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Vincent's charity is the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research (Mitchell Berke Memorial). PERSONAL CONNECTION: A close friend of Vinnie's recently died from pancreatic cancer. A memorial fund was started in his name at the Lustgarten Foundation

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VINCENT PASTORE - EXIT INTERVIEW

You seemed really uncomfortable about spying in the first place. What's the real story on your experience of being a "rat"?

As you can, see it started out as a joke. Then, as I was getting into it, I had a change of heart... so did Steven Baldwin. That's why I told Marilu in the car what I was assigned to do. As the day progressed when I heard that Piers had informed on me, I was upset. You don't do that. I could have stayed with the girls to the end. Maybe he realized he made a mistake in sending me to the girls cause now they had the advantage. When I returned to Hydra I was totally under control. Lennox and I went to a party that night. The next day, it started to hit me how I was used by Piers to cause sabotage, and when he said I was useless and haven't done anything in three weeks for Hydra I knew it was time to talk to Trump. But the boardroom got all turned around, especially when I thought Marilu was gonna back me up. But the last straw was when Lennox went against me. I knew it was time to go home.

CONTESTANT INTERVIEW

Let's put the million-dollar question out there first. You've already achieved fame and success. Why put yourself through a process as brutal as anything Tony Soprano could dish out?

You know, that's what we do. We take chances. We want to work; we want to do shows like The Apprentice. This was a similar challenge to doing Celebrity Fit Club.

You ran nightclubs for several years. How will you apply your experience there to the Apprentice?

In nightclubs, you had to use a marketing aspect in running the business. You had to get people to come to an event. Running a bar is one thing; running a nightclub is something else. In running a bar, you are catering to neighborhood guys who are there every night. When running a nightclub, you have to deal with volume... 1000s of people. When you book a band, you pay them a lot of money and you need to make sure you get the return. It's a bigger risk than running a bar. And I had shows every night.

Like the show I'm doing now on Broadway... "Chicago." How do you sell tickets every night to an old play... how do you get people to come from different areas? In running a nightclub, I booked regional bands that had draws, which had names. I booked different bands on Friday than I did on Saturday to cater to different crowds.

What about applying tactics you may have picked up from working on The Sopranos?

I'm a people person. I can go up to somebody and ask to get a favor done. A lot of times when we needed favors done, like chairs and setups, I'm the one who got it done. People come through for me because they know I won't abuse the favor and it will be a good experience. I was brought up that way by my father: always return a favor and follow through.

What do you admire most about Donald Trump? Do you see a correlation between him and you in the sense that you are both famous AND business people?

We are two different guys, but I admire the fact that he's very successful - a self-made guy. He's has a great personality, and is a fellow Friar. I really like the guy. He's a New Yorker, a regular guy.

Why should you be Donald Trump's celebrity Apprentice?

I never thought about that. I just thought about going the distance through the process. It's a process of elimination - the best man wins. But you also have to understand that this is different from other Apprentices since our objective is to raise money for our charities. And when you become the Celebrity Apprentice you receive $250,000 for your charity, and along the way as you get the position of being the project manager, if your team wins, you win money for your charity - so that's the objective. Not so much as being the Apprentice, but what you can win for your charity to help others.

Since you are in the public spotlight, people already know a great deal about you. What's one thing that the public may not know?

That I have a soft side. I'm kind of a mush, especially when it comes to charities and people's health and families. I like being in a relationship. I'm a romantic, not a playboy. I'm more grounded than when I was 20 years ago. I like friends. One of the things I enjoyed most about Celebrity Apprentice was gaining new friends. We all stayed in contact with each other and I like that.

If you could be the star of any movie ever made, which star and which movie would it be and why?

Rick in Casablanca.

What are your three favorite albums of all time?

"Moon Dance" by Van Morrison

"Layla" by Derek and the Dominos

"Darkness on the Edge of Town" by Bruce Springsteen

What are your three favorite books?

"Carpetbaggers" by Harold Robbins

"The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks

"The Prince" by Machiavelli

Who would win in a fight: Tony Soprano or Donald Trump?

How could I answer that? I'd get in a lot of trouble. But I think in a physical fight, Tony Soprano would wipe Donald Trump all over 5th Avenue.

What's New

  1. Exit Interviews: Piers Morgan & Trace Adkins
  2. Unique insight, wit: Andrea Lake's Blog
  3. Deleted Scene - Generous amounts for charities.
  4. Trumpisms - Teach apprentices to think BIG!
  5. Ideas & opinions from TrumpU - Trump's Blog

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