Trump Fires Denis Leary; Apprentice Finale a Stalemate

 LOS ANGELES (Disassociated Press)  June 6, 2006 – This season’s series of The Apprentice, the NBC reality television series that stars Donald Trump assigning tasks in order to select a protégé, ended with a surprise.          

         As the series drew to its conclusion on Monday night, each of the two finalists was assigned a separate task – one would manage a concert at Trump’s Taj Mahal in Atlantic City; while the other would oversee Denis Leary’s annual celebrity hockey game, to benefit firefighters.

        For reasons unexplained, Trump, who was attending the hockey game to make an evaluation of the quality of work of his contestant, stood up during the third period, and began screaming at Leary “you’re not a hockey player, you’re not a fire fighter – you’re not even a real celebrity - you're fired!”

         Trump was immediately ushered out of the arena, and the game was suspended.  Trump’s Apprentice finale, which was scheduled to be broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood last night, was cancelled.  The competition was declared a stalemate, with both contestants awarded the status of “co-apprentice.”  Their co-protégé duties to Mr. Trump are yet to be disclosed.   Disassociated Press insiders report that there could be considerable legal fall-out over the outcome.

         This is not the first time that The Apprentice has mired Trump in a legal battle.  Trump is currently in the process of suing two homeless people for royalties over using his idea to trademark as common a phrase as “you’re fired,” both of whom admitted to being  inspired by Trump to trademark other common phrases themselves (see Homeless Following Trump's Lead, The Disassociated Press, March 28, 2004).

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