She’ll always have Paris, if not Hermes

The luxury store Hermes has apologized to Oprah Winfrey for turning her away from one of its Paris boutiques last week, saying it was closed for a public relations event when she came knocking.

The talk-show host and “an entourage” unsuccessfully tried to enter a Hermes boutique on Paris’ posh Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore at 6:45 p.m. on June 14, Hermes said in a statement. The normal closing time is 6:30 p.m.

“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 the syndicated TV show “Entertainment Tonight.” “Oprah describes it herself as one of the most humiliating moments of her life.”

Hermes said that a private event was being prepared at the time and expressed its “sincere regrets for any misunderstanding that these circumstances could have caused.”