This morning, a man was arrested for allegedly trying to extort Paula Deen. Details are still a little fuzzy on what exactly happened, but apparently, Thomas Paculis fired off an email to the celebrity chef at the end of June demanding she turn over $250,000 or he would come forward with more allegations about the her using inappropriate language. Unfortunately for Paculis, however, instead of writing a check, Deen’s attorney immediately contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Agents looked into the claims immediately, and judging by the timeline, it didn’t take very long for a strong case to be made.
You can read an excerpt of the email in question below, as per TMZ…
"I am about to go public with statements refuting your clients statements about using the 'N' word in her business practices at Lady and Son's ... The statements are true and damning enough that the case for Jackson will be won on it's merit alone.”
One month ago, Deen was widely considered an affable and joyous lady. Sure, a small minority of people were pretty pissed off at her for keeping her diabetes diagnosis a secret, but I’m not sure there’s a single celebrity in the world who doesn’t have at least a small minority of total haters. Unfortunately, as high as her Q rating once was, it has plummeted since she admitted to using the n-word. She’s been dropped by some of her biggest sponsors. She’s had her name dragged through the coals, and now, she’s of course been the victim of an extortion attempt.
I want to think Deen has the goods to come back. I want to think she’ll be making her delicious and fatty Southern food for a wide audience sooner rather than later. She was clearly born to cook food and joke around on television. She’s really damn good at it, but before she’s able to do that again, people are going to need to get over this mess and decide to forgive her. They’re going to need to let the mistakes slide and start having a positive outlook again.
There are some who think Deen just needs another big story to distract everyone from her mess. They think she’ll be back on television sooner rather than later and five years from now, people will barely remember this controversy existed. There are others, however, who think she’s completely done for good. They think she’ll never recover her popularity. What do you think? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…
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