Oprah sorry for Switzerland incident over purse

LOS ANGELES (AP) "I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland. I m really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I m sorry that I said it was Switzerland," Winfrey said, speaking at the premier of Lee Daniels "The Butler."

In recent interview with "Entertainment Tonight," Winfrey recalled a clerk at an upscale Zurich boutique refusing to show her a handbag. Winfrey said she was told she could not afford the $38,000 purse.
"I m in a store and the person doesn t obviously know that I carry the black card, and so they make an assessment based upon the way I look and who I am," said Winfrey, who earned $77 million in the year ending in June, according to Forbes magazine.

"I didn t have anything that said I have money : I wasn t wearing a diamond stud. I didn t have a pocketbook. I didn t wear Louboutin shoes. I didn t have anything," said Winfrey on the red carpet. "You should be able to go in a store looking like whatever you look like and say I d like to see this. That didn t happen."

Swiss tourism officials and the boutique owner apologized for the incident last week, but Winfrey insists there s no need.

"It s not an indictment against the country or even that store," she said. "It was just one person who didn t want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag. So no apologies necessary from the country of Switzerland. If somebody makes a mistake in the United States do we apologize in front of the whole country? No!"

"The Butler," which opens Friday, documents the civil rights movement through the story of a butler who served in the White House for seven presidents.