Comedian Tom Green wants to set the tone for Canada at the upcoming Vancouver Olympics.
And he is determined to get the country on an early winning streak by winning The Celebrity Apprentice.
"I'm the only Canadian on the show, so I'm in it to win it," the Ottawa-area native said.
"It's like the Olympics. Go Canada. I consider myself something of an Alex Baumann. I'm there to win for Canada. That is the first, primary goal."
The new season of The Celebrity Apprentice, in which 16 famous people will endeavour to avoid being told "You're fired!" by Donald Trump, debuts tomorrow on E! and NBC.
Besides Green, the other contestants in the eighth edition of the show -- and second celebrity edition -- are comedian Joan Rivers, professional daughter Melissa Rivers, country singer Clint Black, golfer Natalie Gulbis, basketball player Dennis Rodman, football player Herschel Walker, TV personality Jesse James, Deal or no Deal model Claudia Jordan, Playboy playmate Brande Roderick, reality-TV personality Khloe Kardashian, R&B singer Brian McKnight, R&B singer Tionne Watkins, figure skater Scott Hamilton, poker player Annie Duke and comedian Andrew Dice Clay.
"I was asked to do it about six months ago and I was really excited because I actually really like The Apprentice a lot," Green said. "I think Donald Trump is just a great television character. It makes me laugh watching him scream at people, basically.
"I'd met (Trump) a couple of times (previously). He asked me once to be a judge on Miss Universe, which he produces. So I met him there. That's a good gig, right?"
Green, 37, said he tried to make The Celebrity Apprentice a "good gig," too, by combining his desire to win with his desire to create entertaining TV. The Celebrity Apprentice completed taping late last year, so while Green was careful not to reveal any details of the competition, he gave an interesting answer when asked if any of his fellow competitors surprised him, either positively or negatively.
"I'll pull back from being really specific because I don't want to be a mean-spirited guy, but I was surprised how a lot of the guys were just cranky," Green said.
"I had lot of fun hanging out with Dennis Rodman and Andrew Dice Clay, but outside of that, the other guys were so serious about winning these challenges that any time anybody did something that was either slightly entertaining or fun, they'd get all mad -- 'Oh, we're going to lose.' So that probably was the biggest surprise."
Green quickly came to see himself as a subversive force.
"For instance, Clint Black would always yell at everybody," Green said. "So he'd start an argument with someone and rather than doing the natural thing, which would be to cut in and say, 'Calm down, Clint,' I would look at him with an intensity and nod, as if everything he was saying made a lot of sense, just to fuel it.
"I was doing stuff like that all the time. But I think people kind of got wise to me. Scott Hamilton was a little angry with me at one point."
Green's career has gone in many different directions through the years, from comedy to acting to writing to rapping. Currently most of his efforts are spent on his Internet talk show, Tom Green's House Tonight, which is available at tomgreen.com.
"Andrew Dice Clay has been doing my web talk show for the past few years, so we had a lot of fun on this show, because people wouldn't expect us to be friends," Green said. "We were trying to confuse people sometimes. I enjoyed setting him up for stuff."
For all the good and bad, the screaming and tears, the alliances and crankiness, Green is confident things turned out well.
"I can tell you for sure, the first episode is just a riot," Green said. "Personally, I think it's going to be the best season of The Apprentice they've ever done.
"Somebody said this to me, but just say that I said it: It's the Guantanamo Bay of television."
