'Celebrity Apprentice' Pits Mob Wife Against 'The Hulk' (VIDEO)
The new season of "Celebrity Apprentice" debuts on Sunday and will feature an all-star cast including Victoria Gotti and Lou "The Hulk" Ferrigno.
Gotti grew up in a large Mafia family under her father, John Gotti. She later married and is the mother of three sons. Their lives were opened to the American public on A&E's "Growing Up Gotti" that depicted life in the famous household. The show did not last long, though, but Gotti has still captivated many.
She faced public scrutiny in 2005 for claiming she had breast cancer when she actually had "precancerous cells" in one breast. "What I have is considered by most to be cancer. Noninvasive cancer," she told "Good Morning America."
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"There's no easy way to explain that. It is the illness. You have to look it up to understand it," Gotti explained. She has not spoken about the incident since then, but reports state that publicist Matt Rich quit because of the scandal. Rich told reporters, "I do not work for Ms. Gotti anymore" and refused to answer questions about her cancer claim.
She has had financial problems as well, with the home she shared with ex-husband Carmine Angello being foreclosed on in 2009. "I was awarded full ownership of marital property, and all I inherited was a house with millions of dollars' worth of debt," Gotti told the New York Post.
Now, though, she is ready and willing to compete against other celebrities on the new season of Donald Trump's "Apprentice." One competitor is no stranger to challenges and may prove a formidable opponent.
Lou Ferrigno is perhaps better known by his alternate ego, "The Hulk," whom he portrayed on the television series for four years. Ferrigno frequently competed as a body-builder and came in fourth in the very first World's Strongest Man competition in 1977. A father of three, Ferrigno runs his own fitness line of equipment and was more recently named a sheriff's deputy in Arizona.
All celebrities have chosen to play on "Apprentice" in the hopes of winning $250,000 for their chosen charities. Gotti will compete for the Association to Benefit Children, which "is dedicated to bringing joy and warmth to disadvantaged children and their families through compassionate, sustainable, comprehensive and integrated services, designed to permanently break the cycles of abuse, neglect, sickness and homelessness."
Ferrigno has chosen to play on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which was founded in 1950 "by a group of adults with muscular dystrophy, parents of children with muscular dystrophy and a physician-scientist studying the disorder."
The new season of "Celebrity Apprentice" will air on Sunday, Feb. 20, on NBC.
Watch a preview here:
