by Troy Rogers
After stepping up as project manager in Week 4 of
Celebrity Apprentice, Victoria's Secret model,
Selita Ebanks, found herself in the celebrity
boardroom hot seat in front of Donald Trump in
Week 5. Although Celebrity Apprentice Tenacity
teammates Holly Robinson Peete and Maria Kanellis
squared off in the boardroom alongside Selita,
Ebanks eventually took the celebrity fall for
not fighting hard enough to save herself after
the Celebrity Apprentice women failed to beat
the men in creating an ad for Right Guard.
After Selita Ebanks earned a win as Celebrity Apprentice project manager and money for her charity, Selita had to deal with an absent Cyndi Lauper and a sick Sharon Osbourne who was on the Celebrity Apprentice sidelines for Week 5. Although Olympic Sprinter Michael Johnson left the Celebrity Apprentice early due to personal reasons, Selita and her fellow Celebrity Apprentice hopefuls couldn't pull out a victory over the celebrity trio of Bret Michaels, Curtis Stone, and Goldberg.
The morning after Selita Ebanks was fired from Celebrity Apprentice, we caught up with Ebanks to find out why she didn't throw Holly under the celebrity bus, what she thought of her absent Apprentice mates, and what she thought of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from a week earlier.
THE DEADBOLT: Why didn't you go after Holly since she was the project manager?
SELITA
EBANKS: You know what? I think it was a
little bit of, Holly hadn't won for her charity
yet. She worked so hard and she believes so
much in her charity because her son has Autism
and I didn't think it was the right strategy
to go after her when myself, Maria, and Summer
had already won for our charities.
So I just kind of wanted to give Holly a second chance of winning for her charity because it means so much to her, and I just thought it was fair. Unfortunately, I guess that's not the way the game is played but it was kind of a sensitive moment.
THE DEADBOLT: What do you make of the absentee celebrities and the ones who just walked away?
EBANKS: Firstly, I understand that life does not stop just because we're filming a reality show. I understand that. At the end of the day, I was there to bring my charity and to make people aware of what's happening in Sierra Leone. Holly was there. Maria was there. We were all there for the same reason. So it was just kind of disheartening to see people give up like that. It was really sad.
THE DEADBOLT: What was the best part about competing with Rod Blagojevich last week?
EBANKS:
[laughs] Oh my God, him falling asleep. I felt
so awful because the cameras were there and
I wanted to literally kick him under the table
to tell him, "Dude, wake up. What are you doing?"
But then I didn't want to startle him and it
be like another weird moment. It was pretty
funny.
THE DEADBOLT: What's it like when you're back at the condo hanging out with the guys team?
EBANKS: You know what's funny? We hardly ever saw the guys, except for in the boardroom and except for after the boardroom when they would come in and we would go into each others' room. So it was like meeting them again all over for the first time every single day, but it was really cool. Actually, it was nice to interact with another group of people. It kind of freed us for a little bit, you know? It calmed us down for a little bit and gave us that moment of relaxation. You come back to Earth and you're like, "Okay, we're normal people again."
THE DEADBOLT: What did you expect going onto the show, and what surprised you?
EBANKS: I literally wrote down all of the pros and cons and all of my expectations. The only thing that surprised me - I mean, everyone said the boardroom was going to be scary, but what surprised me was the aggressiveness in the room. I watched last season but I didn't think it was going to be like that. The bright lights are on you, you're sweating, there's tension, and people are cutting each other off. That was a little scary and I don't know if I was ready for all of that.
