"All-Star Celebrity Apprentice"

Credit: NBC

"All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" doesn't return to NBC until Sun. March 3 at 9:00 p.m., but that didn't stop a few dedicated stars from showing up at a press tour breakfast. Marilu Henner, Trace Adkins, Stephen Baldwin, Omarosa, Gary Busey, Lil Jon and Lisa Rinna told gathered reporters about why they returned, who fought with who (short answer: everyone with everyone) and plugged their charities for good measure while throwing in some jabs at one another.

Since the cast is made up of, well, losers, there was the question of how they played differently this time around. "[I needed to] really keep focused," said Marilu Henner, who also noted that this season, an important change was made behind the scenes to give the players a day off once a week. "It was a very different way to play the game this time... We also knew that not only was everyone was going to up their game, the tasks were harder, but it was so much more fun this time."

When it was noted that the first episode seemed to feature women fighting but not men, Rinna said simply, "Women can be bitchy."

"Lil Jon had to break up all the fights between me and crazy ass LaToya Jackson," Omarosa added. 

"I forgive Penn for everything he did this season," Omarosa wisecracked.

The always friendly Henner said, "Sometimes you go into it not liking the person, and sometimes it changes and sometimes it doesn’t." Sadly, Henner didn't tell us who she hated both before and after the season, if anyone. 

While Jillette gushed over the show's commitment to "honesty," some stars on the panel were more honest than others. "I don’t think I’ve ever learned anything doing this show I used anywhere else. No shit," Adkins said."

What made it great? "We can’t give too much away. The coolest thing for me this season is everybody’s played the game before and for me, there was a level of terror involved," Baldwin said. "The only person that I really liked in this process was Trace." When his castmates groaned, Baldwin raised a hand. "Let me finish! I’m getting into the psychology of it. And the only person I trusted was no one. I love Lisa and Marilu... but you don’t know if she’s going to knife you in the back five minutes later."

Liane Bonin Starr
Sr. Editor

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Liane Bonin Starr is an author, screenwriter and former writer for EW.com. Her byline has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Variety and a lot of other places. Her last book was called "a scandalously catty, guilty pleasure" by Jane magazine. Expect the same from Starr Raving.