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Interview With Celebrity Apprentice's Annie Duke, Part II

SavvySugar — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:30:42 -0800

Poker pro Annie Duke seems like she will be a force to reckon with as a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice. She knows what Donald Trump is looking for on his show - competency and controversy - and this intelligent and frank player could bring both elements to the table. Here's more from my fun interview with Annie.

SavvySugar: Did you form any bonds with the other contestants?

Annie Duke: Anyone who knows me would be surprised by this unless they know this person. But Brande Roderick, she's a former Playboy playmate. Brandy is really smart, one of the sweetest people on the planet, and to this day we’re really good friends. I would never guess I’d go on a show like that and become real friends with someone, but we started bonding during press week. She’s one of my favorite people now. Herschel Walker is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. He’s a total sweetheart. The call time for that show is 5 a.m., so in order for him to get in his run, he’d wake up at 3 a.m. He’s a business owner, confident guy, really nice. Natalie Gulbis . . . we probably bonded because we kind of do similar things. She travels a lot, she's a female athlete, really smart and confident.

To see how Annie worries about how she comes off on the show and her feelings about the March 1 premiere, read more.

SavvySugar: What’s next for you in your career?

Annie Duke: I don’t know, I'm just sitting here dreading the premiere of the show. One of the reasons I hesitated to go on . . . I have a very strong personality and I’m really direct and used to communicating with men. The way you communicate with men is much different than the way you communicate with women. You have to go at things more sideways, and I’m more of a frontways person. I’m definitely concerned that the show is going to premiere and people will say 'that’s one snarky bitch.' You give me a task and I face it head on . . . besides the dread of March 1 I have a lot of poker coming up. . . and I'm going to hide in my house [laughs]. I had a horrible panic attack, people in my yoga studio don’t really know who I am. Right after I got back from The Celebrity Apprentice and someone came up to me and said, 'hey just wanted to let you know, big fan.' Then I thought, what if I come to the yoga studio and more people recognize me. I’m having a little bit of a, oh no what have I done?

Join me in rooting for Annie on Sunday when The Celebrity Apprentice premieres its second season.

Photo courtesy of Charles William Bush

A Conversation With Diddy

partysugar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:00:03 -0800

Rapper and mogul Diddy was in San Francisco last week promoting Cîroc, his vodka brand. I was lucky enough to sit down with the musician, and we chatted about entertaining. Not surprisingly, he consumes a lot of Cîroc and his signature drink is a Cîroc and lemonade - say it fast and it sounds like a lyric in one of his songs, "ci-rocking lemonade." To find out what the Diddy had to say, read more.

PartySugar: What’s new with Cîroc?
Diddy: The newest thing with Cîroc is our success. Our success and our appeal. The sales went up 1,000% and just the appeal is becoming more recognizable to the consumer.

PS: Aren't you coming out with some new flavors?
D: Yeah. In the world of Cîroc, one of the biggest differences is the flavors. Red Berry and coconut. Now most flavors, to be honest, in the vodka industry, most flavors just haven’t been done right. They taste like cough syrup. I went down with the innovation team, and I was like, whatever we do I want to make sure that this doesn’t taste like cough syrup.
And then also make something that really tastes like what it says. If it says coconut, let’s make sure it tastes like coconut. If it says red berry, let’s make sure it tastes like red berry.

PS: Do you ever cook?
D: I cook breakfast.

PS: What music do you recommend for cooking?
D: Music for cooking? Marvin Gaye’s always good for cooking.

PS: What are your guilty pleasure foods?
D: I would probably say jello. Strawberry jello.

PS: If you had to drink one type of alcohol for the rest of your life what would it be?
D: Vodka. Cîroc.

PS: Besides yourself, who are some celebrities that know how to entertain/host a good party?
D: I never seen anybody do it how I do.

PS: What was the first alcoholic drink you ever drank?
D: Peach schnapps and orange juice, before I was enabled.

PS: What do you think will be the next big thing in cocktails?
D: Jello shots.

Stay tuned for Diddy's tips for hosting the ultimate party!

Read PopSugarUK's New Moon Interviews and Review!

PopSugarUK — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Part One: Taylor, Robert and Kristen On Hot Bodies & Kissing Scenes!	Part Two: Kristen and Robert Respond to Relationship Rumours!	Part Three: Robert on Music, Immortality and Harry Potter Versus Twilight!
Part Four: Taylor on Stunts, Hobbies, Fans and Playing a Female Part!	New Moon Review: Love Triangle and New Additions Live Up to Hype	All Our New Moon Coverage, including TV appearances, premieres and fan events!

