Donald Trump, the ego that walks like a man, has been flipping his retractable lid lately over Martha Stewart.
The billionaire brouhaha has been simmering ever since NBC wrecked The Apprentice last fall by airing it twice a week, with slammer queen Stewart on Wednesday and Trump on Thursday.
Stewart whined to Newsweek last week that her show tanked because Trump reneged on a promise to get lost.
Instead he stuck around on Thursday nights and that killed her show.
Truth is, Martha's lame Apprentice was never a "good thing," drawing a mere seven million viewers a week and flaming out after one cycle.
Trash talk is gold to Trump, who has a new edition of The Apprentice to sell starting tonight (9 p.m. on Global and NBC). He fired off a letter to Stewart last week telling her to take responsibility for her "failed show.
"Your performance in the show was terrible," he wrote. "I knew it would fail as soon as I first saw it."
Trump seemed especially peeved at Stewart's allegation that her Apprentice was supposed to launch with her firing Trump on air.
"Essentially," chided Trump in his letter, "you made this firing up just as you made up your sell order of ImClone."
Stewart, he continued, "should just go into the sunset, relax, have her little daytime show, and have it do as well as it can do, which isn't particularly well."
Stewart told her daytime audience last week that she was hurt and disappointed and "really upset at my longtime friend." Memo to both you cash clowns: Shut up and grow up. The Apprentice is so last year. NBC is dumping it into Mondays because it's no longer a "must see" Thursday draw.
Now that the show has cooled out, enter a Canadian -- sort of. One of the new 18 candidates is Brent Buckman, a 30-year-old Florida lawyer who was born and raised in Toronto and attended York University. The dude married his Florida law school sweetie and obtained his Green Card -- allowing him to make the cut for The Apprentice.
It figures -- finally we get to cheer for a Canadian -- and he's a lawyer. There are also Russian and British-born candidates among Trump's supposedly hand-picked players.
Another new wrinkle is the addition of two Trump children, Ivanka and Don, Jr., as fill-ins for busy execs Carolyn Kepcher and George Ross. "It's triple the Trump this season on The Apprentice," Trump gushes.
Hey, didn't Martha make her dominatrix daughter a deputy? That sure worked, huh?
Anyway, Donald, you're fired.
GOOD TRIUMPHS OVER EVIL: Real trumped fake after all last Thursday night on that crowded Winter Olympics vs. Idol/Survivor/Dancing showdown. NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics, featuring the women's figure skating finales, drew 24.49 million U.S. viewers, beating American Idol (23.07 million), Dancing With The Stars (17.68 million) and hardest hit Survivor: Panama (14.85 million). Gold, silver, bronze went to Olympics, Idol and Dance. Sounds about right.
