Brandi Glanville surprised many fans this season. While most pundits saw her only as fodder for Kenya Moore, Glanville’s enterprising nature and strong decision-making allowed the reality star to almost make it to the finale. Unfortunately, her decision to back Johnny Damon on a task that asked the teams to create a jingle for Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light Rita drinks (along with her refusal to throw the outfielder under the bus in the boardroom), resulted in her own demise. Glanville was one of three casualties on a night when Mr. Trump decided to clear house.
Brandi Glanville surprised many fans this season. While most pundits saw her only as fodder for Kenya Moore, Glanville’s enterprising nature and strong decision-making allowed the reality star to almost make it to the finale. Unfortunately, her decision to back Johnny Damon on a task that asked the teams to create a jingle for Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light Rita drinks (along with her refusal to throw the outfielder under the bus in the boardroom), resulted in her own demise. Glanville was one of three casualties on a night when Mr. Trump decided to clear house.
Brandi Glanville surprised many Celebrity Apprentice fans this season. While most pundits saw her only as fodder for Kenya Moore, Glanville’s enterprising nature and strong decision-making allowed the reality star to almost make it to the finale. Unfortunately, her decision to back Johnny Damon on a task that asked the teams to create a jingle for Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light Rita drinks (along with her refusal to throw the outfielder under the bus in the boardroom), resulted in her own demise. Glanville was one of three casualties on a night when Mr. Trump decided to clear house.
I recently caught up with the Real Housewife of Beverly Hills to get her take on what happened.
Murtz Jaffer: How much of your decision to choose Johnny’s jingle over Ian’s was influenced by the fact that you got along with Johnny better? Or did that not play a part?
Brandi Glanville: Yeah, I think that it was a little bit of everything. Ian’s was just not happening. I mean absolutely 100% wasn’t going to. It was ridiculous. I don’t think Johnny was given enough of a voice in the past because Ian kind of steamrolled everyone. So I wanted all of us to have a turn.
MJ: When Team Infinity was rolling off win after win, it seemed like things were going well but there always seemed to be some tension with you and Ian. How did you feel about him while the show was taping and how do you feel about him now?
BG: You know, I like Ian as a person now that we’re not in competition together. I think that he has a very strong competitive gene, and I think that is what brought out his… more of a condescending, disrespectful side towards a lot of us. But since we’ve wrapped the show, and having seen him at the Upfronts and whatnot, he’s been nothing but lovely to me.
MJ: When Kenya was on Team Infinity, it seemed like her and Ian were on one side and you, Johnny and Leeza were on the other. Is that how it was?
BG: Yeah, they had formed an alliance. It was kind of silly but that’s definitely how it went down.
MJ: Why did they form that alliance? They only touched on that and they didn’t really focus on it. Can you elaborate a little bit?
BG: I’m not really sure. They had both expressed to each other… I know that they had both expressed to each other that they were “in it to win it,” (and I think we all were obviously), but it was kind of like “you help me take this person down, I’ll help you take this person down.”
MJ: I think many people underestimated you on the show. When Ian was doing the fundraising task, you stepped away but still managed to raise more money than Terrell. When Ian led the Trump Miami Doral task, you seemed to know more of the facts about the property than he did. During the Boat Task, you had no problem switching the Mardi Gras theme to the Big Apple Bonanza. Do you think you surprised people with just how close you came to winning the whole thing?
BG: I think that I did because people only know me from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and that is us socializing, drinking, and being silly. It’s reality television, you know? It’s a shit show. You know what I mean? You’re screaming, yelling, you’re being everything that you’re not in your daily life. People don’t get to see me as a mother. They don’t get to see the dropoffs, pickups, and homework. They don’t get to see me doing business meetings that have allowed me to… You know, I have a line coming out, I have an app, I have a t-shirt line, I have so many things going on that are legitimately making me money that I think people just choose to think I’m just this one-trick pony. So it’s great to have this balance to show people a different side of me. I knew going into it that I would be underestimated. I think that my parents naming me Brandi… my whole life everyone thought I was either a stripper, or something like that so I was always underestimated to an extent. I was always surprising people.
