NBC wants to continue making money off of Donald Trump‘s hair and his “you’re fired” catch phrase. According to the New York Post, the network is hoping to launch not another Celebrity Apprentice, but an All-Star Celebrity Apprentice. Wow…there are a lot of past celebrity apprentices to choose from, no?
Some of the celebs being tossed around to return to the mega-show include former winners Piers Morgan, Joan Rivers and Bret Michaels, as well as Omarosa, Gene Simmons, Lennox Lewis, Meat Loaf, Jesse James, Trace Adkins, and Gary Busey. The Donald is reportedly also considering Sharon Osbourne, Cyndi Lauper, Marilu Henner, Marlee Matlin, and Dennis Rodman. An insider close to the show says that many other past contestants are clamoring for a gig on the show, although both Trump and NBC have no comment. What, no Teresa Giudice?
WOULD YOU WATCH AN ALL-STAR CELEBRITY APPRENTICE? WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE RETURN?
On last night’s Celebrity Apprentice, we lost two of the biggest reasons to watch the show. I’ll spare you the spoiler alert, and I’ll just start from the ending: Teresa Giudice finally floated her way out of the boardroom, and Lisa Lampanelli found herself in a situation she couldn’t cry her way out of. In fact, it was her constant crying that cost her a spot in the final two. Lisa has bragged on her Twitter that she uses crying to manipulate the judges, so I stopped buying the “passionate comic act” around the second time she did it.
Last night’s task was to create an ad campaign for CHI hair products for Elle magazine. Anyone else get the feeling they create tasks that are perfect for the just eliminated contestant? Dayana Mendoza could have possibly done really well on this task with her modeling background and connections. I guess we’ll never know. She could have created an ad campaign with a woman getting her hair done coming out of labor; the labor thing being one of her more outlandish ideas. Teresa and Lisa decide to project manage.
Heading into the Celebrity Apprentice finale last night, it was a tight race between country singer John Rich, 37, and deaf actress Marlee Matlin, 45 (she looks great for 45 no?).
In fact Donald Trump revealed that this was his toughest ruling yet in the history of the show. “I’ve never had to go through something like this… You’ve both been amazing,” said Trump to both finalists before announcing a winner.
Ultimately, John, one-half of the country-music duo Big & Rich, came out on top, beating Marlee to earn a $250,000 check for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Marlee had been competing for the Starkey Hearing Foundation charity.
“Today has been an unbelievable day!” said John after his win. “I got Trump to put on a Stetson hat on national television and now I get to drive down to Memphis with a $250,000 check for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.”
With the exception of Richard Hatch, who is back in prison for tax evasion (much to the delight of David Cassidy), most of the “fired” contestants returned for the live finale. Though noticeably missing was music legend Dionne Warwick.
Of course the Donald had to revisit the whole Nene Leakes vs everyoneStar Jones drama. Nene claimed she had moved on and didn’t hold a grudge, only to yell over Star seconds later while Star attempted to answer a question from Trump.
And right before he made the winner announcement, Trump promised to do something he had never done before. What was that you ask? Well while he hired John, he did not fire Marlee. Rightfully so as there were no losers this season with over $3 million raised for charity– a record for the show.
It was also announced last week that Trump will return for another season of the Celebrity Apprentice.
TELL US – HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS? DID THE RIGHT CONTESTANT WIN?
And leading up to tonight’s finale, Marlee spoke out on the drama involving her fired former teammates Star Jones and Nene Leakes, making it clear she wasn’t a fan. “Whatever the hoopla was that surrounded the relationship they had and whatever drama came, I didn’t choose to involve it in terms of the way I played the game,” said Marlee in a conference call with the press. “Whatever way they decided to deal with each other isn’t what I am about or the kind of person I am.”
Marlee’s comments would explain why she did not choose Star to join her team for the final task. She continued, “Whatever clash that occurred, for me, it got too old too quick. I just decided to focus on the task; it’s not about who I am. Sometimes it overshadowed the purpose and my aim for being there which was to raise money for charity but I would never let it get in the way.”
Marlee then went on to make it clear that she still respects both women. “But they are both women I respect and I know are very vocal and that’s what is great about them,” she added.
Meanwhile, John Rich also revealed a shocking tidbit while talking to the press, which is that he and rapper Lil Jon were actually friends before the Apprentice – something they both failed to reveal on the show!
