'Oprah's a liar': Sales assistant in Swiss racist handbag row denies telling TV host that she could not view item because she couldn't afford it 
 
 Sale assistant said she feels 'powerless' after the racism accusations 
 
 
 
 Oprah Winfrey claimed assistant refused to show her a handbag because it was 'too expensive' 
 
 
 
 Speaking anonymously, shop worker said claims were 'absurd' 
 
 The shop assistant who allegedly refused to show Oprah Winfrey a handbag said the billionaire is a liar 
 
 The sales assistant who refused to show U.S. talkshow billionaire Oprah Winfrey a luxury handbag costing nearly £25,000 claims the superstar lied about what happened in the luxury Swiss boutique where she works. 
 
 Speaking anonymously to Sunday newspaper SonntagsBlick, the Italian bag lady said she felt 'powerless' and in the grip of a 'cyclone' after Winfrey went on TV in America to claim she had been the victim of racism. 
 
 Winfrey was in Switzerland in July when she walked into the Trois Pommes boutique in Zurich looking for a handbag to match the outfit she was going to wear to old friend Tina Turner's wedding. 
 
 
 
 She claims the sales assistant refused to show her the black crocodile leather bag because - seeing a black woman - she automatically assumed she would not be able to afford it. 
 
 Now the saleslady has hit back, stating: 'I wasn't sure what I should present to her when she came in on the afternoon of Saturday July 20 so I showed her some bags from the Jennifer Aniston collection. 
 
 'I explained to her the bags came in different sizes and materials, like I always do. 
 
 
 
 'She looked at a frame behind me. Far above there was the 35,000 Swiss franc crocodile leather bag. 
 
 
 
 'I simply told her that it was like the one I held in my hand, only much more expensive, and that I could show her similar bags. 
 
 'It is absolutely not true that I declined to show her the bag on racist grounds. I even asked her if she wanted to look at the bag. 
 
 
 
 'She looked around the store again but didn't say anything else. Then she went with her companion to the lower floor. My colleague saw them to the door. They were not even in the store for five minutes.' 
 
 She emphatically denied ever saying to Winfrey: 'You don't want to see this bag. It is too expensive. You cannot afford it.' 
 
 
 
 SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO 
 
 
 
 Speaking anonymously, the assistant at Trois Pommes, in Zurich, Switzerland (pictured) said it is 'absolutely not true that I declined to show her the bag on racist grounds' Ms Goetz said: 'Everyone wants to sell a crocodile bag. It’s a misunderstanding' and insisted her saleswomen put customers first and try to be 'kind' The shop assistant said she only sells a £25,000 handbag a few times a year and said the racist claims are 'absurd' 
 
 The saleslady went on: 'This is not true. This is absurd. I would never say something like that to a customer. Really never. Good manners and politeness are the Alpha and the Omega in this business. 
 
 'I don't know why she is making these accusations. She is so powerful and I am just a shop girl. 
 
 
 
 'I didn't hurt anyone. I don't know why someone as great as her must cannibalize me on TV. 
 
 'If it had all taken place as she claimed, why has she not complained the next day at the wedding of Tina Turner with Trudie Goetz, my boss? She was there also at the Turner wedding as a guest. I don't understand it. 
 
 'I spoke to Oprah Winfrey in English. My English is okay but not excellent, unfortunately. 
 
 
 
 'I didn't know who she was when she came into the store. That wouldn't have made any difference if I had. 
 
 
 
 Miss Winfrey said of the encounter: 'I could have had the big blow-up thing and thrown down the black card and all that stuff. But why do that?' 
 
 Shop owner Trudie Goetz holds up the handbag (right) that Winfrey wanted to see 
 
 Girls' weekend: Oprah Winfrey and best friend Gayle King ahead of Tina Turner and Erwin Bach's wedding celebrations in Zurich, Switzerland 
 
 'We work really hard to greet all the people who come into the store with the same level of respect and treat them all equally. 
 
 'If someone asks me whether he or she can see an article, I always present these. Because that person is a potential buyer. And my job is to sell it. 
 
 
 
 'I'm glad if I can sell an article. It is a reward for me, if I can sell a nice piece. This means that I'm good at my job.' 
 
 She has worked in the store for five years, says 50 per cent of the clientele come from abroad and that a bag costing nearly £25,000 is sold 'only a few times a year.' 
 