MJ: Do you think that the winner of The Celebrity Apprentice should be the person that raised the most money for their charity or the person that made the best television?
BG: That’s interesting. I don’t think either actually. I think the person that gave 100 percent the entire time, who was able to work with different personalities and still made things happen. I know who I think that should be… I don’t know who. We’re doing a live finale so we don’t know the winner yet but I really believe that Leeza Gibbons should win everything.
MJ: Do you regret not throwing Johnny under the bus for writing the jingle?
BG: Absolutely not. I mean I know that it would have been a lot easier had it been Ian or Kenya, but even when I was project manager and they asked me how Ian and Kenya did, I was very complimentary. I said, ‘you guys if we don’t turn on each other, they have nothing.’ But time after time, these people would turn on each other and I think coming from a reality background (on Housewives), it kind of helped me a bit because I kind of knew the formula. Some of the other people didn’t realize that turning on each other just pointed out our flaws and gave them reason to fire us.
MJ: What did you think about the Vivica and Kenya fiasco and do you think that Kenya stole the phone?
BG: You know, I’m very close with Vivica now. I definitely think that Kenya was disrespectful to Vivica and I definitely believe that she stole the phone. Knowing Vivica the way I do, sexy is her thing. She would never tweet about menopause. It just felt like it was a complete set-up.
MJ: Kenya made some very personal comments about you and you really seemed to not insult her back the way that Vivica did last night. Was it important to you to maintain a certain professional image in front of Mr. Trump and how tough was it for you to not fight Kenya’s fire with your own?
BG: As I said before, I have a temper obviously. Everyone knows that. But I know when to hold them and when to fold them so to speak. I definitely knew that getting crazy in the boardroom was not going to be to my benefit. And Kenya thinks that she is smarter than everyone and that she can push your buttons and you’ll get a reaction. Having said that, I knew at that moment she wanted one and she wasn’t going to get it from me.
MJ: Do you think that Geraldo and Vivica have any shot of beating Leeza (because I see this finale as being one of the most lopsided affairs in reality history)?
BG: I think I’m a little biased because I was on Leeza’s team almost the entire time. We really did become such very close friends. We’re actually going into business together outside of the show. We’re going to do a couple of other things together. And she just, I love them all, and I even enjoy Geraldo. I know a lot of people don’t, but I do. I think any of them could be the winner, but if Leeza doesn’t win, I will be shocked.
MJ: What’s next for you and can you tell me more about your charity, Make A Wish?
BG: Sure, what’s next? Well we have the Housewives reunion coming up on the 20th. So I have that. I’m going to be doing The Steve Harvey show again on February 10th, I believe. My wine that I have coming out will be out next month. It’s called Unfiltered Blonde. And my app is out now on Android phones, it’s called BlunderBlock. My second book just came out in paperback and is a New York Times bestseller again… and what was the rest of the question sorry?
MJ: That’s okay, just a little bit more about Make A Wish.
BG: Oh Make A Wish. So when I was younger, a boy on my street (my friend’s little brother actually), had a terminal illness and all he wanted was a computer. This is like before everyone had computers. I’m not young so we’re talking… it was a big deal to have a computer. And he was granted one from the Make A Wish Foundation, so I chose them just because I had all these different charities coming at me, and asking me to represent them. I wanted it to be my decision. So I just chose it. I have two young beautiful boys, and they’re healthy and happy and I wanted to do something for kids for a change.
MJ: Amazing. Brandy thank you so much. I’m going to be at the finale so I can’t wait to meet you there. Look for the guy in the purple hat!
BG: Oh okay great! Can’t wait.
MJ: Awesome, thank you so much, have a great day.
BG: You too, Bye.
MJ: Bye.
The Celebrity Apprentice continues tonight at 8 p.m. on NBC