According to Jon, he met Lil Jon years ago at an awards show. “I remember shaking hands with him at an awards show,” said John. “It wasn’t like we became best friends or anything because we live in different towns, but anytime I was in Atlanta or LA, because he is back and forth between the two towns, I’d always call him, and every now and then he’d be in Nashville and would call me.”
In fact, John called Lil Jon to inform him about joining the CA cast only to discover Lil Jon would also be appearing on the show. “I actually called when I’d decided I would be on Celebrity Apprentice to tell him I’d be on a TV show and might need him to help me out with a task or donation at some point,” said John. “He started laughing and said, ‘Too late, I’m on the same show!’ We just laughed our heads off. At that point I said, ‘This will be fun.”
So can we expect a music collabo from the ‘Jons?’ That answer is a yes! “We actually did record something together and there is a record coming out now called Rich Rocks, and Lil Jon appears as a guest artist,” explain John. “It’s a really cool thing and I’ve had a huge response from all the country fans that are really liking him too.”
The finale/reunion episode begins tonight at 9/8c. Nene, Garey Busey, and the other fired celebs (excluding Richard Hatchwho is back in jail) will all be in attendance!
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TELL US – THOUGHTS ON MARLEE & JOHN’S INTERVIEWS? WHO ARE YOU ROOTING FOR TO WIN TONIGHT?
Last night on Celebrity Apprentice, the Donald narrowed down the final four contestants to the final two! And if there’s one thing to be learned from this episode, it is that without Nene Leakes and Star Jones on the show, it was more of a boring mellow 2 hours.
The episode began with the three previous winners of the show, Joan Rivers, Bret Michaelsand Piers Morgan, interviewing the final four contestants to determine which two should leave the competition.
Lil Jon had a major slip up when he told the panel John Richand Marlee Matlindeserved to be in the finals over him. Though he tried to back track, the damage was already done. “My three winners hated your answer when they asked you who should be in the finals and you didn’t say yourself,” said Donald Trump to Lil Jon before firing him.
The next in line was Meat Loaf who was also fired by Trump for crying every second being too emotional. “Piers and Joan and Bret didn’t like your emotions,” said Trump. “But, I think your emotions are beautiful. Even though I think the emotion is a positive, from a business standpoint too much emotion can be not so good. Therefore, Meat Loaf you’re fired.”
With those two firings, the not so shocking final two included John and Marlee. It was then time for the final challenge and Trump brought out some of the previously fired contestants to help out. John chose Lil Jon, Mark McGrath and Star for his team, while Marlee chose Richard Hatch and Meat Loaf, also ending up with La Toya Jackson who wasn’t chosen by anyone.
The final challenge? To launch the 7UP Retro brand. On Marlee’s team, she had to deal with a cra cra Meat Loaf who was all over the place, while Big Daddy Rich had to ward off some flirtatious advances from Star. Ultimately, John’s team came up with a zebra-striped 1980’s 7UP can design while he enlisted the help of Dee Snider of Twisted Sister. While Marlee’s team decided to call on 1970s 7UP icon Geoffrey Holder to help with her ad. And do not feel bad if you don’t know who any of these icons are, thank goodness for wikipedia, it just means you were likely born after 1980.
And next week, we will discover who won this season of the Celebrity Apprentice plus a live reunion show. Nene also stated last week that she will be in attendance so buckle up folks! It should be a good show.
TELL US – DID DONALD TRUMP GET IT RIGHT WITH THE TWO FIRINGS? WHO SHOULD BE CROWNED THE NEXT WINNER? JOHN OR MARLEE?
The super-duper sized 3-hour episode of Celebrity Apprenticeaired last night and it did not disappoint! The episode brought us a not so surprising whiner and quitter, a sequel of a previous firing, and ended with arguably the most shocking “you’re fired” of the season!
Let’s begin with Donald Trump meeting up with the remaining 7 contestants to give them instructions for their new task. Nene Leakes, who verbally attackedStar Jones last week for reasons still unclear, is feeling much better this day and ready to make up with Star. When asked by Trump if she was ready to work with the Nene, Star made it clear that answer was a NO. And can you blame her? Trump ended up moving Nene to the other team, and the overly sensitive bully’s feelings were apparently hurt. Victim Nene stated she needed some time to herself, and selfishly disappeared on her team, who were forced to work without her. “Nene is so disappointing to me. You can’t abandon us. She didn’t even say goodbye,” stated John Rich.
