Celebrity Apprentice Cast Announced

NBC and Donald Trump announced  the all-star celebrity cast for the third season of “The Celebrity Apprentice” premiering on Sunday, March 14 (9-11 p.m. ET/PT).

Fourteen new celebrities will rise to the challenge once again it will be men versus women. All the celebrities will be vying for the coveted title as they fight for their respective causes close to their hearts.

The men include: Darryl Strawberry, Bret Michaels, Goldberg, Michael Johnson, Rod Blagojevich, Sinbad and Curtis Stone. The women include: Cyndi Lauper, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, Selita Ebanks, Maria Kanellis, Carol Leifer and Summer Sanders.

Donald Trump said “This season of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ is going to be fantastic. The list of celebrities we have this season is outstanding and the show will really resonate with our core viewers and fans. I expect this season of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ to be the best one yet.”

The celebrities will compete in business-driven tasks around New York City using their fame, rolodexes and their business acumen to win weekly tasks and money to donate to their favorite charities, while ultimately battling with each other to stay out of the boardroom and avoid hearing those dreaded words “You’re Fired!”

They’ll be subjected to long hours, grueling mental challenges, personality clashes and intense scrutiny — all without the help of their regular support system of agents, managers and personal assistants. Certain tasks encourage the contestants to reach out to their network of celebrity contacts for assistance or donations — making for entertaining surprise visits by some of the world’s biggest stars along the way.

Trump and his advisors in the boardroom will judge all of the tasks. Returning back to the boardroom are Trump’s children (and colleagues) Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., alongside longtime Trump Organization employee and “Apprentice” advisor George Ross. The boardroom will again feature a “rotating seat,” allowing a variety of famous business leaders and industry legends to join Trump in spirited judgment on each task. As with last season, the winning celebrity teams will relish the opportunity to watch the losing team squirm in the boardroom from the comfort of their own war rooms. When all is said and done, 13 celebrities will be famously fired and only one will emerge to become The Celebrity Apprentice.

(courtesy of NBC)

Annie Dukes Gets the Boot as Joan Rivers Wins Celebrity Apprentice

The bitter rivalry between poker champ Annie Dukes and comedian Joan Rivers ended last night in the season finale of The Celebrity Apprentice.

Melissa Rivers Opens Up About her Apprentice Firing

contributed by Jim Kelly

Melissa Rivers was fired on The Apprentice last night, and she doesn’t mince any words blaming her teammates, pro poker player Annie Duke and Playboy model Brande Roderick, telling Fancast.com:

“I knew (Annie) was ruthless. I also knew I was in the room with two enemies. Annie did not stop throwing verbal jabs at me about my mother. They created a very uncomfortable situation and shut me out. But I didn’t just sit there. Unfortunately you don’t see a lot of me where I blow up and I’m like drop it. It was very much like I had walked into an episode of ‘Mean Girls’.”

She also said she’s embarrassed about storming off before the traditional exit interview: ‘“What can I say? It was pretty messy and not anything I’m proud of. But I was emotional and I was hurt.”

Its a cupcake war on the season premiere of Celebrity Appprentice

The first task for Trump’s 16 apprentice-wannabes will be to sell as many cupcakes as possible in New York City.

As always, there’s a lot to look forward to on Celebrity Apprentice:

This season watch in delight (or horror) as Dennis Rodman throws Melissa Rivers into a trashcan and there’s a major catfight alert when poker champ Annie Duke crosses Joan Rivers (making Piers and Omarosa look tame in comparison.) One contestant hits on Ivanka big time but which one is it? And of course expect Andrew Dice Clay and Tom Green to provide the laughs, but who will have the final laugh at the Donald’s expense? Everyone’s playing to win but only one can take home the grand prize for their favorite charity.

Celebrity Apprentice can be seen Sundays at 9/8 c on NBC.

Take a Sneek Peak at The Celebrity Apprentice

Donald Trump won’t start firing people until The Celebrity Apprentice starts on March 1st on NBC, but here’s a taste of things to come:

Tito Ortiz is Casting for His Reality Show

Former UFC light heavyweight champion, and former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Tito Ortiz is looking for contestants for a new reality show he is developing:

(from www.gotcast.com )

Settle The Score: MMA Style! A New TV show starring Tito Ortiz is looking for people interested in settling a problem inside The Ring.

“Do you have a beef with someone and tried everything to solve it but can’t? Did your best friend steal your girl? Did your old roommate shaft you on your rent? Did you have a falling out with your best friend and have no way to solve it? We’re also looking for competitive friends or friends with a problem they need to solve and the only way to do it is to fight it out!