 Asked what she would say to Oprah now she added: 'I would apologize and say it was all a misunderstanding. I surely did not intentionally want to insult Ms. Winfrey. I hope this nightmare ends soon.' ||||| Oprah Winfrey says she's "sorry" that a media frenzy emerged after saying she experienced racism during a trip to Switzerland. 
 
 Oprah Winfrey arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Lee Daniels' The Butler" at the Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 on Monday, Aug. 12, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 Oprah Winfrey arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Lee Daniels' The Butler" at the Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 on Monday, Aug. 12, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 Oprah Winfrey arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Lee Daniels' The Butler" at the Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 on Monday, Aug. 12, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 "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 Monday night at the Los Angeles premiere of "Lee Daniels: The Butler." 
 
 "I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don't expect that you would be able to be there," she continued. 
 
 In a 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 continued. "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. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Online: 
 
 http://www.weinsteinco.com/sites/leedanielsthebutler 
 
 ____ 
 
 Follow Nicole Evatt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt ||||| Image caption The star made an estimated $77m last year 
 
 The owner of a shop in Zurich where US talk show host Oprah Winfrey says she encountered racism has called the incident a "misunderstanding". 
 
 Winfrey, one of the world's richest women, claimed an assistant refused to serve her in an upmarket handbag shop. 
 
 She was apparently told one of the bags on display was "too expensive" for her. 
 
 Shop owner Trudie Gotz told the BBC that Winfrey was "absolutely allowed" to look at the $35,000 (£22,500) bag, which was kept behind a screen. 
 
 "My salesperson wanted to give her the handbag in her hand. But she didn't want to take the bag," claimed Gotz. 
 
 She said her assistant had worked in the Trois Pommes store "for a few years and takes care of the most spoilt customers from all over the world", adding, "she is really a correct sales person". 
 
 'Didn't understand' 
 
 Winfrey, who stars in Lee Daniels' new film The Butler, visited Zurich last month to attend singer Tina Turner's wedding. Her programme The Oprah Winfrey Show is not shown in Switzerland. 
 
 Speaking to US TV show Entertainment Tonight, she said: "I go into a store and I say to the woman, 'Excuse me, may I see the bag right above your head?' and she says to me, 'No. It's too expensive.'" 
 
 When Winfrey insisted, the shop assistant allegedly replied: "No, no you don't want to see that one, you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You will not be able to afford that." 
 
 The star said she left the shop calmly without arguing, but that the experience was proof that racism continues to be a problem. 
 
 "There's two different ways to handle it," she said. 
 
 "I could've had the whole blow-up thing... but it still exists, of course it does." 
 
 'Public relations disaster' 
 
 Ms Gotz did not call into question Winfrey's perception of the events. 
 
 "I didn't take care of [Winfrey]. I'm sure she felt like this - but my salesgirl promised me she took care of [her] really the best she could. So it must have been a misunderstanding," she said. 
 
 Ms Gotz said her assistant spoke both Italian and English, "but her English isn't as good". 
 
 "She tried to show Mrs Oprah the same style in other qualities, because maybe she didn't understand what she wanted." 
 
 Winfrey's claims come amid a political row over plans by some Swiss towns to ban asylum-seekers from some public places. 
 
 The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Berne says human rights groups have likened the plans - which include banning asylum-seekers from swimming pools, playing fields and libraries - to apartheid. 
 
 Officials say the curbs, which will also see asylum-seekers housed in special centres, are aimed at preventing tensions with residents. 
 
 About 48,000 people are currently seeking asylum in Switzerland. It has twice as many asylum seekers as the European average. 
 
 Winfrey's interview is a public relations disaster for Switzerland, our correspondent says.
– After her comments about getting dissed by a racist saleswoman at a chichi Swiss boutique, Oprah Winfrey is, well, trying to be Switzerland—sort of. "I'm really sorry that it got blown up," she said last night. "I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I'm sorry that I said it was Switzerland." But, while she says "it's not an indictment against the country or even that store," she's not walking back her contention that racism was involved, reports the AP. "It was just one person who didn't want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag." The aforementioned saleswoman denies that racism was even in the same room, reports the Daily Mail. "It is absolutely not true that I declined to show her the bag on racist grounds. I even asked her if she wanted to look at the bag." Further, she says that the brouhaha, which she likens to a "cyclone," has made her feel "powerless." Over at the Wall Street Journal, James Taranto dismisses the whole thing, saying, "What Winfrey construes as a racial episode is actually a story about class—a wealthy, privileged celebrity aggrieved by a lowly saleswoman's lack of deference."