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This season of Celebrity Apprentice continued to be one for the books as the latest episode brought us an epic meltdown and a record breaking fund raising.
Before the teams could get started on their latest fund raising tasks, the men’s team had to deal with the loss of Jose Canseco, who decided to bow out after learning the health of his father, who is battling cancer, had taken a turn for the worse. Jose met up with Donald Trump to break the news, and the Donald ended up donating $25,000 to his charity. Richard Hatch however pondered if Jose’s early exit might have also been because he knew he wouldn’t be able to raise any money.
Either way, the show went on. The task was for both teams to raise funds via an art auction. Country singer John Rich was the manager for the men’s Team Backbone and all was going well, that is until Gary Busey took some of the painting tools purchased by Meat Loaf, allegedly. And holy meltdown as Meat Loaf absolutely lost it.
“Motherf–k! I bought those motherf–king sponges!” screamed Meat Loaf at Gary. “You look in my eyes. I am the last person in the f–king world you ever want to f–k with! You pushed me to the f–king limit!” In fact Meat Loaf had to be retrained from getting physical with Gary. Meat Loaf, who stated he had been to anger management in the past, would end up apologizing to Gary as it turned out his missing art supplies were sitting in a corner the entire time.
Things went more smoothly for the women’s Team ASAP as team manager Marlee Matlin managed to raise an astonishing $986,000 – an apprentice record. This gave the women a win over the men, who also raised an amazing $606,000.
A stunned Donald then gave Marlee the option of letting the men’s team stay intact or choosing to have someone fired. Marlee huddled up with her team before ultimately choosing to have someone fired from the men’s team. While the men felt Gary should be fired for his lack of focus, Donald ultimately decided to keep Gary for the ratings to fire Richard for raising the least amount of money.
Meanwhile, we began to see the brewing drama between Nene Leakesand Star Jones this week as the two ladies got into a quick tiff during which Star accused Nene of patronizing her. “Nobody is patronizing your a**,” responded Nene. And judging from the previews for next week, it seems the Nene will be rearing its ugly head on national television once again, as she is shown verbally attacking La Toya Jackson for reasons unknown.
TELL US – THOUGHTS ON MEAT LOAF’S MELTDOWN & MARLEE’S DECISION TO HAVE SOMEONE FIRED? SHOULD GARY HAVE WENT HOME INSTEAD?
Celebrity Apprentice returns tonight for its fourth season with what is being called the most dramatic cast to date.
While the show boasts 16 “celebrities” this season, Mr. Donald Trump can thank one particular castmember in general who seems to be bringing most of the drama based on the show’s previews.
Nene has spent the past couple of weeks slamming Star in the press, you know, calling her “special” and stating she “wouldn’t spit on Star if she was on fire.” Star on the other hand has appeared to take the high road in the feud, stating in a recent interview that she did not want to contribute to the stereotype of the “bombastic black woman.”
Nene however sees things differently. “I’m not surprised that Star used the ‘black women need to get along. Oh, she’s just being a black woman being mad or yelling or whatever,'” Nene tells Zap2It in a recent interview. “She has no fault in this. So, let’s just say that. You can not argue by yourself.” Nene goes on to refer to Star as “phony,” adding, “I’m like this, if you are a b***h, own it. Be a b***h 24 hours, own that. Be that.”
So what is Nene’s strategy on Celebrity Apprentice you ask? “Going into ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ I didn’t have any strategies,” admits Nene. “I was a little scared going there. I saw Donald and I thought that he was scary. You know, mean-mugging you and not really smiling. So, I was really scared of that. I just went in, thinking to myself that I’m just here to fight for my charity and I don’t want to be voted off first. That’s all I thought.”
Moving on to tonight’s season premiere — the “sixteen celebrities engage in business-themed battles when Donald Trump’s competition series begins its 11th season. In the opener, the stars must manage a New York City pizzeria.” The celebrities include La Toya Jackson, Lisa Rinna, Richard Hatch, Marlee Matlin, Dionne Warwick, Gary Busey, David Cassidy, Lil Jon, Meat Loaf and Mark McGrath.
A preview clip is below –
TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SEASON PREMIERE OF CELEBRITY APPRENTICE?
