Celebrity Apprentice season 5 begins filming next week, meaning that a handful of high-profile stars (plus a few “who’s thats?” and has-beens) are rumored to be sharpening their nails, packing their bags and flying off toward Trump Tower, ready to engage in a bloody, no-holds-barred Business Battle Royale! (For charity.)
But who? And can any of them hold a crazy candle to Gary Busey?
Yesterday a production “insider” told EW that supermodel Cheryl Tiegs, 64, and racecar driver Marco Andretti, 24, are definitely in the cast this season.
How can two people who made/make their livings showing skin and driving fast cars still inspire such little excitement in my heart? Maybe because Tiegs has always seemed sweet, and Marco’s corporate experience begins and ends with the stickers on his car. Let’s just hope they’re surprise bulldogs in the board room.
Today, more names joined the list of rumored Apprentices:
American Idol runner-up turned pop rock prince turned Broadway star Clay Aiken, 32; mob boss John Gotti’s daughter Victoria Gotti, 48; drama-cooking New Jersey housewife Teresa Giudice, 39; and 80s pop star and modern Mega Python vs. Gatoroid star Debbie Gibson, 41.
Other, slightly less confirmed names we’ve seen swirling around the shark tank: Aubrey O’Day and Adam Carolla. But let’s talk those first four right now.
With the additions of Clay and Victoria, the weirdness level is definitely rising, which is always a plus on Celebrity Apprentice, and for some reason I’m hoping these two will become best friends. I can picture it now: Tough Victoria will reveal that she’s always secretly connected to the emotional vulnerability of Clay’s soft pop ballads, while Clay will love Victoria’s glamor (and all that fur, girl!) and be titillated by her scandalous mob stories. They can be each other’s Liza Minnellis!
[UPDATE: That last paragraph was supposed to be a joke — partially one about how preposterous gay stereotypes are. It was, admittedly, a dumb joke, and one that played too much into those stereotypes without context or counterbalance. I’m sorry that that didn’t come across, and apologize to anyone I offended. I take homophobia extremely seriously, and I was horrified to see that is what was being conveyed to some readers. I’m sorry. I love you, Clay. I’m going to go cry and listen to Merry Christmas With Love now.]Teresa will probably bring the same flavor that fellow Real Housewife NeNe Leakes brought last season: Lots of screaming, little to no self-awareness or logic. I don’t know whether to cheer or snore.
Since rising to teen pop stardom in the 80s, Debbie Gibson has struggled to remain relevant, and then decided to turn that struggle into a career. She’s posed for Playboy, she’s play-fought Tiffany, she’s starred in terrible SyFy monster movies, and she was even on Skating with the Celebrities. She may just be a washed-up pop star grasping at any and all straws that come her way. But seeing that she was also recently on an episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories in which she claimed to make contact with the ghost of Liberace, she may also be full-on crazy.
And since that’s why I watch Celebrity Apprentice (besides the charity work), I’m hoping for the latter.
What do you think of these Apprentice casting rumors? Anyone you can’t wait to see on the other side of Trump’s table?
(Images courtesy of WENN)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Meghan hails from Walla Walla, WA, the proud home of the world’s best sweet onions and Adam West, the original Batman. An avid grammarian and over-analyzer, you can usually find her thinking too hard about plot devices in favorites like The Office, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and How I Met Your Mother. In her spare time, Meghan enjoys drawing, shopping, trying to be funny (and often failing), and not understanding the whole Twilight thing. She’s got a BA in English and Studio Art from Whitman College, which makes her a professional arguer, daydreamer, and doodler.
