The stage was set for drama when Sherri Shepherd crossed paths with a celebrity harboring a grievance over her on-air commentary.
During a Monday segment, the host confessed that she typically has no qualms with people she encounters. Yet one proved to be an exception — a run-in she had at the opening of the Broadway play “Othello,” starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Shepherd said she remembered she was exchanging pleasantries with actors Khadeen and Devale Ellis when a celebrity whom she chose not to name accosted her.
“So this unnamed celebrity actress, who shall remain nameless,” she began with a theatrical tone, “grabbed my arm, and they forcefully turned me around.”
“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.’ That’s what she said to me,” she said.
Taken aback, Shepherd responded, “No, I haven’t.”
“Yes, you have,” Shepherd recalled the person responding before walking away from her, leaving Shepherd not only confused but indignant.
“First of all, I know who I shade because I don’t shade many people,” she said. “It might be one person I shade. And I never have shaded this unnamed celebrity… So I was mad. I was really mad, and I said, ‘You know what? You don’t freaking get to do that to me.’”
Fuming from the encounter, Shepherd made a beeline for the bathroom during intermission, where, in her words, she had what she calls a “meeting in the ladies’ room,” a reference to the 1984 hit by Klymaxx.
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“I would say to unnamed celebrity, because you think I shaded you — which means you watch my show — I don’t know who you think I am. I think you get me confused with somebody,” she said. “I know I didn’t shade you. Matter of fact, when something scandalous came up about you, I was on your side when it happened.”
Wrapping her story up, Shepherd extended an olive branch, offering the celebrity a chance to sit down on her couch for a discussion about their alleged grievances.
Shepherd posted the video of the exchange on her show’s Instagram, prompting singer Tamar Braxton to respond, “let the people think she’s a nice girl.”