This post is part of a series on celebrity spokespeople who ended up doing serious harm to the brands they were hired to promote, or vice versa. See how we rank the 20 top spokesperson fiascos.

When it rains, it pours. Back in 2005 Defamer reports that Star " I am a lawyer" Jones was booted as a spokesperson for Payless Shoe Source around the same time that she was dumped from The View. Jones was clearly of no use to the shoe chain once she was Barbaraed off of The View. So Payless used its steel-toed boot to kick her to the curb.

Defamer noted that both parties tried to put a good spin on the situation. Payless said that the terms of their contract called for it to end after three years and that it was successful. And Jones said the same thing about the contract ending -- but she suggested that Payless decided it no longer wanted celebrities to endorse its products. Jones clearly still considered herself a celebrity.

But the people who release such statements are often paid well to provide a different view of reality. Unfortunately for Jones, it has been years since she's had as good a marketing platform as The View -- from which to offer such spin.

Read the entire series

Discount shoe retailer Payless ShoeSource is now Collective Brands (NYSE: PSS), and recently acquired children's shoemaker Stride-Rite. Perhaps the split focus of trying to be both a discount and a full-price shoe store is what is causing profits to plummet. Collective Brands recently reported 2Q 2007 results. Profits dropped by 23% to just under $25 million, or diluted EPS of $0.38. Total sales were down 1%, not enough to worry, and same store sales were down 1.4%, again not enough to worry, yet. CEO Matthew Rubel blamed the downturn on weak sandal sales. Weak sandal sales in the summer? As good an excuse as any I suppose. But the fact remains the company is selling fewer shoes and making less money on those it does sell. 2Q numbers would have been even worse had the company not received $2.3 million from a lawsuit settled in its favor, and insurance payouts of $1.6 million to cover hurricane damage in 2006.

Collective Brands spent $1.8 million in 2Q 2007 on integration planning for the acquisition of Stride-Rite Shoes, an acquisition management states will have no impact, positive or negative, on earnings in 2008. Why not? What's the hold up that it will take until sometime in 2009 to figure out whether Stride-Rite was a good acquisition? $725 million of the acquisition was financed by a loan. For that kind of money in a company of this size, shareholders have a right to see what kind of bang they may or may not be getting for their investment buck.

To be fair, 2Q reporting period ended in early August, just before the big back-to-school shoe buying period. Inventory expenses was up 5.5% because the stores were stocking up in preparation for back-to-school purchases. Perhaps 3Q numbers will be more positive. Collective Brands bought back $4.6 million of its stock, 141,000 shares, in 2Q as part of a $32 million share repurchase program. This still has not helped the stock, which opened the year trading at $32.89, and now trades right around $23.20.