Joan Rivers Wins ‘Celebrity Apprentice’

During what seemed like forever (actually three hours) comedic icon Joan Rivers proved she’d had what it takes to win the second season of ‘Celebrity Apprentice.’

Rivers, 75, out mustered poker professional Annie Duke, 43, and by winning earned her charity, God’s Love We Deliver - a group that provides meals for the seriously ill who are homebound - $532,000.

“You are a two-faced person,” Rivers told Duke, 43, in a live face-to-face confrontation in Trump’s boardroom, which ended up in the American Museum of Natural History on the upper West Side of Manhattan.

As Duke sat - perhaps thinking her opponent has more of a chance to win than she thought - she told Trump, “She called my friends Mafia and said that I was worse than Hitler. That is not professional.”

“You have said I’m a cancer. You said you hoped I would die, Rivers said. You never said it to my face!”

“For six boardrooms,” said Duke, “I sat here and acted professional.”

“Professional-ly,” Rivers corrected her.

“And there’s only so much a girl can take,” Duke continued.

“You’re not a girl anymore, darling,” Rivers said contentedly. “You’re a woman.”

On Monday Rivers was asked about the Hitler comment on Larry King’s CNN talker…

“Oh, I don’t know. You know, you’re always saying things,” Rivers told King. “Hitler is the worst villain in the world. So when you really get furious at someone, you say, ‘Oh, you’re a female Hitler’ or something, you know? It’s just an expression. But I stand behind it.”

Before Duke got the ax, Trump’s daughter Ivanka - a judge on the show - said she was “phenomenal” and “as cool as a cucumber.”

However, what may have turned The Donald, was when his daughters said she “admired” Rivers’ tenacity and that she is “a great role model.”

So, regardless of the fact that she raised $300,000 more than Rivers during the final challenge, Duke was through.

Trump said she had been “tough, smart and ruthless” - all traits that usually get you to the top of the Apprentice mountain - but Rivers’ “level of strength and energy” had been “amazing”.

Apparently Trump, the shrewd, stone-cold businessman, has a heart.

More on These Topics: Annie Duke | Celebrity Apprentice | Joan Rivers