Martha Stewart is feeling some sympathy — and some empathy, too — for Paula Deen. The homemaking mogul, who once had her own cooking show on Food Network, was asked to weigh in on Deen's stunning fall from grace over the past week during a Wednesday June 26 appearance on Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen.
"I feel sorry for Paula Deen," Stewart, 71, said. "She's a public figure. And I know you have to be extremely careful being a public figure."
Asked whether she "agreed" with the public and corporate reaction to Deen's admitted past use of the N-word — Deen has been dropped by the Food Network and by sponsors such as Walmart, Smithfield's and Caesar's Entertainment — Stewart was careful in her response. "I don't want to say whether I agree or not. I just feel you have to really watch yourself especially especially in this day and age, with cameras all over you and google." She added knowingly: "What I just said….It'll be there forever."
Of Deen specifically being dropped by the Food Network, Stewart had "no comment."
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Stewart herself had to claw her way back from disgrace back in 2005. After serving five months in prison related to her involvement in the ImClone insider trading scandal, the domestic doyenne successfully relaunched her TV, magazine and book publishing empire.
On Wednesday, a source told Us that Deen had frantically hired crisis management expert Judy Smith — the basis for Kerry Washington's Scandal heroine Olivia Pope — to stage a comeback.
Tell Us: Can Deen's career be redeemed?
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