'Celebrity Apprentice' Star Dayana Mendoza On Lisa Lampanelli: 'I've Never Worked With Someone So Volatile' (EXCLUSIVE)

After weeks of battling comedian Lisa Lampanelli in (and out of) the boardroom, former Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza was eliminated on last night's episode.

We called up the Venezuelan beauty to get her thoughts on her final episode of "The Celebrity Apprentice," her highly publicized feud with the irreverent comedian, and the very awkward hug she shared with Lisa at the very end of the episode.

Now that you’ve had a chance to watch your final episode of “The Celebrity Apprentice," what did you think?
I’m very happy. I’m on my couch right now hanging out with my friend who’s here from Venezuela and we’re celebrating! I’m happy I did {the show}. I’m very proud of my work and most important, I did what I went to the show to do—to raise money for my charity. It was a great opportunity!

Were you surprised when "The Donald" fired you?
To be honest, I didn’t think I was going to go so long. I was {competing} against people who have been working in their career for as long as I’ve been alive. I think it was just my time…

At the very end of last night’s episode, it was a bit shocking to see you and Lisa Lampanelli hug it out, especially after all of the drama you had with her on the show.
{Laughs}. It was a weird thing to do.

When she leaned in and hugged you, did it surprise you that she said: “You're a good person.”
Well, she has been someone who expresses how much her mood changes and how quickly. So I think that was just another mood change she had. Being on {"The Celebrity Apprentice"} was an interesting job for me—I’ve never worked with somebody that was so volatile. And you know, she could be my mom! Like, I was actually surprised that she behaved that way.

Why do you think she acted that way towards you?
You know, I think it’s going to remain a mystery. I would like her to answer that question. I treated her with as much respect as other people and probably with the respect that she never gave me as well.

Would you say you were portrayed accurately on the show?
Yes, completely. There was no behavior of mine that I did that wasn’t shown the way it was on TV. I understand that at the end of the day, I’m Miss Universe 2008 and people will always stereotype me that way. And I need to fight harder because of it.

After Lisa said racist things about you a few weeks ago, you released a statement to the press. Why was that something you felt you had to do?
It was mean and insulting. And racial slurs have been used for so long to hold people down. The United States is so full of diversity that at this point we should celebrate it, instead of using it to put people down. At that point, she wasn’t talking about me, she was talking about thousands of people: my mom, my dad, my sister, my family.

CHECK OUT THIS SLIDESHOW OF LATINOS ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME

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• Andy Garcia

  Cuban born actor, Andy Garcia earned his star in The Hollywood Walk fo Fame in 1995. Garcia earned an Oscar nomination for his role in "The Godfather Part III" and a Grammy as producer of "Ahora Si" by Israel "Cachao" Lopez. More recently he played the role of Terry Benedict, the casino mogul, in "Ocean's Eleven" and it's following sequels. Garcia will appear in the movie "Hemingway and Fuentes", which will be released in 2012, in the role of Gregorio Fuentes.

• Christina Aguilera

  Aguilera, who's father is originally from Ecuador, was awarded a star in The Hollywood Walk fo Fame in 2010. In 1999 she had three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100--"Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)."

• Carlos Santana

  The Mexican-American rock star was immortalized in 1998. Santana is known for his guitar-playing skills and he became famous in the late 60 with his band "Santana". He was a pioneer in mixing Latin rhythms, jazz and rock. In 2003, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time-19691231" target="_hplink">Rolling Stone Magazine named Santana number 15 in their list of 100 greatest artists of all times. </a>

• George Lopez

  George Lopez, of Mexican descent, was awarded a place in The Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006. He is known for starring in his popular ABC sitcom "George Lopez". He is also known for his stand-up comedy which examines race and ethnic relations, focusing in Mexican American culture.

• The Estefans

  The Estefans share one more thing other than their Cuban descent and their undeniable musical talent. They both have star in The Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Gloria got hers in 1993 and Emilio got his in 2005. The power-couple has been married since 1976 and have been producing great music ever since.

• Vicente Fernandez

  The Mexican singer, known as <a href="http://latinmusic.about.com/od/artistsen/p/PRO01VFERN.htm" target="_hplink">"El Rey De Rancher" ("King Of Ranchera Music")</a> was awarded a star in 1998. Fernandez, who <a href="http://latinmusic.about.com/od/artistsen/p/PRO01VFERN.htm" target="_hplink">started singing at local restaurants and events</a>, is now not only a famous singer, but a cultural icon. In 2002 Fernandez was recognized by the Latin Recording Academy as Person of the Year.

Comments

[B mark]

07:53 AM on 05/16/2012

Lisa Lampenelli is the sorriest excuse for a human being I believe I have ever had the NON pleasure of making me sick to my stomach.. She really is a very very ugly person inside.. She truly is sick, jealous, needy, insecure, immoral, manipulative, maniacal, nasty, crude, rude, and maturity wise is stunted at about 8 years old.. Truly one of he worst human beings I have ever seen in my entire life. No wonder she is popular.. People love extreme things, and she is definitely extremely ill. Dayana complete 100% opposite of her.. No wonder she is popular too. She is as extremely a beautiful person inside which is 100% polar opposite of lisa lampenelli.. What a tyrant, self serving, corrupted soul, and narcistic individual Lisa is.. And these are the nicest things I can say about her..

[LornaP]

01:46 PM on 05/07/2012

Dayanna has won the admiration of this family for her poise, character, and resilience.

