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The first-ever all-star Celebrity Apprentice concluded with Donald Trump breaking from tradition and selecting the finalist seated to his right, Trace Adkins, as the winner of the $250,000 prize, which goes to his charity, the American Red Cross. Overall, Adkins raised $1,554,072 for American Red Cross, while Penn Jillette raised $698,655 for Opportunity Village, according to NBC. Jillette’s total for his charity, which helps people with intellectual disabilities get jobs, included $100,000 for having the best-selling Walgreens ice cream. As a reality TV character and contestant, I liked Penn better, and wish he’d won, but Trace made a compelling argument for why he should win, not that Donald Trump has ever used evidence in his decision-making. Overall, the celebrities raised $3.332 million for charity, some of which came from the show and its sponsors. Trump also gave Lil Jon $100,000 for the American Diabetes Association, apparently as a way to make up for firing him for no actual...

NBC scheduled a three-hour Celebrity Apprentice episode last night, and while it was actually just two episodes put together, it was full of the kind of crazy entertainment we’ve come to expect from this season. Here are the highlights, such as they are: NeNe Leakes quits. NeNe has provided some of the best TV this season, both because she’s been surprisingly smart and mature, and because she’s brought her Real Housewives self and thrown down with Star Jones. However, some off-camera wrangling resulted in Donald Trump letting Star Jones switch teams to be away from NeNe Leakes after their epic showdown last week. That led NeNe to quit via a phone call—which seemed faked, because there was no camera on NeNe in the cab, and Trump was incredibly stilted/scripted—and leave us stranded. Later, Trump said, “because everyone calls them a loser and quitter” “So to you, NeNe, I say, you’re fired, and you’re a quitter, and Star Jones kicked your ass whether you like it or not.” Trump makes M...

At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night, President Barack Obama repeatedly ripped Donald Trump, referencing events on The Celebrity Apprentice as Trump sat nearby, frowning even through jokes that weren’t about him. Later, Seth Meyers also mocked Trump, although going for predictable jokes, like about his hair. The dinner came just days after Obama unnecessarily released his long-form birth certificate , ending a stupid non-issue that got more media attention than it deserved because Trump’s Apprentice-damaging political aspirations . The thinly veiled racism behind the birther nonsense, which Trump did nothing to conceal by insisting on a radio show, “I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks,” was even called out by David Letterman, prompting Trump to cancel his appearance on the show . Anyway, as you can see below, Trump responded to Obama’s jokes by facing forward, his lips pressed tightly together, rocking up and down, as if nodding slightly, although he ...

« Dancing With The Stars: Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas Samba | Home | The Biggest Loser: Brett Returns As The New Zealand Trip Continues Tonight! » April 19, 2011 12:00:48 by Shayla Perry Donald Trump is obviously a big fan of Gary Busey , and despite being fired by the real estate tycoon on Sunday’s episode of Celebrity Apprentice , Busey admitted that he’s a fan of Trump’s as well, telling NBC ‘s Today show that he “would be an absolutely good” president. An endorsement from Gary Busey could  be either really good, or REALLY bad, depending on whether you think the eccentric actor is a genius, or clinically insane. If you ask the members of team Backbone, they’re sure to tell you the latter, but Gary doesn’t think too highly of them either! Not everyone is convinced that Donald Trump is really going to run for President of the United States in 2012, but if he does, one person he can count on to campaign for him is Gary Busey. In a recent appearance on the Today show, Busey said...

« Worst Cooks In America: Jeff Longcor Talks About His Experience On The Show | Home | The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Camille Grammer on Meeting Kelsey Grammer’s Fiancee Kayte Walsh » January 14, 2011 11:00:10 by Paula_Kosowski Business mogul Donal Trump officially announced new cast of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice last night on Jimmy Fallon . Keep reading to see who they are… The 11th season of Celebrity Apprentice will feature some big name stars, according to Radar Online. The website reports Trump told Fallon who the contestants will be on Thursday night’s show. This season’s 16 celebrities competing for the charity of their choice will be: Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes , rapper Lil’ Jon, first Survivor winner Richard Hatch , former “Partridge Family” teen idol David Cassidy , controversial singer LaToya Jackson, strange character and actor Gary Busey, rocker Meatloaf, country singer John Rich, Sugar Ray’s lead singer Mark McGrath, acclaimed actress Mar...

