While I’m not a big fan of Joan Rivers, Trump made the right call. She may have been called a great game player by Trump, his son and daughter, but there were tons of signs that they weren’t keen on her behind the scene plays. In the end, the total package was more important than the sum of their parts.

On several episodes, each made comments to the effect that they were aware of how Annie was manipulating her teammates and playing both sides against each other. And at the end of the day, they voted that character and integrity matter.

People say, “It’s just business”, but Trump knows that even though you may be able to be successful in the beginning with such tactics,, you’ll never get a shot at closing others once your true colors are shown.

In poker, they call it a one trick pony. Annie may have fooled some of the players once, but in the end, everyone she played against knew the cards she was holding.

I always thought Daniel Negreanu was too hard on her when he said she was disingenuous, a manipulator and back stabber. I owe Daniel a big apology. He had it right all along.

And I can’t deny that while watching the end of the show on HULU, I did rewind the last minute and play it back a few times. Watching Annie bring her folded hands together up on the table when she thought Trump was about to announce her the winner, then watching the surprised look on her face when he told her she was fired was like finding a twenty dollar bill in a pocket of a sports coat you haven’t worn in a while.

All is right with the world.

Oh pooh hoh. FUCK YOU. Annie Duke is Jewish too. Of course, you don’t care. You only see what you want to see.

And again, FUCK YOu.

There are a lot of similar sentiments (although much more succinct) on Twitter.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/05/the-celebrity-a.html

Stephanie Sun, May 10, 2009 at 11:35 PM EST

I was thoroughly disgusted by this outcome, and for the first time, could care less if I ever watch this agian, the ‘fix’ was so apparent and transparent. Now I feel like the fool for watching. I’ve always had respect for Mr. Trump until now, but his choice of a woman that did not do the best job; who quit; whose behavior was despicable, was not right. Joan Rivers is not a role model, nor a deserving Celebrity Apprentice. Any of the other candidates had more class that Joan or Melissa. I wish Annie had punched Joan when Joan put her arm around Annie at the finale – that was terrible of her to do that.

YES…………….. Go JOAN!!!

They see no problem on how the two acted because they act like that all the time.

I am not sure of the demographics watching this show but I know most of them would not come to a forum or go to You Tube to view the comments posted by others.

If not for me being involved with Poker coupled with me being home injured, I would not be surfing the net for comments on Celeb Apprentice.

One of the main reasons I come here is to read BJ’s and Dan’s articulate posts.

Hey I think this has been used before..

BJ’s and Dan’s excellent adventures, coming to a radio show soon!

Quieter moments after you’ve had time to reflect are boring TV and therefore end up on the editing floor.

I got the impression that Melissa’s tirade was exactly what we see oh Phil on TV. We rarely get to see how good a poker player he is because his excellent play is boring to the general public but his reactions to anything that doesn’t go his way are fun to watch.

By the way, last night I blamed the referees, the Celtics, the NBA commissioner, the gods of bad luck, TNT, and ABC wanting the defending champs to stay in the running for the Bulls loss. Upon reflection, we Chicago fans are just being Melissa Rivers. Everything was fine while we were winning, but once the final score went against us, we think we got screwed.

Sorry. I got off the subject of poker. I don’t know what I was thinking.

You said no poker player would through such a tantrum. How about Phil and Mike the Mouth?

Remember, we are seeing an edited version. The one on ones are not heard by anyone in the game. And it’s just a game. Remeber Amorosa. Melissa came accross just like Amorosa. She outright lied by taking credit for other player’s ideas. She didn’t deserve to be beat on the river, she deserved to be drawing dead after the flop.

I would have preferred if Annie played Phil’s game of trapping instead of Guss’s game. That said, she has come off as the most competent player.

By the way, Annie’s AA didn’t beat QQ, she beat two Jokers.

but that’s the thing … that’s why it is an issue of “your people” — and why, as annie says, we’re awesome. no poker player would ever throw that sort of tantrum. why? because we know it’s just a game, and such a move is -EV. YET … the defenses of Joan and Melissa I did read reminded me that there are plenty of people in this world who think such a tantrum IS ACCEPTABLE. shocking, i know … but hey, life is filled with landmines.

Great point about the collusion, btw.

We also need to remember that commenters tend to be the most passionate people on either side of an issue, and they don’t always represent (by the same percentages) the viewing public. I’d trust the Twitter trends while the show is live on the air far more than the YouTube comments, simply because the barrier to entry is so much lower — it’s far easier to Twitter your thoughts on a cellphone while watching a TV show than it is to find the YouTube video and comment on it.

I feel much better about Annie Duke’s public perception now that she is tied so closely to Brande Roderick, who is extremely likable. (I’m 85% certain I’d say that even if she wasn’t one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met in person.)

It’s ironic that Annie & Brande are effectively being accused of colluding, when it has been blatantly obvious in the last few boardrooms that Joan & Melissa were openly colluding in the boardroom from different teams!

BJ, I woulda thought the same thing … but check out the comments (170 of them!?!) on the youtube vid. more than 40 percent are very supportive of the Rivers girls and still super-ante-Annie. I mean it’s almost Bush-Gore, Obama-McCain kinda split:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fAevP8aZVs&feature=channel_page

I also agree that Melissa’s last line really tells you all you need to know about what happens when she’s upset and things don’t go her way:

“I want my shit NOW. I want my PURSE. I want EVERYthing!”

That pretty much sums her up, no? And then she punctuates with an attempt to stick ‘the help’ in his place:

“And David, you’re not getting in interview [so there, nanny-nanny-boo-boo].”

http://www.nbc.com/the-celebrity-apprentice/video/clips/week-9-melissa/1090877/

My guess is that they showed her the footage of her tantrum, and said, “Are you sure you wouldn’t like a final interview to tell your side of the story?” Then they screwed Melissa by keeping the tantrum on the show, and shuffling the interview onto NBC.com.

In her interview, she explains the two reasons she agreed to do the show. One was to “do good” and raise money for charity, blah, blah, blah. But the other I find far more interesting. (Remember, this was recorded *after* she was fired.)

Melissa Rivers: “I thought it would give me an opportunity for people to see me for who I am, and not what they perceive me to be. People perceive me to be simply an appendage of my mother. They perceive me to be spoiled, um, difficult, unpleasant, and uh, not a hard worker. Which is the exact opposite of who I am.”

I’ll concede that she works hard; no argument there. But spoiled, difficult, and unpleasant? Check, check, and check. And an appendage of her mother? I think Andrew Dice Clay nailed it on the very first episode — Time to cut that umbilical cord, ladies.

I like how Melissa threatened the producers by saying, “I’m not coming back for an interview!” I’m sure they were thinking, “Are you kidding? We wouldn’t air it anyway. This tantrum you’re throwing is ratings GOLD!”