It's not often that I get to tie together two major personalities who have each been the subject of totally separate blogs in the past, but I get the chance this week - I need hardly say who I am talking about given that their famous faces above require no clarification - yep, we are of course talking about TV dynamo Oprah Winfrey and TV personality and Food Network home cooking maven Paula Deen.
The reason they were on camera together was because Winfrey and her big time buddy (and all round shameless eating machine) Gayle King visited Deen's Savannah, Georgia mansion - a visit that included staying the night, and the girls sitting around in their nightdresses in the morning, with no make-up on and stuffing their faces every chance they got, and fooling around outside in the grounds.
Gayle King in particular was often seen ignoring both Winfrey and Deen as they spoke and looked around, while King stuffed her face with whatever was at hand. I found it highly distasteful, almost as if she had not eaten a meal in days, and given Deen's previously hidden but now very public and controversial outing as a diabetic, well, should you really be promoting that kind of behaviour on the typically holier-than-thou Oprah show?
Well, first off, it was not the classic Oprah show of old, this ditty was filmed in Spring, 2012 as part of the "Oprah's Next Chapter" series on her very own OWN channel, but time has not diluted out the habitual preaching aspect of her shows. Gayle is hardly a svelte specimen herself, and seeing her face buried in biscuits, or fried chicken or sugary-looking breads, seemed totally incongruous with the usual message; especially given that Winfrey cut in during the show in an update, "confessing" to Deen's subsequent diabetes diagnosis, and somewhat hilariously suggesting that Deen now lives a healthy lifestyle and responds well to treatment.
We have discussed before the controversy of Deen pushing her sugar-laden fat-riddled exercise-wary diet on America, all the while taking money from big pharma Novo Nordisk as an advocate for their diabetes drug, Victoza. Not only did no one know she was actually a diabetic herself, but her oft-repeated statement "Honey, I'm your cook, not your doctor, you take responsibility for what you eat!" seemed both disingenuous if not downright sinister at the same time. Like a drug pusher claiming that they don't profit from supplying heroin to addicts.
But as much controversy as she was beginning to be surrounded by, no one could never have predicted the bigger controversy about to envelope her; one which cost her essentially all of her major sponsors and several million dollars. Everyone has heard about the eyebrow-raising use of the "N-word" and overall claims of racism in her business empire and restaurants, and how it rollercoasted into a complete devastation of both her persona and personal brand. What was it she said emotionally to my man Matt Lauer at the end of a tense and unhelpful interview? Something like "I is what I is, and I ain't changin' !" Now that's a sure-fire winner, lady!
Famous last words, indeed. The sponsors started heading for the hills, screaming, and that included the Food Network, QVC, Sears, Smithfield Foods and pharma giant Novo Nordisk. Imagine how Winfrey and even King felt when the "N-word" scandal broke a year later and they realised they had slept there, and ate there, and hugged and kissed (on the mouth, in Oprah's case) like grand old friends, with someone who appeared to be a racist? How sweet was 'em fried green tomaytas, after that?!
No doubt Oprah and King (both women of colour) were somehow different (than others) for Deen, due to their fame and celebrity and what they could do for her brand and sales, but anyone who has spent even five minutes listening to Oprah knows that her roots go deeper than even the trees - she has not forgotten the world in which she grew up, and she must surely have felt that she just had been served up some of that old-fashioned deep south old school "hospitality" when she found out that Deen used to use the "N-word" around the house and in her business.
Maybe Winfrey would deny it today, but I just cannot envisage her ever having visited Deen's home, staying the night there and eating her unhealthy irresponsible concoctions, if she even remotely suspected she was dealing with a racist. Whether that was a historic racist, or a current one - zero difference. When the scandal broke, Winfrey distanced herself from Deen, and who can blame her? Even one of Deen's deep south restaurants, "Uncle Bubba's Seafood & Oyster House" (which she co-owned with her brother who featured in the show) was the subject of a race discrimination lawsuit, and was subsequently closed.
Talk about a tidal wave of fortune reversal - the fantastically successful Deen became a pariah in this new world we live in, the news spreading faster than a forest fire, with the general public joining the conversation and fanning the flames; flames which burnt holes in various social media channels, and, suddenly, before she could say the "N-word", the empire was gone. Just some smoking embers and a nasty smell of burning flesh were left behind.
But, as ironic as it was to see these two strong TV women of colour being shown some southan charm 'n' hospitality by the evidently out-there and wacky Deen, there was a bigger irony. No, not that she was outed as a diabetic post-filming, nor that she was outed as being potentially a racist post-filming, but the thing that struck me hardest was that I saw this show just yesterday, in May 2014 - where? Yep, you guessed it, on the OWN network!
I sat and wondered what the hell was that show doing on the OWN Network today, or more specifically, what is Oprah thinking? Surely she cannot be that distanced from her own network that she is not aware that this episode is still running, one which firmly aligns her brand with the toxic remains of Paula Deen's? How can this be acceptable? If it was in syndication I might understand it more, but on her very own, precious network?
It brings me back to the very early days of the Oprah show, when she was a true groundbreaker, and she hosted a show where out-and-out American redneck racists were allowed to come on and spout their bile and vitriol at one and all, and that included Winfrey. But that was then, and this is now, and how she in any way could condone or forgive Deen sufficiently to actually re-promote the Deen brand via the OWN network today is beyond me. It doesn't feel right, it does not align with the big O's brand, nor the clearly stated outlook that O has put on record over decades, regarding slavery, racism and equality.All things that Paula Deen almost seemed nostalgic over, in some comments that caused this scandal in the first place.
Unfortunately, I am left with the least flavourful conclusion and one that leaves a particularly bitter after-taste to boot - that this is TV, so is about ratings, and thus inevitably it is therefore about that other dirty word, the "M-word". Money. The "M-word" that also contains an "n". Given her controversial recent past, Paula Deen having our Oprah down to her "lil ol' shack in the woods, y'all" is just bound to have us all shrieking in horror or watching to see if Oprah will cut in with another update and comment on the Deen scandal - but no. Just the shock-and-awe of seeing Deen kissing Winfrey on the mouth. Hugs, kisses and mutual adulation, double-fried and sugar-coated, all served up on shiny silver platters.
Ratings, ratings, ratings. Money, money, money. Say the "R-word" and the "M-word" repeatedly enough times and you just sorta forget about that nasty old "N-word", right?! It sure seems to be the case in "O-world", particularly in the absence of what is normally a loud voice, if not an habitually proselytising one. Instead, there is only an unusual silence, and we are left to form our own conclusions. Forgive me, people, but I am about to say it - speak up, Oprah, speak up! ;) - Kevin Mc