The awkward and anti-climactic finale for The Apprentice last night may have been that way for a reason: The show filmed Trump hiring both Brandy Kuentzel and Cliff Robertson, so they’d have footage to use in the event that NBC didn’t order a live finale. I learned of this from someone close to an The Apprentice staffer who said it’s a regular occurrence: the series always films Donald Trump hiring and firing each of the finalists, which they can then use for the finale if NBC opts to not air a live, extended finale like they did this season thanks to low ratings . (Those ratings likely mean that while the celebrity version is coming back, the regular version might not return, though there’s a petition to save the regular version .) Having to film two endings, which is kind of amazing for a competitive reality TV show, would certainly explain the subdued reaction from both Brandy and Clint—she smiled, he frowned—and Trump’s near-grumpiness. That would also mean that neither Brandy or...

« American Idol: Crystal Bowersox on Her Painful Past | Home | Top Chef: Jen Carroll Meant “No Disrespect” to Judges » December 11, 2010 02:00:52 by Shayla Perry Miss the season finale of NBC’s The Apprentice? Don’t worry–in her blog, Ivanka Trump gives all the details of the last episode and let’s fans know why her father chose Brandy over Clint in the final boardroom. From Ivanka Trump’s Blog: Hi Apprentice fans! We’ve finally reached the finale and I couldn’t be more excited about this episode. We have plenty of twists and turns and one really fantastic Apprentice was hired! I can’t wait to hear what you all think! Feel free to send me all of your comments to my Facebook page. I look forward to hearing from you… but first let’s get to my thoughts on the finale. Problems Solved As you may remember from last week, both teams had some pretty major issues to deal with. Brandy was in danger of not having a photographer at her event and Clint had misspelled his celebrity’s name on ALL ...

« American Idol: Adam Lambert on His Grammy Nomination | Home | The Bachelor: Jason and Molly Renew Their Vows » December 6, 2010 01:00:19 by Shayla Perry The season finale of NBC’s The Apprentice is almost here, and in her blog, Ivanka Trump dishes about the final two contestants, Brandy and Clint, getting us all up to speed, and filling us in on what to expect in Thursday’s all new episode. “Hi Apprentice fans!  We’re almost at the finish line for The Apprentice and I couldn’t be more fascinated by all the excitement on this week’s episode. With the two finalists being announced and former contestants returning, the game is the most cutthroat it has ever been — just the way we all like it on reality TV! “In order to select who the finalists would be, my father had the three remaining contestants join him in the boardroom and tell him why they each felt they deserved to be the next Apprentice. This was not an enviable place for Brandy, Liza, or Clint. It’s very stressful! I was int...

The Apprentice finally got rid of its “virus” David Johnson last night, but he was fired not for his crazy behavior—which has tamed in recent episodes—but for making poor choices as project manager, including choosing a shirt that didn’t fit a model. The episode involved product placement for Trump’s clothing line at Macy’s, and David picked a model who he called “a good-looking man. Like I said, if I didn’t have all these kids, you know, might go gay.” Yeah, that’s how it works. This came up in the boardroom, when Anand Vasudev expressed discomfort that his straight project manager thought a man was attractive. The horror! The homophobia! “It was very homoerotic, what I saw. It was very, very surprising to be honest. The moment he saw this one model, who’s the cover of our advertisement, David just had this ridiculous man-crush on this guy and was all goo-goo, ga ga over this guy, it was very odd,” he said. That led to a classic awkward Trump exchange, where he simultaneously sound p...