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| FILE - This Jan. 17, 2012 file photo shows celebrity chef Paula Deen posing for a portrait in New York. It was revealed that Deen admitted during questioning in a lawsuit that she had slurred blacks in the past. It's the second time the queen of comfort food's mouth has gotten her into big trouble. She revealed in 2012 that for three years she hid her Type 2 diabetes while continuing to cook the calorie-laden food that's bad for people like her. |
SAVANNAH, Ga.
(AP) -- The Food Network said Friday it's dumping Paula Deen, barely an
hour after the celebrity cook posted the first of two videotaped
apologies online begging forgiveness from fans and critics troubled by
her admission to having used racial slurs in the past.
The
66-year-old Savannah kitchen celebrity has been swamped in controversy
since court documents filed this week revealed Deen told an attorney
questioning her under oath last month that she has used the N-word.
"Yes, of course," Deen said, though she added, "It's been a very long
time."
The Food Network, which made Deen a
star with "Paula's Home Cooking" in 2002 and later "Paula's Home
Cooking" in 2008, weighed in with a terse statement Friday afternoon.
"Food
Network will not renew Paula Deen's contract when it expires at the end
of this month," the statement said. Network representatives declined
further comment. A representative for Deen did not immediately return
phone and email messages seeking comment on the decision.
The
news came as Deen worked to repair the damage to her image, which has
spawned a vast empire of cookbooks, a bimonthly cooking magazine, a full
line of cookware, food items like spices and even furniture.
She
abruptly canceled a scheduled interview on NBC's "Today" show Friday
morning, instead opting for a direct appeal via online video - one that
allowed her and her staff complete control of what she said and how she
said it.
"Inappropriate, hurtful language is
totally, totally unacceptable," Deen said in the first 45-second video
posted on YouTube. "I've made plenty of mistakes along the way but I beg
you, my children, my team, my fans, my partners - I beg for your
forgiveness."
Deen adopted a solemn tone as
she looked straight into the camera. Still, her recorded apology
featured three obvious edits - with the picture quickly fading out
between splices - during a statement just five sentences long.
It
was soon scrapped and replaced with a second video of Deen talking
unedited for nearly two minutes as she insists: "Your color of your
skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter to me."
""I
want people to understand that my family and I are not the kind of
people that the press is wanting to say we are," Deen says in the later
video. "The pain has been tremendous that I have caused to myself and to
others."
Deen never mentions Food Network or its decision to drop her in either of her online videos.
Deen
initially planned to give her first interview on the controversy Friday
to the "Today" show, which promoted her scheduled appearance as a live
exclusive. Instead, host Matt Lauer ended up telling viewers that Deen's
representatives pulled the plug because she was exhausted after her
flight to New York. Deen said in her video she was "physically not able"
to appear.
Court records show Deen sat down
for a deposition May 17 in a discrimination lawsuit filed last year by a
former employee who managed Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House, a
Savannah restaurant owned by Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers. The
ex-employee, Lisa Jackson, says she was sexually harassed and worked in a
hostile environment rife with innuendo and racial slurs.
During
the deposition, Deen was peppered with questions about her racial
attitudes. At one point she's asked if she thinks jokes using the N-word
are "mean." Deen says jokes often target minority groups and "I can't,
myself, determine what offends another person."
Deen
also acknowledged she briefly considered hiring all black waiters for
her brother's 2007 wedding, an idea inspired by the staff at a
restaurant she had visited with her husband. She insisted she quickly
dismissed the idea.
But she also insisted she and her brother have no tolerance for bigotry.
"Bubba
and I, neither one of us, care what the color of your skin is" or what
gender a person is, Deen said. "It's what's in your heart and in your
head that matters to us."
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