Paula Deen, one time Queen of Southern Cuisine, is going to be appearing on mainstream TV again soon. She was banished from the limelight a few years back when a former employee ignited an ‘N’-word controversy and promptly lost Paula her Food Network slot and most of her sponsors…
Paula Deen – looking, predictably, a few years older, but grinning ear to ear over her return to real TV – and one of her sons go through her scrap book and celebrate Family.
Yup! The Baroness of Butter is back from the wilderness. Sort of. She’ll be doing capsule shows on selected local news networks across the U.S. starting this Saturday. According to selected TV writers who’ve seen the trailer reel and looked over the official PR hand-out, Paula will revisit her old standard favourites: Fried Chicken, Biscuits and Mac and Cheese. But the listing of episode topics also indicates there’ll be homages to other famous Chefs, such as Julia Child, along with totally out-of-character items like ‘Paula Goes Vegan’. I’ll believe that one when I see it! overall, the theme is traditional with an emphasis on family favourites and the heritage of Southern Cooking.
Actually, the episodes airing on mainstream TV are off-shoots of Deen’s ongoing Web TV effort. She started it up after no real TV broadcaster would have her anymore. But, even though many stalwart fans signed up and paid for the service, she never regained the kind of universal fame she once had. Now she’s syndicating her stuff under the ‘Positively Paula’ banner. It’s a first tentative step back toward acceptance in the mainstream media, again, and a sort of conditional forgiveness.
For a chronicle of Deen’s ‘ButterGate’ controversy, simply search for ‘Paula’ on this blog.
We’ll be keeping an eye on developments on the (new) Paula front…
~ Maggie J.