Condensed Sugar

PopSugarUK — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Robert, Kristen and Taylor took New Moon from LA to Paris, London and Madrid and I got to meet the gorgeous gang: read all the gossip from the interviews here!
Mark Owen got married in the Highlands in front of his Take That band mates
Prince Harry watched rugby with Chelsy Davy and attended Remembrance Sunday
Rihanna, Stella McCartney and more were named Glamour's Women of the Year
Peter Andre won a libel case while Katie Price headed Down Under
Denise Van Outen and Lee Mead announced they're expecting their first child
Ashley Jensen gave birth to a boy and called him Francis Jonathan Beesley
The official lineup for I'm a Celebrity was revealed ahead of its Sunday start
Cosmopolitan named their Ultimate Women of the Year in a London ceremony
Singing sensations joined together for a special Children In Need gig

Robert Pattinson Continues His Chilled New York Weekend

PopSugarUK — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:10:05 -0800

Robert Pattinson stepped out to a Japanese restaurant on Sunday night in New York City, continuing his weekend of relaxation after New Moon opened super-successfully last week. Trying to avoid attention by wearing all black, with a beanie covering his famous messy hair, he certainly had a reason to celebrate! Don't forget to check out all my New Moon coverage from the past few weeks of worldwide promotion, as well as my interviews with the cast!

View 5 Photos ›

FabSugar Exclusive: Alexis Bittar Is Gossip Girl's Favorite Accessory Designer

FabSugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:00:22 -0800

We caught up with Alexis Bittar at his Neiman Marcus trunk show recently. He's super dreamy, as you can tell from his photo (center). And so friendly, it was comfortable, like we'd met before. Read what he had to say about his biggest fans - Fab fave Cameron Diaz and the Gossip Girl stylists - as well as how he got his start.

What sparked your interest in jewelry?

I sold antique jewelry on the street [at the 26th Street flea market in Manhattan] for 15 years. I started working with Lucite, I just pounded it, started carving it. I actually don’t know how I put it all together in my brain, but I liked that you could sculpt it. It’s pretty cheap - in the beginning I had no money. It seemed like an experimental medium. And I like working with mediums that aren’t typical. When I first saw it, I loved it and I still love it. Guys like it, too; they’re into the science of it, they’re trying to figure it out. It took a long time - the beginning was a bit difficult, then certain key people used it, and it slowly took off. When the millennium happened there was thing of perceiving everything differently and it became the new.

See what else we discussed.

Interview With Celebrity Apprentice's Annie Duke, Part I

SavvySugar — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:15:16 -0800

The second season of The Celebrity Apprentice premieres this Sunday and the previews have made me excited to watch. It's a diverse crowd of candidates this year, and I was lucky to chat with Annie Duke of professional poker fame. She's a sharp, funny, mother-of-four, and for a highly successful woman who has coached other celebrities like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck on their poker games, she is incredibly down to earth.

Annie said that she had huge hesitations about saying yes to the show because she never had interest putting herself out there on national TV more than she already does, but once she found out that she could raise money for charity by playing a game, she couldn't say no. As the co-founder of Ante Up For Africa she said, "Here’s a chance, because people know who I am, to do something really good. Not just for my charity but for other people’s charities. Every week of that show, some charity is going to benefit. I just thought it would be a really cool thing to be a part of. I would have been more enthusiastic had I known that in advance, but I’m really glad that I did it."

To see some of Annie's responses to a couple of Savvy questions and learn what Donald Trump is looking for, read more.

SavvySugar: Did your ability to read people come into play?

Annie Duke: The structure of the game is really interesting. On a game like Survivor, your teammates vote, on Dancing With the Stars, America votes. In this situation it’s one guy. You don’t have to worry so much about whether or not your teammates like you because in the end it just matters if Trump is pissed off at you. It’s a game of competence. In Survivor, it’s important you don’t appear too competent. But on The Celebrity Apprentice it's extremely important you appear competent for two reasons: Number one, Trump needs to think you’re competent, and number two, if your team wins you don’t face the board room and no one on your team wants to face elimination. It’s a very unusual game because you don’t have to hide your competence, in fact you have to show it off. After I found out I'd be on the show, I watched the entire first season - I didn’t just watch it, I paused and went backward and forward, analyzed everything. Watched how the challenges went, what part of the challenges tended to get you on the chopping block. If you do too much or not enough, it can get you there. I watched how bad it was not to defer to your project manager. I really strategically analyzed the first season and I was extremely regretful I hadn’t watched it because it’s an extremely interesting show - because it’s a show about competence.

SavvySugar: What else is Trump looking for?

Annie Duke: Controversy. But if you're controversial for no apparent reason you’re not going to win the game. Omarosa is a good example – all she did was pick fights with people and that was a good strategy to get her to the middle of the game. Take someone like Piers, he was controversial because he was direct and spoke his mind, but he backed it up every time. And that’s the better kind of controversy. If you’re a quiet little mouse, you’re going to be in big trouble on that show. Trump likes fireworks. He eggs people on. I saw situations in the first season where it seemed obvious that one person was wrong, like when Omarosa reamed at Piers the whole day talking about his kids and talking about what kind of father he was. That was a situation when there was one person clearly in the right and one clearly in the wrong. I was impressed that he kept his cool, but when they went into the boardroom Trump was like, 'Why are you such a jerk Piers?'. He certainly knows what makes good TV.

