The Apprentice: Martha Stewart might have turned out to be an on-air ratings dud for NBC, but it certainly has managed to generate more than its fair share of off-camera squabbles and media headlines.
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After firing back at Donald Trump after he dissed her The Apprentice spinoff and blamed her for his own Apprentice ratings problems, the "dissee" has now become the "disser," with Martha Stewart publicly slamming the quality of her remaining Apprentice candidates and attempting to make it clear that she had nothing to do with selecting them.
"It's unusual for me to take a job like The Apprentice, and it was just a job," the domestic diva told BusinessWeek during a recent appearance at one of the magazine's "Captains of Industry" events. "I got paid a fee. I have no participation in the show... I did it because I knew it would be a jump-start, and it would get attention."
When BusinessWeek Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler followed up Stewart's comments by noting the show's finale was approaching -- NBC will air the two-hour live broadcast on December 21 -- Stewart went even further in her attempts to disassociate herself from the series.
"Yeah, we're getting close to which of those inappropriate contestants we are actually going to have to hire," Stewart replied. "I can't believe people behave like that. They're exhibitionists and opportunists, those kids."
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Having slammed them, Stewart then also proceeded to make it clear that while Trump might "handpick" his candidates, since her appearance on the show was "just a job," she had no roll in her contestants' selection. "I did not choose them either, by the way. I just want you to know I had nothing to do really with the choice of the contestants. That's part of reality television."
After last night's eleventh The Apprentice: Martha Stewart broadcast, three candidates -- Jim Bozzini, Bethenny Frankel, and Dawna Stone -- remain in the running to be selected as Stewart's apprentice. However based on Stewart's comments, it certainly doesn't appear that the winner should expect to receive much of an apprenticeship. Perhaps they should just call the winner's prize a $250,000 severance package?