UFC Champion Tito Ortiz is going to train you to battle out your problems in The Octagon!! We are looking for ALL SHAPES AND SIZES to walk into the ring and settle it once and for all.

$1,000 for each person booked for the show.”

To apply click here.

Celebrity Apprentice Recap 1/4/2008

Series Premiere – 1-3-08

This new season of The Apprentice introduces us to a whole new format, a new way of doing things AND an all-new celebrity cast! The focus this season is on having celebrities fight to raise the most money for their favorite charity. Whoever’s left standing will be The Celebrity Apprentice.

The Donald gives the group their fast task: they split into teams of males and females and their first task is to name the groups. The ladies name themselves Empresario (Spanish for “Mogul”). The guys name themselves Hydra after the many-headed monster from Greek mythology.

Omarosa throws her hat into the ring to be the first Project Manager for the fairer sex, and the guys choose Steven Baldwin as the Project Manager for Team Testosterone.

The first challenge involves the restaurant business. The teams will be selling hotdogs in New York. Team that makes the most money wins. The objective is to sell the most hotdogs for the most money (no easy feat in New York). Donald counsels the teams on the importance of location, location, location!

Carol Alt is a New Yorker so she is charged with advising as to the best location to sell hot dogs in New York. She decides 34^th and 7th Avenue is the best location.

The guys decide the corner outside the Radio City Music Hall is best.

Playboy Playmate Tiffany Fallon and Omarosa butt heads immediately.

The guys bank on the celebrity to get the most hot dogs sold to richest and most influential friends and asks them to pay $5,000 for hot dogs. Hydra’s off to a great start!

Empresario dresses in red hats, white t-shirts and jeans and proceeds to sell hot dogs for $5.00 apiece, then $20.00 apiece, then $100.00, then $200.00, then $500.00. Whatever they’re bold enough to ask for, they’re getting from the public so they start to push the envelope and ask for more and more outrageous amounts. Trump and Mayor Bloomberg show up at the girls’ corner and buy a hotdog (they don’t say what he paid for the hot dog, strangely enough).

The guys are giving a virtual freak show on the corner, hawking pictures with Lennox Lewis, for $5.00 or more. Gene Simmons is concerned that the celebrities who have promised to show up and pay $5K for a hotdogs won’t actually show up and starts frantically calling around to get a head count. It’s not looking too good for the guys….

At the 11^th hour, the guys start to kick in and get $100 bucks for a hot dog, but will it be too little too late?

Trump and Mayor Bloomberg show up at Team Hydra’s hot dog stand to sample their wares. Methinks he got the hotdog gratis…

For somebody who’s selling “ass in a magazine, sure couldn’t sell a hot dog on the street”, says Omarosa of Tiffany. Marilu Henner makes some calls and gets some movers and shakers to buy bottles of water for $5,000. At the last minute, Gene Simmons’s benefactors shows up and pays $5,000 and $10,000 for a hot dog.

Baseball player David Wright shows up and buys the remaining hotdogs at the last minute from Team Empresario. Wonder which team brought the most star power to the table!

Donald meets with both teams in the boardroom. Team Hydra sold $ 52,000 worth of hotdogs. Team Empresario sold $ 17,000 worth of hotdogs. A sound beating was had by Team Empresario. Donald loved the location for Team Hydra and the brilliant idea of using celebrity to sell the most hot dogs. All the money raised by both teams will go to Steven Baldwin’s charity as the Project Manager, which is The Carolyn Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, named so for Baldwin’s mother.

Omarosa’s on her way back to the boardroom, which should be familiar territory.

Omarosa defends herself by mentioning that she chose not to use sex to sell more hot dogs for Team Empresario. Been there, done that back on original Apprentice and it wasn’t appreciated back then. She then backpedaled and claimed to be disappointed in Tiffany because she didn’t do much in the way of selling her celebrity, which is the sex industry. Tiffany’s a Playboy Playmate; Omarosa feels she should have used that celebrity to sell more hot dogs. Honorable mentions to Marilu who stepped up and made a sale of $11,000 for waters and Nelly got a nod for being “solid, really focused and kept the team on task”.

Omarosa accepts responsibility for her role as Project Manager but she also expresses disappointment in some of her team’s ability.

Donald comments that Tiffany appears to be intimidated by both Carol Alt and Omarosa and calls her out on her decision not to call in Hugh Hefner to plunk down a huge donation for the hot dogs. Ultimately, that bad decision cost her the Celebrity Apprenticeship and Tiffany is the first to get fired.