Find & Replace query – post_status

I somehow ended up with most of my posts having nothing in the “post_status” column. I have tried using:

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_status = REPLACE(post_status ,” ,’published’ );

But no entries are effected. I know I am really showing my ignorance here, but could anyone help me out? The posts are not showing and doign it manually will take days. I am pretty sure the query above is not working because its a combo box rather than a text field (I know those are not the correct terms…again, I am not a db guy).

Can anyone help me out with the correct query to use?

Thanks,

Boutwell