her on tv, but I got the impression she was one of those people famous for being famous, in her case with knobs on.

Always listen to you ci, or I would if i had a working sound card on this machine...

All of what Setanta said, plus her career took off nationally with her role in The Color Purple, which is a very important movie.

She conceived the show, hires the people to run the show, plus she gets the audience involved. She exudes empathy. Apparently the mixture works beautifully for a large segment of the public home in the middle of the day.