Diabetes Drug Maker Suspends Deal With Deen

Ida Mae Astute/ABC

Paula Deen in 2012.

The celebrity chef Paula Deen has run into trouble with another major corporate partner: the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said on Thursday that it would suspend its relationship in the wake of her admission that she used racist language in the past.

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Novo Nordisk, which makes the diabetes drug Victoza, has suspended its multimillion dollar endorsement deal with Ms. Deen.

After that announcement, Target said it would stop selling cookware and other products bearing her name, as Home Depot and Wal-Mart had said on Wednesday. The television shopping outlet QVC said it would “take a pause” in its dealings with Ms. Deen.

But the suspended partnership with the drug maker is perhaps her biggest setback of all: the undoing of a lucrative endorsement deal that generated her first scandal.

Ms. Deen, 66, has been the public face of the company’s diabetes medication Victoza since January 2012, when she simultaneously announced that she had Type 2 diabetes and endorsed the drug. The timing set off a storm of criticism that Ms. Deen â€" whose cookbooks and television shows promote the lavish use of sugar and fat â€" had misled her fans and acted opportunistically because she had received the diagnosis several years earlier.

Ms. Deen was paid $6 million for a two-year contract to promote Victoza, said a person who was involved in the deal.

In its statement on Thursday, the company said: “Novo Nordisk and Paula Deen have mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now, while she takes time to focus her attention where it is needed.”

Novo Nordisk, which has the top-selling portfolio of diabetes drugs in the United States, has long made special efforts to reach blacks through marketing efforts and medical sponsorships.

Amy Doner, president of the Amy Doner Group, which brokers deals between celebrities and pharmaceutical companies, said the fact that the company had left open the possibility of resuming its relationship with Ms. Deen indicated that she had been an effective spokeswoman. Ms. Doner, who was not involved in the deal between Ms. Deen and Novo Nordisk, said she would not be surprised if the campaign resumed at some point.

“America loves a comeback,” she said. “She has admitted her mistake.”

Ms. Doner declined to discuss the money that celebrities earn from working with pharmaceutical companies. “I have done deals from $5,000 to $2 million” she said. When told Ms. Deen had received $6 million over two years, she said, “That’s a significant amount of money.”

The cascade of cancellations has followed the revelation last week that after being sued by a former restaurant employee who charged discrimination, Ms. Deen admitted in a deposition that she had used racial slurs. The Food Network has stopped showing her programs, and Smithfield Foods has dropped her as a spokeswoman.

QVC, which had said earlier that it was reviewing its relationship with Ms. Deen, said it was troubled by her past remarks. While she responds to the accusations, the company said, she and her products will not appear on the channel.

“Some of you may wonder whether this is a ‘forever’ decision â€" whether we are simply ending our association with Paula,” it said in a statement. “We don’t think that’s how relationships work. People deserve second chances.”

The one bright spot for Ms. Deen on Thursday came from Amazon.com, where her coming cookbook of diabetes-friendly recipes rose to the No. 1 best-seller slot.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 28, 2013, on page B7 of the New York edition with the headline: Drug Maker Suspends Deal With Deen.

On Baseball: Yankees Update Infighting for a Digital Age

Yankees Update Infighting for a Digital Age

Sean Proctor for The New York Times

Alex Rodriguez has four more years left on his contract with the Yankees.

Alex Rodriguez posted a photo of him and his surgeon on Twitter and declared himself fit to resume playing baseball. Brian Cashman “didn’t roll with this one well at all” and lighted up the New York tabloids with one magic four-letter word.

Interactive Graphic

Brian Cashman apologized for his profane outburst.

Rodriguez is fairly new to Twitter but, like Cashman, has long been a friend to old media in the muckraking tradition of George Steinbrenner. Somewhere, the pinstriped spirits of the Boss and Billy Martin must have had a good laugh this week, raised a glass to old times and wished they had had such immediate digital access to the masses.

@BossGeorge @BillyTheKid “The next time you drive me to the wall, I’ll throw you over it.” (1977)

@BillyTheKid @BossGeorge: “What does George know about Yankee pride? When did he ever play for the Yankees?” (1980)

If ever there were Yankees who would have trended with a fury on Twitter, it was George and Billy and, of course, Reggie Jackson, in the relatively short time he was a part of their continual turbulence.

@BillyTheKid @BossGeorge @ReggieTheStraw “The two of them deserve each other. One’s a born liar; the other’s convicted.” (1978)

Has there ever been a more memorable and provocative baseball opinion expressed in 140 characters or less?

Cashman and Rodriguez will have to work on their word games before they can step up in class to match the Boss and Billy. The good (or bad) news is that the Yankees are tied to A-Rod for four more seasons after the current one, and all will have the potential to be more tension-filled than the last.

Consider Rodriguez’s Twitter declaration of readiness the equivalent of batting practice off a tee as he prepares to rejoin an organization that wants no part of him while simultaneously cursing the fates that it, for the time being, desperately needs him.

