I enjoy television but lack of time prevents such simple pleasures. However, with the Joan Rivers / Annie Duke white trash comment spreading through the poker world… I worked the final episode of Celebrity Apprentice into my schedule. After all, Ms. Rivers has been so kind to call all the attorneys, doctors, mathematicians, programmers, Duke graduates and even the… teachers who are also poker players… white trash. The poker community is so insulted even Doyle Brunson is wanting an apology.
I’m not sure where Ms. Rivers learned her manners so I say…consider the source. How can we be offended by such words when they come from someone who has earned a paycheck by bashing, insulting, ridiculing, belittling and verbally abusing people? Or by someone who would seriously put her fingers in her ears when someone else was speaking. I don’t know much about Rivers but I can say a few things about Annie Duke…
Duke is well known in the poker industry for her strong and vocal opinions. Probably more so than any other poker player. However, it’s rarely pointed out that her vocal opinions are usually about what’s best for people and not what’s best for Annie. She may show her temper, she may show impatience but as a mother I can tell you time isn’t only money, time is precious and there isn’t much time for wasting. When you walk away from Annie Duke… you know exactly where you stand. Duke is someone who will suit up and show up often risking her own reputation simply to stand up for what’s right. And that… is someone I would want standing behind me.
photo courtesy AnnieDuke.com
I am so disappointed in the outcome of Celebrity Apprentice……Joan was absolutely obnoxious! Not a tough decision to me as some thought. Annie could hardly get a word in edgewise to Joan’s deluge of badmouthing.
Agreed. Even more bothersome to think of Joan’s ties with NBC.
Hello, I’d like to go over the details as I know them. I was well aware this was a setup, a rigged show with the ABSOLUTE intent of letting Joan win in the end no matter what. I have a lot to say so to keep it from appearing like rambling, I’ll simply number my points.
You said you don’t know much about Joan R. Well here’s a lil history: Joan was a comedian of the 60′s. when a comedian gets on the Johnny Carson show that is GOLD. If he invites them to sit down that is BIGGER GOLD. Carson can be credited with MANY a famous comedian. Eventually, Joan was allowed to guest host for when Carson was away either for a day or vacation. He’d let other fav comedians co host too. Eventually, Joan was given the perminent job of hosting his show when he was away. Johnny was on air 30 yrs and tired of it. He was gone more and more and Joan hosted. He finally announced his retirement to happen in 1 year. EVERYONE figured he would turn the reigns over to Joan to permanently take over the Tonight Show.
Back then we had no www, or much cable. But news traveled fast and furious when Joan didn’t get the job. (it ended up in a few battle between David Letterman and Jay Leno which u can read books/ and see a movie on). (BTW, I hate Leno for support of Bush and have never watched show in all yrs it’s been on!) So while the nation watching the gossipy hollywood battle of Jay vs DAvid for the Tonight Show, Joan was furious she didn’t get the job. Look at her, she’s a lunatic, she’s bossy overbearing etc etc. Her husband, Edgar Rosenberg, a quiet nice man who always stood in the background to her fame, was her manager.
Long story short: Joan drove Edgar to commit suicide. It was huge news everywhere even without www- was the news of the country. He killed himself over not getting her the permanent job of the 2night show.. we can imagine how awful Joan was to him. Lastly, “white trash” – she’s the epitome. 1) Joan was late to Edgar’s funeral and was locked out, NEVER let in, waited outside. 2)Joan immediately went bk 2 her career and joked about tragedy. 3) within 1 yr of his death she made a tv movie about the personal tragedy of his death, she starred in it as herself, and brought in her young daughter M to play herself in this tv movie.. talk about white trash. (think about it pls, she made the movie and starred in it!)
Joan makes a living with “blood on her hands”. She recently did a cruise as the entertainment and it is said her entire gig was making fun of 9/11 victims. That is Joan Rivers in a nutshell. Lunatic, white trash.
On to the show:
1)Joan and M were brought on with the intent of final 2 and M gets fired. Joan wins. Was preplanned, fixed. 100%, guaranteed. They brought in a bunch of clowns to compete. they had no idea what they were up against with Annie, she turned out to be the pawn. there was ABSOLUTELY no intent to let Annie win. It was Joan’s before it even started.
2)Joan came on with a family member when all others were alone so there were 3 teams to deal with, KOTU, ATHENA, and Rivers. Fair? no.
3)Joan was gone on “previous arranged engagements” during 2 tasks. This is unacceptable when u sign up for the WHOLE competition. So when her team lost, she wasn’t eligible to be fired since she was gone unntil the last day of task. Bullshit.
4)We won’t go over all the times she should have been fired. Let’s just cover jewelry auction. In yrs of Apprentice, Trump (T) has always harshly criticized and usually fired the person who didn’t do a task that they were an “expert” in. Joan is an “expert” in jewelry but she didn’t pick it out. Guaranteed he would have fired anyone else for this. She had natalie do it, she told N to pick out the “cheapest”- this didn’t come up in boardroom. She allowed Clint as auctioneer, she brought in less $$ than ANYONE on her team, in that task and all tasks- HOW DID JOAN NOT GET FIRED FOR THE JEWELRY TASK? MASSIVE RIGGED DEAL.
5)This show was not a competition to see who survives and doesn’t drop dead so the constant mention of her age is utter BS. esp in finale.. shut up about her age already! I have tivo, can rewatch..other u can watch on http://hula.com . Joan actually did VERY little in tasks or was the cause of loss. Still, not fired. She didn’t like conflict. Clinto was right Schwans didn’t want chicken as new recipe but Joan didn’t back him up when she knew he was right. She did nothig in that task. Herschel was fired for wanting the chicken.
