Update 5:40 p.m. We received an e-mail from a Novartis spokesperson that denied The Daily's original report that Paula Deen was working with the company.  The Novartis spokesperson wrote:

The rumors that Novartis has signed a multi-million dollar spokesperson deal with Paula Deen for a Diabetes treatment are not true. Novartis is not working with Ms. Deen.

Original: The news that the Food Network's caloric angel, Paula Deen, has Type 2 diabetes is unfortunate, but the announcement of her diagnosis comes with this irksome sweetener (for her): the news is coupled with a multimillion-dollar deal to be the spokeswoman for the medication she now needs. Anthony Bourdain might agree that it's an interesting business model for Deen really--make tons of money and fame hawking health-defiant diabetes-inducing foods like a cheeseburger stuffed between bacon and donuts, and now make millions off of  the drugs she -- and others who eat lots of her food -- is now taking to control the disease. The Daily notes that Deen "is about to come clean and confess that she can’t eat her own dishes anymore because she has diabetes," and reports the drug company Novartis, has tapped Deen but denied to comment on the record. "Paula Deen is going to have to reposition herself now that she has diabetes," one anonymous source told The Daily. "She’s going to have to start cooking healthier recipes. She can’t keep pushing mac and cheese and deep-fried Twinkies when she is hawking a diabetes drug." 

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Alexander Abad-Santos