Lisa Rinna fired from fourth edition of 'The Celebrity Apprentice'

Lisa Rinna became the second candidate fired from NBC's fourth season of The Celebrity Apprentice during Sunday night's broadcast of the reality competition's second episode.


The Apprentice star Donald Trump fired the actress and Harry Loves Lisa star after her A.S.A.P. women's team lost the season's second task.

The task required A.S.A.P. and Backbone, the men's team, to each create and write a children's book based on one member of the team and perform the story for an audience of four and five-year-old children. They would be judged on originality, presentation and age appropriateness.

"It was such an honor to work for Mr. Trump and just to be around him and I loved it. It was really an awesome experience. I took a risk. I put myself out there in a position and in a place I wouldn't normally put myself in, and they all threw me under the bus. Do I think Donald made the right decision? No! Are you f***ing kidding me?!" Lisa said following her ouster.

The Celebrity Apprentice's fourth-season second episode began with Trump meeting with the season's celebrity cast and asking who would serve as each team's project managers.


The women's team A.S.A.P. -- which was comprised of model and Playboy Playmate of the Year Hope Dworaczyk; singer La Toya Jackson; talk show host Star Jones; The Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes; actress Marlee Matlin; Lisa; former supermodel Niki Taylor; and singer Dionne Warwick -- selected Lisa to be their project manager.

Meanwhile, the men's team Backbone -- which featured actor and former Celebrity Rehab participant Gary Busey; retired MLB baseball player Jose Canseco; original Survivor champion Richard; rapper Lil Jon; rock star Meat Loaf; singer and television host Mark McGrath; and country singer John Rich -- opted to have Meat Loaf lead their team as project manager.

A.S.A.P. got off to a rough start as Lisa had trouble taking charge and allocating jobs, while she also had little support from her team due to their conflicting personalities. A.S.A.P. chose to create their story based on a theme of diversity and always being yourself, while they revolved it around a lion character named after LaToya.

Backbone immediately started brainstorming and agreed on many major decisions. They chose to write a story about a superhero inspired by their teammate Lil Jon.

After both teams were done with their storybook performances, they met with Trump in the boardroom. Lisa and Meat Loaf both deemed their teams highly successful, but then Trump revealed that Backbone had won the challenge and had the better overall book and performance.


The women were told their performance, interaction with the kids, and narration of the book was great. However, they had underdeveloped characters, the font of their writing was too small, and the theme was especially mature and too sophisticated for the young readers.

Meanwhile, the men's book was age appropriate and their performance -- which included rhyming and rapping -- was fun for the kids. However, they were told some of their performance acting had been stiff and the narration of the book could have been more involved and exaggerated.

The men left the boardroom and most of the women agreed that Lisa should be eliminated as she served as the project manager and was ultimately responsible for how her team's task turned out.

However, Lisa suggested either Star or Dionne should be fired because Star was in charge of writing the book, while Dionne was responsible for coming up the inappropriate theme. The three team members bickered over their dislike for one another and who should be at fault for the team's loss.

Lisa then opted to take Star and Dionne back into the boardroom with her after Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. debated the women's failure and partially pinned it on Lisa.


Star then told Trump Lisa simply was not a good leader and did a poor job as the project manager, and Lisa wasn't fighting back too hard. Lisa claimed that although she considered herself tough, she said her A.S.A.P. team members threw her under a bus and wanted her fired right off the bat. Star told Trump that Lisa still had a lot to learn and that being on The Celebrity Apprentice was not the time to try to grow as a businesswoman.

Lisa then admitted she crumbled under the pressure and wasn't a great leader after all. Trump recognized Lisa's lack of fight and willingness to just give up and declare the loss was basically on her shoulders. Trump said Star was playing Lisa like a child, and he found her resistance to challenge her right to stay in the competition a sign of weakness.

In the end, Trump decided that Star and Dionne both deserved another chance as he came away unimpressed by Lisa's lack of good arguments and drive in convincing Trump to keep her around.

"I'm giving you points. Don is giving you points. We're all giving you points and that you were trying and we like you and we respect you and you're the project manager. But to be honest with you, you're really having a hard time with it. Look Lisa, you're the project manager. Your team lost. We're dealing with two very very smart confident women," Trump told Lisa.

"Everybody felt you should go and as project manager, I have to say Lisa, you're fired."


"Thank you," Lisa replied.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski