Sherri Shepherd and Nia Long reportedly clashed in the theater lobby of the star-studded Broadway premiere of Othello, which took a dramatic turn offstage.
According to Shepherd, the confrontation was so tense that she had to address it on her talk show the next day, calling out an “unnamed celebrity” for accosting her. Though she didn’t name names, sources close to the incident claim the Best Man actress was involved.
Shepherd, 57, attended the opening of Shakespeare’s Othello, starring Denzel Washington as the titular general and Jake Gyllenhaal as the scheming Iago, when the incident unfolded. During Monday’s episode of Sherri, the host recounted being approached aggressively by another attendee:
“I get along with everybody. I really do,” Shepherd said. “So I’m standing there, and I was talking to Khadeen and Devale Ellis, and Devale Ellis is on ‘Sisters.’ So this unnamed celebrity actress, who shall remain nameless, I’m standing there talking, somebody grabbed my arm, and they forcefully turned me around,” Shepherd recounted to her audience. “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 seemed truly bewildered by the clash, particularly because the unknown actress left suddenly after making her assertion without giving any opportunity for more conversation.
“I know who I shade because I don’t shade many people,” Shepherd insisted. “It might be one person I shade, and I … I never have shaded this unnamed celebrity.”
The occurrence seemed to upset Sherri Shepherd to the point where she looked for a confrontation during the break, lingering in the restroom for several minutes in anticipation of addressing the matter. “I was mad. I was really mad. And I said, you know what, you don’t freaking get to do that to me,” she explained. “So I went to the bathroom during intermission. I stood there for minutes waiting for a meeting in the ladies’ room, OK? I stood there.”
“You wanna tell me I shaded you? No, no. You don’t get to pull me and turn me around like we in a dang gone cartoon, and then you walk away,” added Shepherd.
Though Sherri Shepherd kept the celebrity anonymous, multiple outlets, including Page Six, reported that the other party was Nia Long, 53, also in attendance. Nia Long has not publicly addressed the claims, and representatives for both stars have yet to comment.
