What do you do when your celebrity chef client continues churning out dishes like Deep-Fried Stuffing on a Stick or Cheesy Ham and Banana Casserole three years after she learns she has Type 2 diabetes, only to start shilling for a drugmaker? If you're Paula Deen's publicist, you walk. Nancy Assuncao, who worked with Deen for six years, quit over Deen's plan to hawk a diabetes drug, the New York Post reports.
Assuncao “strongly disagreed with Deen’s dramatic turnabout, after years of promoting fatty foods, to announcing she has a deal with a diabetes drug company and will be promoting lighter food and 'diabetes in a new light,'" says a source. Assuncao herself adds, "I could not agree with the new business strategy going forward." Deen's new rep was "on the Paula Deen cruise" and unavailable; the Post notes that that jaunt is a "'tasty journey' in the Caribbean with a group buffet dinner, a cooking demo, and a personal photo with Deen (one per family)." If you can't get enough, click to see Deen's last meal before announcing her diagnosis, or her unfortunate "six-word memoir." (More Paula Deen stories.)