6)No other contestant would have gotten away with the vile behavior of Joan. None. Her language, lunacy, words, interruptions and berating of Annie, there is NO WAY in hell T would have allowed that of any other contestant.
7)T hates quitters and ALWAYs fired them. Joan quit. she didn’t “almost” quit as they said on the show last night and lied. She QUIT. rewatch shows. She QUIT, yet allowed back and with an entrance no doubt. there is NOTHING she could have done to ever get fired.
8)UNDISCLOSED COLLUSION: a)T’s sister inlaw is on the board of Joan’s charity. If this is no big deal why wasn’t it told to viewers? b)Joan/M were fired from red carpet gig. Joan got a new show that will premiere soon on tvland channel. Her show is produced and owned by Mark Burnett. (now this is the ace in the hole, important to the proof of a rigged show). Mark Burnett is not only the producer and owner of Joan’s new show soon to premiere, but he is the exec producer and owner of Celebrity Apprentice. Obviously plan is get controversial ratings on C A, use Annie as the pawn, Joan wins victoriously, and it leads into ratings for her new show, thus $$$ for both T and Burnett.
9)In the history of all Apprentice shows (celeb or regular), in final 2 T never says, “you’re fired”. He has ALWAYS simply looked at the winner and said, “you’re hired!”. Not only did he use Annie as a pawn but she knew exactly how the show works, watch closely, you could see her reaction when he started to talk to her, “Annie, you know what I’m going to say now..”. But he stuck the knife in and decided to twist it for more pain. He changed it up and said, “you’re fired”.
10)lastly though there’s many more issues you can look at and KNOW this was setup rigged from the beginning with no intent of letting anyone win but Joan:
Celeb App was supposed to be a charity competition. end of story. Piers was an asshole last yr but he won because of the $$ he brought in. He knew it, he said it, Trump said it. It was 99% about the money brought in.
When it became obvious that not only could Annie bring in big bucks but Joan literally could bring in NONE by herself, TRUMP CHANGED THE RULES OF THE FINALE. He didn’t change the rules before this competition started. He didn’t change them in the middle of the competition when many were still left to compete. He changed the rules at the VERY END making fund raising only 1/5th of the competion… ONE FIFTH!!!!!!!!
That was an intentional rigging of the outcome to give more excuses asto why Joan should be the winner. He literally changed the requirements right smack at the end of the competiton.
It was rigged. It was presetup. it was fixed before it started. They didn’t expect to run into someone like Annie. The fact T allowed the excessive abuse towards her for the public to hear flabbergasts me. Trump NEVER put a stop to it.
Lastly, last night when Joan brought up the mafia, did everyone catch what Trump said? When Annie had a look of shock on her face at that comment from Joan, Annie started to try and defend the remark. T interrupted Annie and said, “Now Annie, you don’t really know whether they are or aren’t.” He was defending Joan’s remark about her poker friends being in the mafia!
Annie’s far from perfect. She has an arrogant edge. No doubt. But the poker world should be outraged over what took place and do something.
I did my little thing. I’ve purchased from QVC for years. I wrote them a letter and closed my account. I explained their having Joan as a vendor on their show, which represents them, is unacceptable. I don’t care how successful her jewelry business is. I informed them I’m a female, a jew, and a pokaaaaah player here in vegas and have been for 20 yrs..
(long before the boom that brought in every tom dick and jane)
I closed my account and explained why. I also noted that Joan’s twitter page used to be called JoanRiversQVC and is now titled JoanRivers___. Obviously she’s getting heat for her behavior and it should not let up.
my 2 cents worth a lot more because I can guarantee the facts above are accurate. it was rigged from day 1 for Joan to win.
Joan beating Annie is like a set on the flop beaten by runner-runner flush or something. Could be even worse than that.
I just don’t really get why the show can get away by deliberating editing Annie into the major antagonist of the show. As Trump in one of the episodes, ‘Annie does seem to be nice to me’. She did what she had to do to win the task and her detailed-oriented management skill is just a matter of personal preference and should never be used to justify a personal attack. I have almost admired Trump’s decision as to who to pick in the finale, hiring effective Stephanie over loud-mouth James, hiring fierce Piers over likable Trace. What the hell is Trump thinking on this one? If the production team attempts to rig the show, can they at least not insult the viewers’ intelligence by making the rigging seem less obvious. First of all, the team picking was in favor of Joan, who pretty much got all her ‘friends’ there to choose from. The only person that would contribute on Annie’s team is Brande. Secondly, Annie and Brande are both from California and have fewer contacts in New York, whereas Joan is based in New York. Thirdly, Joan did piss the designer company off. It was blatantly obvious from the last episode. Why did she even try to still deny it in the final live boardroom? I don’t think a role model does that. Fourthly, why did Joan win on the three other criteria. I may agree Joan’s room is much more Kodak-like than Annie’s because of the color, but what about overall guest experience? Taking photos with dragqueens and some entrants come with their kids? Is this some kind of theme party? Annie’s room had way more class as she correctly claimed. Fifthly, why was Annie’s charity video so crap? Was the video made prior to the shooting of the show? Sixthly, kudos to Jesse for telling us Joan is an old woman who cannot really pull things together, Claudia for agreeing that Melissa’s meltdown was an embarrassment to the Rivers’ family and Brande for her brilliant answers to Trump’s question. Scott and Tom apprently do not have much business sense and are the marginal/weak figures of the show, yet they had much airing time througout the finale. Seventhly, Joan River must die!