Celerity cook Paula Deen was supposed to appear on the "Today" show Friday morning but was a no show, Newsday reports. Deen was scheduled to appear on the show to talk about the recent controversy surrounding her past use of the N-word.
Host Matt Lauer told viewers that he had spoken with Deen the day before to arrange the exclusive interview but right before the segment was supposed to go live he was informed by her team she would not be showing up.
"We had arranged to do an interview with Paula Deen, it has been going on, the discussions about that interview, throughout the day yesterday with her people," Lauer said at the beginning of the show. "I spoke to her late afternoon on the phone yesterday and we talked about the fact that it would be an open and candid discussion, no holds barred. She told me at one point...'I don't know how to be anything but honest.'"
According to Today.com, the star actually flew to New York to do the show but her team said she was "exhausted."
"And this morning, although we have not spoken to her - she has not called us - her publicity people have told us she's exhausted and will not be showing up," Lauer continued.
The 66-year-old Food Network star and her brother, Bubba Hiers, are currently being sued by Lisa Jackson, a former manager of the sibling's restaurant. Jackson claims that while she worked for Deen and her brother, the employees faced "hostile work environments," Today.com reports.
According to Jackson, while the celebrity chef was planning her brother's 2007 wedding she told the wait staff at the restaurant, "Well what I would really like is a bunch of little [N-word] to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts and black bow ties... now that would be a true Southern wedding, wouldn't it?"
In a deposition that had been leaked, Deen denied using the word in that instance but did admit that she has used the N-word in the past recalling a time when she was held up at a gunpoint in the 1980s by an African-American man. She said when describing the situation to her husband she might have used a racial slur saying in the deposition that she "didn't feel real favorable towards him" at the time.
Deen insists that she hasn't used the word in a long time saying that "she and her family don't tolerate prejudice," Newsday reports.
The fact the Deen has not apologized and is trying to justify her use of the world has angered many people. A Twitter trend started on the social network using the hashtag #PaulasBestDishes, the name of her Food Network show. Users use the tag along with satirical names of some of her most well-known dishes such as "Key Lynch Pie" and Massa-Roni and Cheese."
Even though Deen skipped out on the "Today" show Al Roker said that she has been on the show many times and he really hopes she will do the interview.
"She's been on the show so many times, she's a friend of the show - we consider her a friend," Roker said. "We hope she would reconsider, because she really needs to address this."
Lauer tweeted Friday morning that he was hoping to find out what exactly with the Food Network star.