Check out what Annie had to say about the other candidates and her feelings about the show's March 1 premiere in tomorrow's post on SavvySugar. For more information on Annie Duke, check out her website.

Photo courtesy of Charles William Bush

Fab Exclusive: Alexis Bittar Talks Jewelry as Weapons and Multiple Bling Personalities

FabSugar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:00:22 -0800

I've always wanted to meet the man behind my favorite Alexis Bittar jewels - I finally had the pleasure to do so at his recent Neiman Marcus trunk show. Alexis filled us in on what's going on in his world right now. He's one busy bee; his San Francisco stay was for a mere 10 hours because he had to fly to Vancouver for an appearance at Holt Renfrew. He revealed his jewelry philosophy and discussed the dope spiked bracelet Alicia Keys wore recently . . .

What’s the latest and greatest goings on?

I just finished Spring, we showed at Paris Fashion Week. We showed at Tranoi, which is a show there. I designed three collections under Alexis Bittar, and three other collections for other designers. I did Alexis Bittar for Michael Kors, we did glass, it’s all clear. And I did Michael Angel, he’s kind of a younger designer. I met him through the girls at Vogue. In a week, doing Victoria’s Secret.

Hear more from Alexis Bittar.

Robert Talks to Ellen But Gets Cozy With Kristen

PopSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:51:43 -0800

Robert Pattinson spent the week in NYC for the final leg of New Moon promotion, including one more screening last night, but before he went East, he stopped by to see Ellen DeGeneres. He opened up to Ellen about all sorts of topics, including a fan who actually took off her clothes - check out the three videos of their interview, which airs today. Last night, though, was a celebration with afterparties across the city. Rob and Kristen skipped the official bash, instead choosing a different lounge, where they were spotted whispering and getting cozy in a private booth. Apparently she was seen rubbing his back - is it so wrong to wonder if there was more hand holding too?

To see the remainder of Robert's segment, just read more.

Jennie Garth Gives LilSugar the Exclusive Scoop - Part Two

babysugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:00:52 -0800

In case you missed it, Jennie Garth took some time out of her schedule to chat with LilSugar about her life as a mommy of three. She answered our four lil questions and then some. Not surprising, she shot straight from the hip and revealed that she is a down-to-earth kind of lady who is keeping a good head on her shoulders while teaching her daughters to do the same. Here are some of the questions the cute mom answered for us:

In light of all of the reality TV shows following families and your stint on Dancing With the Stars, would you ever want your children to be in the spotlight on a TV show or actors on their own show?

I hope not. I would never discourage them from what they want to do but hope that they aim a little higher. Being an actor is not a bad profession by any means but the easy way out, it seems right now, is to do a reality show so I'm hoping Luca - she wants to be an actress I think but she doesn't want to tell me - that they study and learn a craft and become really, really good at it.

Which one of your characteristics do you wish your children would inherit from you?

I can do anything. I can change the oil in the car. Honestly, if it put my mind to it, I can do anything and I hope that they have that. I don't want them to just call the repair man. I want them to try to fix something first. I hope they get a hands on, get it done, I can do anything mentality.

Have you let your kids watch your old 90210 days or the renewed show?

No, no, no. Absolutely not.

Have they seen any of your work?

They've seen a couple of things. They've seen some of my work. They watched What I Like About You sometimes, but even that one was a little too risque at times. But, they come along to a lot of the charitable things I do.

To see what the hot mama has to say about being pregnant again and how she and Peter bring the sexy back, just read more.

Speaking of, how did you get involved with Smiles Across America (SAA)?

As a mother, I sort of saw an opportunity. There's inadequate dental heath care and children are not being taught by their parents to take care of their teeth. SAA goes into schools and teaches kids how to take care of their teeth and they provide them with services.

Who is your role model in motherhood?

I really rely on my girlfriends a lot. We do it together - bounce ideas off of each other. They pick me up when I'm at my lowest point and feel like a terrible mom. We talk about stuff and it helps me to continue on. I just sometimes need a pep talk.

Were you a lover of pregnancy or were you dying to get it over with?

I loved it! I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Will you do it again?

I hope so! I don't know. It depends on my husband being in town.

How do you and Peter bring the sexy back to your marriage with three kids and both of you working?

We do a lot of texting and a lot of flirting by texting and making each other laugh a lot. A good sense of humor keeps each other laughing.

How has the whole Twilight craze affected your family life? Are the girls into it? Do they have crushes on Rob?

They're younger. They don't really care that much. Plus, we really instill in them that they're not goo goo crazy over actors. We try to keep them in a realistic mode. They're a little young... but I'm crazy coo coo for vampires! But, what I do and what I teach my kids to do are two different things.

Amen to that!