On the surface, their exchange was about chain of command â€" Rodriguez’s continuous and in many ways tone deaf endeavors to control a story that even superior performance on the field may not allow him to anymore.

But the underlying issue here is the marriage of mutual dependency and inevitable misery that Rodriguez and the Yankees are locked into, till the death of his $275 million contract (after the 2017 season) do they part.

Cashman was against giving Rodriguez that deal in 2007. Asked directly Wednesday afternoon if he wanted Rodriguez back or if he and the Yankees have been stalling to determine what, if any, action will be taken by Major League Baseball on the Biogenesis front, Cashman said: “Make no mistake. If Alex Rodriguez is healthy, we want him and I want him to play third base. We need him yesterday.”

Of course they do. Kevin Youkilis and his degenerative back will be of no further assistance and Rodriguez would have to be in 2012 playoff form to provide less production than the team has had at third base this season. With their most faceless lineup since the Stump Merrill days, they also need Rodriguez’s antihero celebrity power to address sagging attendance and television ratings.

The Devil draws better than David Adams.

The conditions are different from when Martin was hired (and fired) five times by George Steinbrenner between 1975 and 1988. (@BillyTheKid “All I know is I pass people on the street these days, and they don’t know whether to say hello or to say goodbye.”) But there are similar love-hate realities stitched into the relationship.

As the Yankees moved farther and farther away from the late-1970s championship teams, Steinbrenner could not shake the addiction of Martin as provocateur and quick fix, evidence to the contrary.

Much as the Yankees fantasize of voiding Rodriguez’s contract because of his continuing immersion in the war on performance-enhancing drugs, they know the odds are against them, even if he is suspended by Commissioner Bud Selig later this season or next.

They would not be so eager to rid themselves of Rodriguez if they were sure he could hit 35 home runs and knock in 100 runs. They do not know what A-Rod, who will be 38 next month, is capable of after his latest hip surgery, but chances are it will be better than what they have now and going forward.

The injuries that have befallen the Yankees this season are as much a statement about their rotting core as they are about rotten luck. If nothing else, Rodriguez will at least demand attention for as long as he plays in New York. The Yankees may soon be in need of it any way they can get it.

Rodriguez has seemed willing to take whatever indignities the Yankees have forced on him, with the apparent belief that somehow, some way, he will prevail on the field and have the last word.

If he doesn’t, we should expect no Yankees outbursts on A-Rod to remind us of the Boss’s before-its-time Twitter-perfect musing on Dave Winfield in 1985. (@BossGeorge “Where is Reggie Jackson? We need a Mr. October or a Mr. September. Winfield is Mr. May.”)

Cashman apologized for his profane outburst because the Yankees have become much more focused on stealth management since Hal Steinbrenner wrested daily operating control from his tempestuous brother, Hank.

As Rodriguez becomes a more isolated figure, Twitter could become his most trusted outlet. Cashman may never go there to retaliate, but count on them trending somewhere for four more years, while the Boss and Billy toast the past as Yankees’ prelude.

On Baseball: Yankees Update Infighting for a Digital Age

Yankees Update Infighting for a Digital Age

Sean Proctor for The New York Times

Alex Rodriguez has four more years left on his contract with the Yankees.

Alex Rodriguez posted a photo of him and his surgeon on Twitter and declared himself fit to resume playing baseball. Brian Cashman “didn’t roll with this one well at all” and lighted up the New York tabloids with one magic four-letter word.

Interactive Graphic

Brian Cashman apologized for his profane outburst.

Rodriguez is fairly new to Twitter but, like Cashman, has long been a friend to old media in the muckraking tradition of George Steinbrenner. Somewhere, the pinstriped spirits of the Boss and Billy Martin must have had a good laugh this week, raised a glass to old times and wished they had had such immediate digital access to the masses.

@BossGeorge @BillyTheKid “The next time you drive me to the wall, I’ll throw you over it.” (1977)

@BillyTheKid @BossGeorge: “What does George know about Yankee pride? When did he ever play for the Yankees?” (1980)

If ever there were Yankees who would have trended with a fury on Twitter, it was George and Billy and, of course, Reggie Jackson, in the relatively short time he was a part of their continual turbulence.

@BillyTheKid @BossGeorge @ReggieTheStraw “The two of them deserve each other. One’s a born liar; the other’s convicted.” (1978)

Has there ever been a more memorable and provocative baseball opinion expressed in 140 characters or less?

Cashman and Rodriguez will have to work on their word games before they can step up in class to match the Boss and Billy. The good (or bad) news is that the Yankees are tied to A-Rod for four more seasons after the current one, and all will have the potential to be more tension-filled than the last.

Consider Rodriguez’s Twitter declaration of readiness the equivalent of batting practice off a tee as he prepares to rejoin an organization that wants no part of him while simultaneously cursing the fates that it, for the time being, desperately needs him.

On the surface, their exchange was about chain of command â€" Rodriguez’s continuous and in many ways tone deaf endeavors to control a story that even superior performance on the field may not allow him to anymore.

But the underlying issue here is the marriage of mutual dependency and inevitable misery that Rodriguez and the Yankees are locked into, till the death of his $275 million contract (after the 2017 season) do they part.

