Sideshow: Dollars for Deen

Embattled cooking queen Paula Deen has found the bucks to resurrect her career, which took a severe hit when she admitted to using racial epithets, the Associated Press reports.

The Savannah, Ga., celebrity cook said Wednesday that Najafi Cos., a private investment firm, will provide at least $75 mil to bankroll a new company, Paula Deen Ventures, which AP reports will oversee Deen's restaurants, cookbooks, product endorsements, and other parts of her media empire.

After Deen owned up under oath to using racial slurs, the Food Network dropped her. So did pork producer Smithfield Foods, book publisher Ballantine, and several other companies that paid her to endorse their products.

Jahm Najafi, chief executive officer of Najafi Cos., said his firm believes its investment in Deen will pay off.

Jennifer Aniston celebrated her 45th birthday Tuesday without fiance Justin Theroux to help her blow out the candles. Photogs found Theroux, 42, shopping at boutique perfumery Aedes de Venustas in Manhattan's West Village on Jen's natal day, reports People mag on its website. Gift shopping for the birthday girl?

That night, he attended a party at the Deth Killers store opening in NYC. "Justin was very sweet," a rep for the opening confided to People. "Smiled for pictures, and was friendly to staff in the shop. Took selfies with partygoers alongside Orlando [Bloom]."

Theroux got to the party at 7:30 after a day of shooting for his HBO series The Leftovers.

Meanwhile, on the other coast, Aniston celebrated her birthday with friends at Soho House, a private club in West Hollywood.

Composer and pianist Michael Djupstrom, a Philadelphian and graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, is one of two grand-prize winners among the five recipients of the 2013 Washington Awards, presented by the S&R Foundation of Washington, D.C.

Djupstrom, a founding member of the Phoenix Trio, already has won "an array of international composition competitions," the S&R Foundation noted in announcing his selection. "He has performed in major metropolitan cities throughout the world, including New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo."

Award recipients each receive a $5,000 prize and the grand-prize winners, Djupstrom and cellist Tim Park, receive an additional $5,000 prize.