Paula Deen found some sympathy in Martha Stewart, who successfully clawed her way back to the public’s graces and rebuilt her empire after her insider-trading scandal.
Stewart was asked to weigh in on the embattled TV cook during her appearance on “Watch What Happens Live!” with Andy Cohen yesterday.
When a caller asked for Stewart’s opinion on the disgraced Deen and if she “agreed with everything that’s happening, or if she supports her,” the 71-year-old homemaking mogul replied, “I feel sorry for Paula Deen.”
“She’s a public figure. And I know you have to be extremely careful being a public figure,” continued Stewart, who once had her own cooking show on the Food Network.
“I don’t really want to say whether I agree or not. I just feel you have to really watch yourself, especially in this day and age with cameras all over you and Google and records.”
She added carefully, “What I just said….It’ll be there forever.”
When Cohen asked if the Food Network was right to cancel Deen’s show, Stewart had “no comment.”
Stewart successfully relaunched her media empire that includes TV, magazine and book publishing after serving five months in jail following her involvement in an insider trading scandal in 2001.
Meanwhile, the scandal-plagued Southern chef has been dropped by the Food Network and by business partners including as Walmart, Smithfield’s and Caesar’s Entertainment.
Diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk also announced today that they have “mutually agreed with Paula to part ways for now,” a spokesperson told TMZ.
Page Six revealed that Deen, in an image-saving campaign, has hired top crisis management guru Judy Smith, the inspiration for Kerry Washington’s “Scandal” character Olivia Pope.