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Paula Dean made a bit of a fake pass with Ellen DeGeneres of the time.
Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, a new documentary from a famous chef, appears in Degeneres, which happened to be mistakenly presented to Vegan, Began and A Ham in the appearance of the Ellen Degeneres show, in Paula Deen Story, which premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
The clip is shown in a documentary from DeGeneres, introducing 78-year-old Dean as “The Queen of Southern Cooking,” where Dean went out to host a talk show carrying ham.
“I brought ham for my favorite ham,” she told 67-year-old DeGeneres. “Isn’t that sweet?”
“Listen, he’s so heavy, he’s your pig and now I’ll catch up!” Dean said as he handed the ham to DeGeneres.
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“And she took it, laid it down, and didn’t say anything,” Dean recalled in the documentary’s confession.
“Well, I later learned that she was a vegetarian. She didn’t eat meat!” Dean revealed. “I felt like shit.”
A representative from Degeneres told Entertainment Weekly, as Deen stated in the documentary, that the former talk show host is vegan, not vegetarian.
Deen’s documentary chronicles her journey from the catering business she started in the kitchen. Until her 11-year run with the Food Network, she ended when she was fired in 2013 after allowing her to use racial slur in a sworn depository.
The deposit was part of a lawsuit filed by Lisa Jackson, former manager of Uncle Baba’s Seafood and Oyster House, one of Paula’s restaurants. Jackson accused Dean’s brother, Baba Highers, of sexual harassment and using racially aggressive language.
The lawsuit was later dismissed by a federal judge in Georgia after a settlement was reached, but the dispute cost a lot of business deals and ended her career with great end.
Following the reconciliation, Jackson said in a statement that “Paula Dean, who I have known for over eight years, is a woman of compassion and kindness and will not tolerate any kind of discrimination or racism against anyone.”
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Dean told the Tiff people in the documentary, “I’m looking for the truth. Truth, if you watch the film, you’ll find it.”
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At the premiere on September 6th, Dean was attended by his son Jamie, 58, and Bobby, 55.
“I’m most excited about Mom,” Jamie said at the premiere. “She wants to be able to speak for herself, and she should be able to. She’s got it. And the reason she’s doing it is to receive something and I hope she gets it.”
