Celebrity Apprentice: Annie's friends rally for her

The Celebrity Apprentice finalist Annie Duke may have not come out on top in last night's season finale – she lost to sworn nemesis Joan Rivers.

But the Apprentice friends she made during the 14-week process, which raised nearly $1.6 million for charity, seemed to be the most upset over her defeat.

“I feel a little disappointed,” Claudia Jordan told me on the red carpet for the Celebrity Apprentice after-party at NYC’s American Museum of Natural History last night.

“Even though I had my differences with Annie, you cannot take away the fact that she raised the most money.”

Brande Roderick has her own theory on Donald Trump’s pick to win.

“I know that it is television so there’s reason behind it, and I do know that Joan Rivers has a new show out with (Apprentice producer) Mark Burnett, so obviously they did it for those purposes, it would be great for their publicity,” she said.

Joan is hosting a new show called How’d You Get so Rich for TV Land this fall.

Brande concluded, “Annie’s the one who actually really earned it and deserved it.”

It’s great to have your friends rally around you when you’re down.

Still, it’s hard to ignore last season’s Celebrity Apprentice winner Piers Morgan, who pointed out that—in the finale numbers game—Joan did come out on top.

“Annie blew the finale,” he declared, referring to the sparring gals’ final Kodak branding silent auction challenge.

“There were five criteria. Joan won three, and Annie won two. Game over,’ Piers continued.

“Annie’s a poker player, and three-of-a-kind always beats a pair.”

While Joan may be rethinking her last heated exchange with the card champion, Annie has already made her decision on whether the two women can ever make amends.

“I'm not interested in people who attack people the way that she does,” she told me.

It’s just business, until it does get personal!