Sherri Shepherd has re-invited Nia Long to her talk show “The Sherri Shepherd Show” after officially confirming Long was the unnamed actress she had a run-in with at the “Othello” premiere back in March.
The reveal came up during Shepherd’s appearance on “The Breakfast Club” on Monday, after Charlamagne tha God asked Shepherd if Long ever took her up on her offer to discuss the matter in person.
“Yes, it was Nia Long,” Shepherd said. “I don’t know who Nia Long had me confused with … I have no idea. I think Nia Long maybe confused me with someone. I have no idea who she thought was shading her, but it was not me. I have no beef with Nia Long, I’m a fan of hers, we’re grown women, we’re both the same age, so we can discuss it. That’s why I invited her on my show.”
She continued: “And a lot of people said, ‘Well, why did you say something like that publicly?’ Well, No. 1, I never said her name. There were a lot of women that attended the ‘Othello’ premiere, and No. 2, I’m a stand-up comic, so everything that happens in my life is material for me and my stage, my comedy stage is the talk show. So I got on stage and I talked about it … and said this happened.”
While setting the record straight, she clarified that her initial statement about that waiting out in the ladies room to see if she and Long would cross paths again was a joke that was referencing the lyrics to Klymaxx’s song “Meeting in the Ladies Room.”
“I said the joke. Norman Baker, who’s the head of our hot topics, he was like, ‘That’s funny,’ everybody got it,” Shepherd said, noting that she seriously has no issue whatsoever with then iconic actress.
“I don’t have any beef. I don’t like to tear down people, but I honestly was just confused. I also don’t like when you touch me and you pull at me. I don’t like that,” adding that Long supposedly “grabbed me and spun me around.”
She ended her remarks saying that she’s still open to Long coming on to the show to talk it out.
“I’m nice person, but you can’t confuse that — I’m a Chicago girl. So when that happens, then I go there,” Shepherd explained. “I’m so cool, it’s done. If Nia Long would love to come on my show, I would love — I’m a fan. We’re both actresses. I would love to talk to her and just clear it up.”
Shepherd’s update on the matter comes more than two months after the alleged incident. During a segment on her show, Shepherd called out an unnamed actress for accosting her at the opening night of Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Othello” on Broadway.
“So this unnamed celebrity actress who shall remain nameless — I’m sitting there talking, somebody grabbed my arm and they forcefully turned me around,” Shepherd explained at the time.
“So I’m in a good mood, so I go, ‘Hi, what’s going on?’ ‘Cause I know her, and she says to me, she goes, ‘You’ve been shading me a lot,’” Shepherd recalled. “That’s what she said to me. And I said to her, I said, ‘No, no I haven’t,’ ’cause I was really confused. And she goes, ‘Yes, you have,’ and then she just walked off.”
TheWrap has reached out to both Shepherd and Long for request for comment.
