Brand new accusations of racism were hauled at Celebrity Chef Paula Deen Tuesday, after she took to Twitter and posted a picture – reportedly taken in 2011 – of herself dressed as Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy, and her son sporting a brown face, apparently meant to represent Lucy’s husband, Rickey.
“”Lucyyyyyyy! You got a lot of esplainin’ to do! #TransformationTuesday,” the photo caption read.
Twitter users went understandably went NUTS!
Deen was dropped from Food Network in 2013 after she admitted in a videotaped deposition to using the N-word and to telling staff that she wanted her brother to have a ‘”southern plantation wedding” featuring an all-black waitstaff. Deen gave the deposition for a discrimination suit against her, her company and her brother. The fallout from those comments cost her several other lucrative business relationships.
Considering her recent past, you’d think Paula Deen would be advised against using certain colors in her public statements when referring to other people. If she cannot remember Michael Sam’s name, you’d think she’ll use another descriptor instead of “black” when comparing herself to the man. But, no…
“I feel like ‘embattled’ or ‘disgraced’ will always follow my name,” Deen reportedly told People. “It’s like that black football player who recently came out. He said, ‘I just want to be known as a football player. I don’t want to be known as a gay football player.’ I know exactly what he’s saying.”
Unlike Sam, however, Deen wasn’t called “embattled” or “disgraced” until after she lost her show and several endorsements following the revelation that she regularly used a racist slur regarding Black people during the course of her work.
Though discrimination charges against her were later dismissed, Deen lost her show. Earlier this month, however, she secured an investment worth between $75 million and $100 million to be used for a new company fueling a comeback bid.
Paula Deen continued maneuvering for a comeback Sunday, turning a beachside cooking demonstration into a public apology for the racist comments that decimated her career last year.
The former Food Network star took the stage to prepare chicken and dumplings at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, but before beginning asked the crowd if they minded if she talked about something serious for a moment. Without ever explicitly discussing the allegations or comments she has admitted making, she said she was glad to be back and that, “I am not a quitter.”
“We have come off of a very hard summer my family and I, my team, my partners,” she said to a cheering crowd of several hundred fans. “But you know, I have heard on more than one occasion … that I’ve never apologized. So if anybody did not hear me apologize, I would like to apologize to those who did not hear me.”
Deen’s career has been in shambles following a one-two punch of public relations disasters. In 2012, she was criticized for announcing she had both diabetes and a lucrative endorsement deal for a drug to treat the condition she’d until then hidden.
Then last summer, during a legal dispute with a former employee who accused her of racial discrimination and sexual harassment, she acknowledged having used racial slurs in the past. Most of her endorsement, book and TV deals fell apart within days.
Deen has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since then, even avoiding the Food Network’s 20th anniversary party last October. But lately, she has made it clear she wants back. Earlier this month, she announced that private investment firm Najafi Companies is investing $75 million to $100 million to help her make a comeback.
As part of the deal, she’s launching an umbrella company, Paula Deen Ventures, that will oversee her restaurants, cookbooks and product endorsements. And Sunday’s crowd seemed primed for it all, shouting out to her “You don’t need to apologize!” and “We want you back, Paula!”
“Ya’ll’s cards and letters that I got, helped me get out of bed every day,” she replied.
Midway through the demo, Food Network star Robert Irvine joined Deen onstage. Irvine survived his own scandal in in 2008 when the Food Network let him go over discrepancies in claims he’d made over his work experience. He eventually returned to the Network, seemingly unblemished.
“This is a warning to you,” Irvine told Deen. “You’ve apologized. You’ve eaten crow. You’re done. Don’t do it anymore. I’ve been there.”
Before a roaring crowd, Irvine then got down on his hands and knees while Deen straddled his back and rode him across the stage, a reenactment of a gimmick they’d done during a previous festival.
A federal judge has dismissed the racial discrimination claims in a lawsuit filed by a former employee against Paula Deen, the celebrity chef’s representative said Monday.
The former employee can’t claim to be a victim of racial discrimination targeting African-American workers because she is white, U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. ruled. “At best, plaintiff is an accidental victim of the alleged racial discrimination,” Moore wrote.
Other aspects of the lawsuit, including sexual harassment and abusive treatment, are still pending.
“We are pleased with the Court’s ruling today that Lisa Jackson’s claims of race discrimination have been dismissed,” Deen’s representatives said in a statement to CNN. “As Ms. Deen has stated before, she is confident that those who truly know how she lives her life know that she believes in equal opportunity, kindness and fairness for everyone.”
Fighting for her financial life, Paula Deen tearfully told the TODAYshow on Wednesday that she has used the ‘n’ word only once – but a former employee has come forward claiming she used it all the time and also made slurs against gay people!
Mincey McDonald, a waitress at Deen’s restaurant Lady & Sons from 1998 – 2003, told the National Enquirer, that the ‘n’ word “was Paula’s favorite word – she used it all the time. I’ve heard Paula specifically say that she did not want any n*****s working in front of the house as hostesses, waiters or bussers.”
McDonald’s comments are in the new issue of the Enquirer and she adds that Deen called gay people fa**ots.
The Enquirer says McDonald passed a polygraph test on her allegations against Deen.
Paula Deen has been DROPPED by Smithfield — a company specializing in pork products.
Deen had a line of hams with Smithfield … part of The Paula Deen Collection.
The company tells TMZ, “Smithfield condemns the use of offensive and discriminatory language and behavior of any kind.” The statement goes on … “We are terminating our partnership with Paula Deen
Paula Deen, the self-proclaimed queen of Southern cooking and a sugary mainstay of the Food Network, was dropped by the network on Friday, following a bewildering day in which she failed to show up for an interview on the “Today” show and then in two online videos begged her family and audience for forgiveness for using racist language.
A network spokeswoman said it would not renew Paula Deen’s contract when it expires at the end of June. Ms. Deen has faced a volley of criticism this week over her remarks in a deposition for a discrimination lawsuit by a former employee. In the document, she admitted she had used racial epithets, tolerated racist jokes and condoned pornography in the workplace.
The Food Network statement did not elaborate on its reasons for dropping her, but a person close to the network said its shows featuring her sons, Jamie and Bobby, would not be affected. Ms. Deen currently has three regular shows on the network, including “Paula’s Best Dishes.”
In her first video on Friday, posted on YouTube and later removed, Ms. Deen, near tears, said: “I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I’ve done. I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate and hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable.”
In a longer video posted later in the afternoon, Ms. Deen appeared more composed. “Your color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter,” she said, adding, “ I was wrong, yes, I’ve worked hard, and I have made mistakes but that is no excuse and I offer my sincere apology to those that I have hurt, and I hope that you forgive me because this comes from the deepest part of my heart.”
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