Cashman was against giving Rodriguez that deal in 2007. Asked directly Wednesday afternoon if he wanted Rodriguez back or if he and the Yankees have been stalling to determine what, if any, action will be taken by Major League Baseball on the Biogenesis front, Cashman said: “Make no mistake. If Alex Rodriguez is healthy, we want him and I want him to play third base. We need him yesterday.”

Of course they do. Kevin Youkilis and his degenerative back will be of no further assistance and Rodriguez would have to be in 2012 playoff form to provide less production than the team has had at third base this season. With their most faceless lineup since the Stump Merrill days, they also need Rodriguez’s antihero celebrity power to address sagging attendance and television ratings.

The Devil draws better than David Adams.

The conditions are different from when Martin was hired (and fired) five times by George Steinbrenner between 1975 and 1988. (@BillyTheKid “All I know is I pass people on the street these days, and they don’t know whether to say hello or to say goodbye.”) But there are similar love-hate realities stitched into the relationship.

As the Yankees moved farther and farther away from the late-1970s championship teams, Steinbrenner could not shake the addiction of Martin as provocateur and quick fix, evidence to the contrary.

Much as the Yankees fantasize of voiding Rodriguez’s contract because of his continuing immersion in the war on performance-enhancing drugs, they know the odds are against them, even if he is suspended by Commissioner Bud Selig later this season or next.

They would not be so eager to rid themselves of Rodriguez if they were sure he could hit 35 home runs and knock in 100 runs. They do not know what A-Rod, who will be 38 next month, is capable of after his latest hip surgery, but chances are it will be better than what they have now and going forward.

The injuries that have befallen the Yankees this season are as much a statement about their rotting core as they are about rotten luck. If nothing else, Rodriguez will at least demand attention for as long as he plays in New York. The Yankees may soon be in need of it any way they can get it.

Rodriguez has seemed willing to take whatever indignities the Yankees have forced on him, with the apparent belief that somehow, some way, he will prevail on the field and have the last word.

If he doesn’t, we should expect no Yankees outbursts on A-Rod to remind us of the Boss’s before-its-time Twitter-perfect musing on Dave Winfield in 1985. (@BossGeorge “Where is Reggie Jackson? We need a Mr. October or a Mr. September. Winfield is Mr. May.”)

Cashman apologized for his profane outburst because the Yankees have become much more focused on stealth management since Hal Steinbrenner wrested daily operating control from his tempestuous brother, Hank.

As Rodriguez becomes a more isolated figure, Twitter could become his most trusted outlet. Cashman may never go there to retaliate, but count on them trending somewhere for four more years, while the Boss and Billy toast the past as Yankees’ prelude.

SFX Entertainment Files for I.P.O

SFX Entertainment, the music company led by the media executive Robert F. X. Sillerman, is looking to raise up to $175 million through an initial public stock offering, with a pitch to investors on the growing popularity of electronic dance music.

In a prospectus filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SFX calls itself the largest live event producer focused on “electronic music culture,” which it defines as “a global generational movement driven by a rapidly developing community of avid followers among the millennial generation.” According to one recent industry report, the global market for this music will reach $4.5 billion this year.

The offer is being underwritten by UBS Investment Bank, Barclays and Jefferies, according to the prospectus. An initial price was not listed, but the company said it had applied to Nasdaq under the symbol SFXE.

Electronic dance music, or E.D.M., has been a subculture mainstay for decades. But over the last few years it has turned into the music industry’s fastest-growing sector, driven by the popularity of huge festivals like Ultra and Electric Daisy Carnival, and by the dance-driven sound of top pop acts like Lady Gaga and Rihanna.

The trend has led to an investment rush on dance companies, most of them independent groups far from the world of corporate finance. Live Nation Entertainment, the dominant concert company, has acquired a number of top promoters over the last two years. Recently it bought half of Insomniac, the company behind Electric Daisy and other events; terms of the deal were not disclosed, but were reported to value the company at about $100 million.

Mr. Sillerman transformed the live music business in the 1990s by acquiring dozens of regional rock promoters to create a national concert network, which he sold to Clear Channel Communications in 2000 for $4.4 billion. That business became the basis for the concert division of Live Nation.

Mr. Sillerman returned to music last year with stated plans of spending $1 billion to amass a new empire focused on dance music. So far his acquisitions include all or the majority of ID&T, the company behind the festivals Tomorrowland and Sensation; Beatport, an online music store; the promoter Disco Donnie Presents; and MMG, a nightclub company in Florida. The prospectus says that SFX is also in the process of buying Made Event, which presents the Electric Zoo festival in New York.

According to SFX’s submission, its holdings had $242 million in revenue last year, and a net loss of $48.9 million. The company has $64.5 million in debt.

The company says it will start more festivals and develop media content for its properties, but in the prospectus it also points out the popularity its festivals already enjoy. Tomorrowland, for example, “sold out all of its approximately 180,000 tickets to the 2013 festival in Belgium in one second.”