NEW YORK (AP) — Paula Deen’s name is being stripped from four buffet restaurants owned by Caesars, part of the continuing fallout over her admission that she used a racial slur in the past.
Caesars said Wednesday its decision to rebrand its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind. was a mutual one with Deen.
Meanwhile, the celebrity chef’s representatives distributed four letters supporting Deen from other companies that work with her, as she fights to keep her business empire from crumbling.
Deen appeared in a “Today” show interview earlier Wednesday, dissolving into tears and saying that anyone in the audience who’s never said anything they’ve regretted should pick up a rock and throw it at her head.
The chef, who specializes in Southern comfort food, repeated that she’s not a racist.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.