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Celebrity Apprentice: Penn Jillette ‘Wins’ $250,000 for Charity from Caesars

Despite being sent home this week, Celebrity Apprentice contestant Penn Jillette still left the show with the winning prize of $250,00 for his charity

By Jen Harper /

Penn Jillette

Donald Trump’s most recently axed celebrity apprentice

This week’s newly fired celebrity apprentice Penn Jillette still managed to acquire $250,000 for his chosen charity

Despite hearing Donald Trump’s parting phrase on Sunday’s (April 23) episode of The Celebrity Apprentice, Penn Jillette still managed to win more than $250,000 — the full amount awarded to the ultimate show winner’s charity — for Opportunity Village, a nonprofit serving people with intellectual disabilities, but the big check wasn’t from Trump. It was from Penn’s “real boss,” Caesars Palace.

“They called up, and they said, ‘You really care about Opportunity Village, don’t you?'” Penn tells Zap2it. The Las Vegas hotel and casino, which owns the Rio where Penn & Teller perform, then wrote a check for $250,000 to be given to the organization well in advance of The Celebrity Apprentice May finale. Penn had previously won $40,000 for his charity as the project manager during a task to create a show for Medieval Times.

“I’m thrilled to pieces,” Penn says. “So we’ll have the live finale, but I will have already given the full prize plus more to my charity. And [Caesars] didn’t have to do a big TV show about it.”

Looks like all Penn’s hard work on the show paid off after all.

Do you think Penn deserved to go farther on The Celebrity Apprentice?