[lmuha89903]

05:45 PM on 05/06/2012

The egos on this show is amazing. Everybody wants to take credit for everything, why have the teams? This season has been terrible, very difficult to watch.

[TLaron1]

12:48 PM on 05/06/2012

Called N----- by Lisa Lampanelli Fans on Facebook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9alyE1XPRYQ

The point of this video is not to demonize anyone but to show people the type of audience that such hatred attracts and to encourage celebrities to take responsibility for their actions. Please Share if the disrespectful comments in this video have offended and hurt you as much as they have me. Thanks again everyone.

[Kate McCloud]

02:13 PM on 05/02/2012

*witness

[Kate McCloud]

02:11 PM on 05/02/2012

Lisa hates herself more than anyone. Sad to winess

[Wifeofa Sleepyman]

02:45 AM on 05/02/2012

Dayana was more beautiful inside than anyone I've ever seen on the show. Such grace, poise, compassion... she was actually nice. That said, I hate to categorize a person as being 100% anything, but Lisa Lampanelli was the embodiment of bitter hatred. What an awful person.
Great interview and all the best to Dayana!

[clayitagain]

04:54 PM on 05/01/2012

Dayana completely frustrated Clay to a point he hasn't been in years. Him standing up for himself, is hardly bullying. There is a difference.

Celebrity Apprentice is a game. When you sign up to appear on it...you better take your best shot at it... I am totally sick of people saying, poor Dayana, she had trouble with her English, etc. If she had that much difficulty (which I don't believe she did) she should not have joined in the show. Dayana was just totally bad as the Project Manager, and wasted so much time, that Clay and Lisa needed to make the presentation. Call it what it is. Yes, Lisa and her do not get along, but to say Clay was bullying her is just ridiculous! Standing up for ones self is not bullying!

[karma5230]

04:23 PM on 05/01/2012

Cont.

She is the person at the office who gets someone in trouble on purpose by what she does then goes and runs to the boss and says oh look what she did isn't she just horrible when she caused the whole thing in the first place by her actions. She got Lisa's number really fast and knew exactly how to push her buttons. That was Dayana's game strategy all along: playing the poor innocent one while underhandedly messing everyone else up. Why else does she bring up ideas at the last minute when it's too late to do something? Totally CYA for the boardroom and a zinger she can put out there. Her smirk says it all. This is a game and she was totally playing it. Lisa didn't play it smart. She should have realized that and not let Dayana get to her. If she had Dayana would have been gone a long time ago.

Granted Lisa is not an angel either and if she had controlled that temper of hers better she wouldn't be coming across as a bitter mean old shrew.

[karma5230]

04:22 PM on 05/01/2012

Dayana is a beautiful lady. I really thought highly of her until this last episode when I started to see what the problems were that made most of the women, other than Patricia, dislike her so much. She has that beauty pageant passive aggressive act going on. The oh look at poor innocent beautiful me...while stabbing you with her passive aggressive actions and words. You could see it in the smirks on her face after she got the reaction she wanted in front of Trump Jr. The see see what poor little me has to put up with when all she was doing was micromanaging what she had no clue about. .

To be cont.

[SiouxzieQ]

03:11 PM on 05/01/2012

Dayana is beautiful and classy - but if we're talking Celebrity Apprentice, she completely lost that task with her micromanaging. A good manager would know when the back off and let those who know more do their job without constant interruption.

If the challenge had been to stage a beauty pageant, it would have made no sense for Lisa or Clay to pretend like they knew more about it than Dayana. I truly believe both of them would have backed off, asked what they could do to help, but let her take the lead. In the real world, Dayana would have been fired for ineffective managing.

Instead of inserting herself in things she didn't know anything about, she should have been figuring out how she could actually be utilized in the presentation. This kind of surprised me, since she had been so vocal about the need to be on the stage and part of each and every presentation prior to this one. The executives loved Clay, loved the energy on stage, loved the writing, loved Lisa. They felt the 60s theme was safe, but they certainly didn't hate it. What they did dislike was Dayana wandering out on stage at the very end - out of place, not branded and without a mic. That single action was what lost this task for her team (although I actually believe they should have won - their presentation was more more professional and could have been an ad with no additional editing).

[karma5230]

04:24 PM on 05/01/2012

Well said!

[freedom1947]

11:11 AM on 05/01/2012

Was the lamp tempted to grab Ds rear?

[listentome]

09:26 AM on 05/01/2012

I don't even know her and she comes across as being as humble and smart as she is beautiful.

[pane23b]

01:29 AM on 05/01/2012

I've never seen 60 years old woman acting like Lisa L. She is the most obnoxious, the nastiest and the most disgusting person I've ever known. She is ugly inside and outside. She always thinks that she is the smartest one in the Apprentice, that's all she can boost about herself because other than that she knows she can't say anything else about herself eventhough she is not the smartest one. Smart person doesn't act that way. "F" word, "D" word, "B" word always comes out from her mouth. Disgusting, ugly and disrespectful.

[shae88]

01:24 PM on 05/01/2012

WELL SAID!!!! .. She was extremely JEALOUS of Dayana .. her and Aubrey both!

[Emeka N]

11:41 PM on 04/30/2012

With such grace, equanimity and panache exhibited throughout her tortuous period on Celebrity Apprentice, Diana Mendoza has truly lived up to her coveted status as the true Miss Universe.