12 years after a scandal made her a pariah, Paula Deen finally sets the record straight in a new documentary
"Canceled: The Paula Deen Story."ratontur"Canceled" looks at the rise and fall of celebrity chef Paula Deen.Deen's $20 million a year empire crumbled after a 2013 lawsuit revealed she admitted to using a racial slur.The documentary has its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday.In April 2024, filmmaker Billy Corben was driving around Savannah, Georgia, with former Food Network queen Paula Deen and her two sons, Bobby and Jamie, when he asked Bobby an important question."At the end of our drive, I said, 'Bobby, what do you think? Do you think you guys should be making a documentary?'" Corben recalled to Business Insider. "And he goes, 'Aw, finally somebody asks me! No. I do not think we should."Deen's rise and fall are undeniably compelling. In the 2000s and 2010s, she captivated the nation with her approachable persona and comforting, butter-heavy take on Southern cooking on the Food Network. But when it was revealed in 2013 that she had admitted in a deposition to using a racial slur, she quickly fell out of favor with the public: She was fired by the Food Network and lost numerous brand deals.Deen would go on to apologize repeatedly. In her first video apology, the celebrity chef said, "I've made plenty of mistakes along the way. But I beg you, my children, my team, my fans, my partners, I beg for your forgiveness. Please forgive me for the mistakes that I've made."Now, 12 years later, Corben thought it might be time for another look at Deen's legacy and was hoping for the Deens' blessings. Though Bobby's denial started off as a hurdle to his plans, the conversation quickly turned into a therapy session as Bobby vented, Paula sobbed, and Jamie tried to be peacemaker. The scene convinced Corben that he simply had to push forward."For the next 20 minutes, it was the greatest documentary I've never made," Corden told Business Insider while in the midst of putting the final touches on the documentary before it has its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday. "That's when I decided I wanted to make it."Paula Deen.John M. Heller/Getty Images"Canceled: The Paul Deen Story" is an insightful and heartfelt examination of the celebrity chef's tumultuous career. It also brings much-needed context to the controversy.Corben, best known for his "Cocaine Cowboys" documentary franchise and the popular 2022 Hulu doc "God Forbid," does this by chronicling Deen's meteoric rise from a mother of two serving food out of a Best Western to Food Network superstar by the age of 47.All of that came crashing down in 2013 when one of Deen's employees filed a racial and sexual discrimination lawsuit. Though the suit was later dismissed, it led to a deposition in which Deen was asked if she'd ever used the N-word, to which she replied, �
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