The 'Celebrity Apprentice' Announces Cast

Contestants for the new season of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice, premiering Sunday, Feb. 12, are being announced Wednesday (Jan. 4), and Zap2it has the list first. The cast includes The Incredible Hulk, a former Miss Universe, an "American Idol," Mafia royalty and a TV icon.

Lou Ferrigno, Dayana Mendoza, Clay Aiken, Victoria Gotti and George Takei (Star Trek) are among those competing for $250,000 for charity and to avoid hearing Donald Trump say what he says better than anyone: "You're fired."

"This season of 'Celebrity Apprentice' will be the most exciting yet," Trump says in a prepared statement. "The show will be great with a record number of contestants and 15 episodes."

Additional contestants on the women's team include Real Housewives of New Jersey table thrower Teresa Giudice, singers Debbie Gibson, Aubrey O'Day and Tia Carrere, models Cheryl Tiegs, Patricia Velasquez, and comedian Lisa Lampanelli.

The men's team features magician Penn Jillette, Paul Teutul, Sr. (American Chopper) comedian Arsenio Hall, comedian and radio personality Adam Carolla, race car driver Michael Andretti and rocker Dee Snider.

"We've never seen such a smart and funny group as this year's lineup of celebrities," executive producer Mark Burnett says.

In a challenge, which filmed in Manhattan in October and which Zap2it attended, contestants made sandwiches at two branches of Cafe Metro, and Burnett isn't bluffing -- they were funny.

Outside the East 42nd Street restaurant, Jillette juggled flaming batons while Teutul fiercely revved tricked-out motorcycles. Next to him Ferrigno flexed his massive arms and yelled, "Eat here or I'll eat you -- for charity."

Across town, balancing on the sort of heels which fuel chiropractors' bank accounts and wearing barely-there dresses, beauty pageant winners pranced in front of the Cafe Metro on West 52nd Street and smiled at men who stopped dead mid-conversation and were hit by ravenous hunger. Gibson sang "Only in My Dreams" inside as strobe lights blinked onto the street.

Then, this was all supposed to be under wraps; imagine if they had wanted to draw attention to themselves.