Mediaboss Marketing

Celebrity chef Paula Deen

Celebrity chef Paula Deen appears on NBC News' "Today" show on Wednesday in New York.(AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

Has the backlash against Paula Deen been too severe?

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 Deens 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 thats 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 shes just an old racist white southern woman. That image is hard to shake off for a large chunk of people, Min added.

Read the original:
Is Paula Deen toast in N-word controversy?