VIDEO Paula Deen on Today Show, Covers PEOPLE Magazine Because She’s “Under Fire”
June 26, 2013 by Hollywoodite
This was to be expected but Paula Deen has FINALLY tried to turn around the PR blunders made by her (hopefully former) representatives last week.
Previously, following court testimony in which she admitted to having used the N-word freely and being accused of decades of institutionalised racism, exploitation, and discrimination in the workplace, she released a heavily-edited apology video in which the end of every sentence had been edited because she couldn’t keep her lines straight. She then released one, much longer video that ended up being edited into two smaller videos which looked much less rehearsed.
In the interim, Deen was either fired from or otherwise lost several high profile endorsements from brands who didn’t want to be associated with an admitted racist nor a PR firestorm.
Today, things are a little different. She’s been given a pandering PEOPLE cover which is aimed at the same demographic showing their belief in her right to discriminate against employees by queuing out the door. That cover says: “Inside her fall. Paula under fire. The real story. After admitting to having used racist language, Paula Deen is fired from the Food Network. Will she survive this scandal.” Well, the word sorry isn’t a magical nullifier that will undo her own racism but apparently it’s good enough for some people so she’ll probably be fine.
First, an explosive deposition emerged in which Paula Deen admitted to uttering the N-word. Then Deen fumbled not one, but three awkward apology videos.
Finally, after Food Network announced they were axing one of their biggest stars, the Queen of Southern Food decided on a different crisis strategy: Silence.
Lately, however, the one person Deen seems to hurt most is herself.
Holed up over the weekend at home in Savannah, Ga., with husband Michael Groover and her sons Jamie and Bobby, Deen, 66, “is beyond devastated,” a producer friend tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.
“She isn’t upset about the loss of money,” adds the source. “She’s really upset about her reputation. She has been speaking to her friends to make sure they’re okay. She would die if she lost people who she really loves over this.”
It seems she’s only made enemies in recent days. Her public disgrace has put Deen in the center of heated debates in which restaurant critic Frank Bruni – once a champion of Deen during her diabetes scandal – wrote in The New York Times that she was “a Confederate caricature” whose controversial responses in her deposition prove that the TV personality’s “worst ingredient isn’t corn syrup or Crisco but willful obtuseness.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Deen fans lined up for almost three hours to get into her Savannah restaurant The Lady & Sons to show their support. They’re also sharing their outrage online, even vowing to boycott the network on its Facebook page in light of Deen’s firing.
“Paula has a sense of humor that includes saying inappropriate things just to see [people’s] reaction,” says the producer friend. “It’s not meant to hurt anyone. Paula goes through her life trying to not hurt people.”
A source close to Deen adds, “Paula is trying to figure out what is next for herself.” – via PEOPLE.
Also, according to Page Six, Deen has hired crisis management in the form of Judy Smith (the real-life inspiration for Kerry Washington’s character on Scandal). And she finally did the Today Show after pretending to be sick and cancelling on Matt Lauer the first time. Incidentally, RadarOnline notes she’s lying for sympathy to a credulous audience who STILL thinks she used the N-word once… despite her admitting under oath to using it multiple times.
She told Lauer, “The day I used that word it was a world ago. It was 30 years ago. I had had a gun put to my head because the man that had the gun to my head was my customer at the main office …” But that’s a lie because she said under oath, “I’m sure I have [used the words aside from after being held at gunpoint], but it’s been a very long time.”