Can Paula Deen make comeback?

By LEANNE ITALIE

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Will Paula Deen go the way of Michael Richards or Charlie Sheen?

One unleashed a bigoted tirade and is no longer a lovable, easily employable clown. The other carved a brand out of crazy — reported hotel N-word rant and all — but is back on TV earning millions.

Her Food Network shows gone, her endorsements crumbling, is Paula Deen — in a word — toast?

A week after Deen’s admission of using racial slurs in the past surfaced in a discrimination lawsuit, pop-culture watchers, experts in managing public relations nightmares and civil-rights stalwarts who have tried to help other celebrities in her position see a long, bumpy road ahead.

They also see a week full of missteps and believe the queen of comfort food reacted too slowly to her latest controversy at a time when hours count. They say it could take years, if she can make it back at all to the earning power she has enjoyed.

“Paula Deen has, I would say, taken an irreparable hit because she had this appearance of being more or less a nice older woman who cooks food that’s bad for you. That in her own way sort of made her lovable,” said Janice Min, editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles.

“But this presents a whole other picture of, ‘Wow, maybe she’s just an old, racist, white southern woman.’ That image is hard to shake off for a large chunk of people,” Min added.

So far, what could go wrong pretty much has, said Larry Kopp, president of The TASC Group, a communications firm for sports figures and celebrities with experience in high-profile, racially charged cases. His current clients include the family of black teen Trayvon Martin, whose shooter, George Zimmerman, is on trial for second-degree murder.

In celebrity terms, where do Deen’s troubles land her in the crowded hierarchy of misbehavior?

“I think it’s right up there with Mel Gibson,” Kopp said. “One of the first rules of crisis is to apologize thoroughly and completely and immediately. She didn’t follow Crisis 101.”

Deen, 66, and her brother, Bubba Hiers, are being sued by Lisa Jackson, a former manager of the restaurant they own in Savannah, Ga. Jackson accused them last year of sexual harassment and a hostile environment of innuendo and racial slurs.

According to a transcript of Deen’s deposition, an attorney for Jackson asked Deen if she has ever used the N-word.

“Yes, of course,” Deen replied, though she added: “It’s been a very long time.” And she said she doesn’t use the word anymore.

She bailed on the “Today” show Friday, instead posting a series of criticized YouTube apologies. She was dropped by the Food Network the same day.

An apology, at this point, isn’t enough, said Dara Busch, executive vice president and managing director of Rubenstein Associates in New York, a top PR company.

“It will take years for her to fix how she will be viewed by the African American community. She has to find ways to prove that she’s not that way any longer,” said Busch.