‘Canceled: The Paula Deen Story’ Review: Disgraced TV Chef Offers a Full Serving of Excuses in New Doc

The Hollywood Reporter ^ | September 6, 2025 | Daniel Feinberg

[nfldgirl]

Don’t dislike her, but IMHO, she’s always come across as a phony. Hey Y’all.

[Organic Panic]

“Disgraced” because she dared utter a word blacks call each other every day all day.

[webheart]

You can’t call anyone a spade!

[shelterguy]

“”””I’d like to know which person in the south who’s over 35 has never in their lives used the ‘N’ word in one form or another, and that includes every single black person.”””

I used to work on public housing projects. The little kids would call each other that all the time. If I called them that I would still be in prison. And, have you ever read the lyrics from ANY rap song????

[kiryandil]

Unbelievably “Southern woman”. I grew up in Texas, and it took me a couple of years to get rid of the drawl.

I can still reproduce it a little.

[webheart]

Did she actually utter the word or was she just suspected of uttering a word?

[kiryandil]

Sounds like something Big Mike would be involved in...

[Bullish]

Kinda my point exactly. Paula Dean should never have been canceled. An appropriate apology should have sufficed.

[kiryandil]

Deen was part of a discrimination lawsuit brought by a former employee and mostly directed at Deen’s brother, who had been set up with a successful restaurant of his own. In a deposition for that case, Deen was asked if she had used the N-word before and she said, “Yes, of course.” She gave some evasive context, but it wasn’t like she used the N-word in the deposition or was caught using it.

[shelterguy]

Yup. Once you apologize and cave you lose all power.

[Savage Beast]

What do I care?

[Bullish]

Once you apologize and cave you lose all power.

I don't know if you lose all power because you make an appropriate statement that includes an apology to anyone who was harmed by her actions or words. I'm just saying she should have made a definitive statement and moved on, not tried to justify or excuse anything.

She is who she is, and she's responsible for everything that she did in her past, right? She should have just owned it and stood her ground. The hypocritical bigots out there were going to cancel her one way or the other anyway.

[Tell It Right]

In the article it says she used the word when talking about being held up at gunpoint by a black robber.

[Tell It Right]

Ridiculous that someone could be cancelled for uttering a word that is used ad nauseam with impunity by blacks.

That's not comparable, any more than a white person talking about going to a "honky tonk". To me the double standard is how often blacks get away with using racial slurs against whites.

[Organic Panic]

From what I recall she uttered that dreaded neighbor word recalling a story about how things were in the south decades ago.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

As long as she wasn’t being niggardly about it.

[webheart]

Okay that’s just stupid. I haven’t hung around any black people for a while but the last time I was near a group of them the n word was spoken several times. My wife and I were walking down town to go to the movies. We walked several blocks to the imax and then back to the regular theater. Anyway black people gather in groups and play rap music on bluetooth speakers really loud and they use the n word a LOT.

By contrast I have never said honky tonk and I have never called any of my friends a honky. Never. Never. I repeat myself to emphasize the fact that I do not refer to other people who share my racial characteristics as honky. Most of my friends do not ever say they are white and they don’t seem to care. If I was wrapped up in my racial identity as much as many black people appear to be, I would be thought of as a racist.

[Tell It Right]

On that we’re in agreement. There are definitely way more blacks obsessed with race than whites obsessed with race.