Paula
Deen catches heat for Twitter photo of son in 'brownface'
Send a link to a friend
[July 08, 2015]
(Reuters) - The company
owned by chef Paula Deen fired its social media manager
and apologized on Tuesday after the former TV show host
drew fire on her Twitter feed for a photo that showed
her son portraying a Latino actor in "brownface," a
spokesman said.
|
The photo, a still from a Halloween 2011 episode of the
now-defunct Paula's Best Dishes show, immediately drew negative
reaction from Deen's followers.
Many of them said she apparently had not learned from her
troubles in 2013 when she admitted in a court deposition that
she had once used a racial slur.
Her admission prompted Scripps Networks Interactive Inc to drop
Deen's cooking show from its cable television channel, the Food
Network, and cost the Southern culinary star a big chunk of her
multimillion-dollar enterprise.
The Twitter photo was posted on Tuesday under the hashtag #transformationtuesday,
which celebrates change and invites posts ranging from changing
the world to changing your hair color - or, in Bobby Deen's
case, skin color.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jul/08/images/ads/current/business_directory_filler.png)
Paula and Bobby Deen were dressed as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo from
"I Love Lucy." The younger Deen was wearing makeup to make his
face look darker, as well as eyebrow pencil and slicked-back
blackened hair. Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban bandleader, played
himself in the "Lucy" show.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jul/08/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_051513.png)
Deens representatives told Reuters on Tuesday that as soon as she
saw the photo, she had it removed from the Twitter feed.
"Paula immediately had this picture taken down as soon as she saw
the post and apologizes to all who were offended," the statement
said. "As such, Paula Deen Ventures has terminated their
relationship with this Social Media Manager."
(Reporting by Karen Brooks in Austin and Piya Sinha-Roy in Los
Angeles; Editing by Bernard Orr)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |