It was more than her food. It was her voice, with that easy Southern twang, her megawatt smile, her self-deprecating sense of humor, and her feistiness. She embodied the best of the White South. Her home base may have been Savannah, Georgia, a city with a history of discrimination, but I never saw any indication of the racism so stereotypical of Southerners. She often had black guests on her show, and she was on Oprah more times than I can remember. I cursed Anthony Bourdain when he attacked her fat-laden recipes -- calling her “the worst, most dangerous person to America” (a little extreme, no?). So last week, when I read that she admitted to using “the N-word,” I was more than a little disturbed.

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From THR:

The "Paula Deen Cruise" is held on Royal Caribbean ships, and Deen remains aboard during each excursion, spending much time with guests, says Loverdi. The last cruise set sail in January with about 500 fans along for the ride. Loverdi said she expects about 1,000 in total for next year. Deen launched her cruise line in

Earlier this week, a rep for Royal Caribbean told THR that the company "has never had a partnership or any formal association with Paula Deen. She has sailed with our brands a couple of times, but as host of group cruises, and each time, the groups were booked through a specific travel agency, not through Royal Caribbean."

Deen was recently dropped from Wal-Mart, The Food Nework, Smithfield Foods, and other major partnerships after receiving negative publicity for using racial slurs and other offensive practices.

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The story has become both a day-by-day struggle by a successful businesswoman to keep her career afloat and an object lesson on the level of tolerance and forgiveness in society for being caught making an insensitive remark.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday that it ended its relationship with Deen and will not place "any new orders beyond what's already committed."

Caesars Entertainment Corp. said it had been "mutually decided" with Deen to remove her name from its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind.

At the same time, Deen's representatives released letters of support from nine companies that do business with the chef and promised to continue. There's evidence that a backlash is growing against the Food Network, which tersely announced last Friday that it was cutting ties with one of its stars.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Deen had called him and he agreed to help her, saying she shouldn't become a sacrificial lamb over the issue of racial intolerance.

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"I am here today because I want people to know who I am, and people who have worked beside me walked beside me, know what kind of person I am. I am so distressed that people I have never heard of are experts on who I am," a weepy Deen told Matt Lauer on the "Today" show this morning. "I'm not a racist."

When Lauer pushed Deen to talk about her use of the N-word, Deen maintained she used it only "once," 30 years ago. "The day I used that word was a world ago," she said.

"So reports that you were asked in that deposition, whether you had used the N-Word on other occasions and said 'probably' or 'of course,' are inaccurate?" asked Lauer.

However, Deen then said, "No. I answered the question truthfully."

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Rice, the "Interview with a Vampire" and "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" author, took to Facebook on Friday to ask whether it's "fair" that the media has roasted the star for her overt racism. As a writer who is (presumably) precise with her diction, Rice's defense of Deen may be the most offensive one, yet: Her note draws disturbing parallels between Deen and martyrdom, calling the public outcry a "crucifixion" against Deen. Rice then displays an appalling lack of racial sensitivity and calls the uproar a sign of "a lynch mob culture," alluding to the very violent lynchings of blacks in antebellum and Jim Crow south:

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In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Bobby Deen said, ""Our mother is one of the most compassionate, good-hearted, empathetic people that you'd ever meet."

Deen's admission of having used the n-word went at a deposition for a lawsuit filed last year went viral last week, but Bobby Deen dismissed the case as "extortion." "I'm disgusted by the entire thing, he said, "because it began as extortion and it has become character assassination."

It's "ridiculous, completely absurd to think there is an environment of racism in our business, and it's really disrespectful to the people that we work with. We have strong, educated men and women of character that have been with us for five, 10, 15, 20 years. To think they would allow themselves to be in this position is simply baloney. It's ridiculous," said Jamie Deen.

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While waiting to gain entrance to Deen's "Lady and Sons" restaurant, a mostly white group of men and women discussed the network's decision, Deen's comments and their take on race relations in the U.S, as the New York Times reports:

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One option for celebrities who have fallen so far from grace, of course, is reality TV. But what show would be a fit for her? A few ideas -- TV producers take note:

The Amazing White Race

So You Think You Can Discriminate?

America's Next Top Racist

White American Idol

Trading Races

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Deen's use of racial slurs, her rep's response to the fiasco, and her bizarre apology have been indefensible. But Fox News, stalwart defender of civil liberties that it is, has come to her rescue. Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes said that the "liberal, anti-South media is trying to crucify Paula Deen."

"They accuse her of using a derogatory word to describe a black person. Paula admitted she used the word -- back in the 1980s -- when a black guy walked into the bank, stuck a gun in her face and ordered her to hand over the cash. The national media failed to mention that part of the story. I'll give credit to the Associated Press for telling the full story."

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Paula Deen will no longer be a part of the Food Network:

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Updated: Friday, 4:18 p.m.

Things get stranger as Paula Deen releases another version of her video apology Friday afternoon, explaining that she canceled her morning interview with Matt Lauer because she was "physically not able" to do it.

"The pain has been tremendous that I've caused to myself and others," she says before asking that people understand that "my family and I are not the kind of people that the press is wanting to say we are. I've spent the best of 24 years to help myself and others. The color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter to me," she said.

"I will continue to work and continue to do good things for good people," she concludes.

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Paula Deen, who lives in Savannah, Ga., revels in Southern culture and her shows on the Food Network pay decadent and unapologetic homage to all manner of Southern cooking. She is a proud daughter of the South and, apparently, she carries the effects of the South’s complex and fraught racial history.

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" 'The Recipe Box,' set to be published in July by Hyperion, tells the story of Grace D'Angelo, a single mother who returns to her hometown in Wisconsin after her best friend dies of breast cancer. The book chronicles Grace's attempt to come to terms with questions surrounding her daughter's paternity and the identity of her own father, and to fortify her relationship with her rebellious teenager. Along the way, she finds love with Mike Lund, a "muscular" teacher and volunteer firefighter with 'curly brown hair and deep gray eyes.' "

Although the source insits "it is just that—fiction," the WSJ has caught on to some uncanny similarities between the life of Grace D'Angelo and Mike Lund and that of Lee and Cuomo's. Namely:

Both Lee and D'Angelo own white cockatoos:

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As of this week, Kelley's name is splashed over tabloids as "the other woman" in the Petraeus scandal; she the Florida socialite who received threatening emails from the former CIA chief's alleged mistress. And while the  scandal-hungry media asks "Who is Jill Kelley?" her 2003 appearance on a Tampa-based cooking show adds a little color.

The St. Petersburg Times columnist depicts Kelley and her sister as glamorous and playful during their appearance, when they had to cook alligator:

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It was Deen's first televised interview since going public with her condition, which was diagnosed three years ago. And for some, the news that a Food Network star who built her brand with cheeseburger meatloaf and Krispy Kreme bread pudding now has diabetes was a rich gloating opportunity. Commenters on the New York Times noted her career-long "fat and sugar orgy" and declared that "Paula, if anyone had it coming, it's you." And though Deen's arch-nemesis Anthony Bourdain told Eater.com that "I take no pleasure in it. There ain't nothing funny about diabetes," he also couldn't resist noting that "when your signature dish is a hamburger in between a doughnut, and you've been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you've got Type II diabetes ... It's in bad taste if nothing else." Bourdain, demonstrating some restraint, failed to mention that Deen's signature burger also features bacon and a fried egg.

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