Business

$O$: Abandon dip!

By
Social Links for James Covert
Published June 28, 2013, 4:00 a.m. ET

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Paula Deen got dumped by Walmart, but she’s at the top of the heap on Amazon.

An upcoming book by the embattled cooking queen, “Paula Deen’s New Testament,” soared to No. 1 on Amazon’s best-seller list yesterday, with fans defending her even as corporate partners like Target and Home Depot continued to flee.

Deen, who made a tearful apology on “Today” this week after admitting she had used the N-word, saw a flurry of pre-orders that vaulted the Random House title, slated for an Oct. 15 release, past new books by Stephen King and Dan Brown.

Deen “has been made a scapegoat by the American public,” according to one Amazon reviewer, winning 150 clicks of approval by fellow readers as of late yesterday.

“What really gets me is the hypocrisy behind it all! We’ve all made mistakes, stuck our foot in our mouths,” the reviewer added. “I don’t care if she is a public figure, she’s human for God’s sake!”

A spokeswoman for Random House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“We have made a decision to phase out the Paula Deen merchandise in our stores as well as on Target.com,” a Target official said yesterday. “Once the merchandise is sold out, we will not be replenishing inventory.”

After being deserted last week by the Food Network, Deen has lost corporate sponsors including Smithfield Foods and Caesars Entertainment, which is removing Deen’s name from restaurants at its casinos.

Home shopping giant QVC is still “monitoring these events and the ongoing litigation,” while adding it has “no immediate plans to have her appear on QVC.”

JCPenney and Sears, which also sell cooking products licensed by Deen, have not said whether they will drop the lines.

Drug maker Novo Nordisk, which created controversy last year when it hired Deen as a spokeswoman after she announced she had type 2 diabetes, hedged its bets yesterday.

The pharma giant and Deen have “mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now, while she takes time to focus her attention where it is needed,” the company said.