All that said, and for those who have failed to turn on their Internet in the past day, Deen went on The Today Show to reveal that she has Type 2 diabetes, a diagnosis she received three years ago. This revelation came alongside the announcement that she will now be a spokeswoman for drugmaker Novo Nordisk's "Diabetes in a New Light" program.
In the past 24 hours, I have learned two things about the woman who now has a line of home furnishings at Nebraska Furniture Mart: She is more driven and calculating than I could possibly have known, and she has a serious set of Southern door knockers on her.
With her announcement and the fact that she kept her diagnosis private for three years, it's hard not to question the motives behind a show like Bobby Deen's Not My Mama's Meal, a program that debuted on the Cooking Channel last month and stars one of Deen's sons offering healthier takes on Southern cuisine.
Paula Deen has managed to out-Martha Martha Stewart. By slowly and beautifully building up a persona steeped in Southern gentility, she convinced me that she had been unfairly maligned in a society where shifting blame is favored over personal responsibility. She seemed to ignore those who attacked her food as fatty and sugar-laden, or else she regarded them with a little stagey prickliness. Now we see that this has all been part of a carefully built strategy with one overarching goal: building the empire of Paula Deen.
Yesterday I woke up to the news that Deen would shill for a drug manufacturer, and I felt like I got hit in the face with a ham. Sure, nobody plans to get sick, but her opportunism is deeply unsettling. It feels cartoonishly malevolent — a woman who became famous peddling butter and bacon now wants to profit from the issues surrounding a disease indisputably linked to a fatty diet and obesity.
Deen's mantra has been that she has "always encouraged moderation," a phrase she used again during her interview with The Today Show's Al Roker. It would appear that her mantra applies even to decency.
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If you look back on her original shows in 2004 she is a totally different person. Many pounds lighter with no fake cackle of a laugh she actually taught me things about the kitchen. Her recipes now are meant to shock us with their outrageous ingredients and no care for the family receiving the food. Items like fried mac n cheese, fried cheesecake, cakes with at least 1-lb of butter. No wonder her food is good it contains tons of fat and sugar our moms would never have fed us. Smoking almost 2 packs a day, carrying around that tire under her boobs I always wondered how she could do it. After having a heart attack myself I knew she would pay some day...we all do. Dr Oz says belly fat is bad for anyone's heart. Go for the gold now Paula...your time as the most popular chef on TV is now very limited.
"I'm going into business breaking legs so I can sell them crutches.", Anthony Bourdain's comment on the Deen scene.
I can't help thinking about PeeWee Herman on an awards show (Emmys, IIRC) after his public scandal and all of the resulting blue humor it caused. He walked to the mic and said "So, heard any good jokes lately?" That is how to handle bad PR with grace. What she and the boys did to defend their decision to accept promotional fees from Norvo was full-on spin doctoring that would make a lifetime politician blush.
I hope she dies before she collects one more paycheck. There. Just needed to be said. She's everything wrong with America soaked in butter and if you don't see it then you are an idiot.
I'm sad for Paula, but not all that surprised. Maybe she should look into a healthier diet to treat her diabetes instead of drugs? There's lots of interesting information available at this noncommercial, science based site (nutritionfacts.org). To quote the good doctor: "It is too bad Paula Deen missed this opportunity" to tell her fans "that type 2 diabetes can be prevented, managed, treated, and even cured". Read more at http://nutritionfacts.org/blog/2012/01/18/paula-deen-diabetes-drug-spokesperson/
Keeping it a secret for 3 years and still pushing all the unhealthy food does make her look bad. However, it's not her responsibility to make sure you aren't eating her fatty recipes every day. Are people who bought her cookbooks now going to sue her? I wouldn't be surprised.
MODERATION! Maybe all the whiners out there should practice it. Don't eat deep fried and buttery recipes every day, but if you exercise regularly there is no reason why once or twice a week you can't have some extra-buttery dishes.
Regardless of her accent she is still a terrible awful human being. She has had diabetes for three years and still peddled that horrible crap she calls food. Does she lack self awareness or a moral base? I'd wager that it's the latter.
Folks, I hate to disappoint but S. Georgia/N. Florida residents just talk this way. It's almost impossible to avoid it (the drawl) taking over your speech. Savannah is one of the worst... When you are immersed in it, it is pure comfort.
You know what's funny? When I went back to Ukraine I was told I now speak Russian with an accent. Go figure.
People I talk to are just regular folk, I don't think they are making any effort to make an impression. I am not a Yankee either. I mean people have accents ( I am talking to you, people of Arkansas), but hers just seems cartoonishly exaggerated like Bugs Bunny's.
Meesha and Wink,
I lived in Texas for 8yrs and began to drawl just enough that my KC friends/fam noticed over the phone... some call it a "sympathetic accent". The day it hit me though was when I unconsciously used the term "fixin to". Been back for 5yrs and it seems to have subsided.
Lol, glad to see I'm not the only one who envisions Paula dropping the persona when the cameras stop rolling. For some reason the mention of New York made me think of Pesci's pen scene in Casino....hearing Paula go "Is that a little girl, Frankie? You hear a little girl?" after she delivers a beatdown to one of her sons for upstaging her on her own show.
I think Paula has just hit that point of saturation that Rachael Ray did a few years ago...enough of a brand name now that detractors are of no significance, the "any press is good press" phase. She could make some good money doing branding consulting with politicians like Sarah Palin...how to be "teflon folksy".
Meesha-Talking to someone from the south on the phone is different. Southerners will sometimes make an effort to not talk with a drawl just in case us yankees dont understand them.
When I was in Slidell years ago, EVERYONE talked like that.
I imagine when she gets home (or away from camera) she drops the repulsive Southern accent and starts talking like she was raised in New York. Everything is fake about her - her persona, her recipes, the way she talks. Every day at work I talk to people from every state in the South - I am yet to encounter a person who talks like that in real life.
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