Rocker Bret Michaels Leaves Hospital, Wins Celebrity Apprentice
There was at least one important finale on TV last night – who would win season three of The Celebrity Apprentice?
Bret Michaels was in the final two (with Holly Robinson Peete), and appeared live despite finding himself back in the hospital last week due to recent complications following a massive brain hemorrhage last month. And he won it all.
“I spoke with your doctors, they must have done a hell of a job,” said Trump after he introduced Michaels to a lengthy standing ovation last night. Michaels appeared in fairly good health, although he slowly limped across the stage.
Trump, ever the master of PR, played up the appearance at every opportunity. “They didn’t want you to be here tonight,” he said of Michaels’ doctors. “At all, believe me. Not at all. Are you risking your life being here? It’s a lot of pressure.”
Michaels joked out of the set-up. “Lately it seems like me just standing up is risking my life,” he said, before saying the last month has “been a rough go.”
Michaels’ spokesperson Janna Elias put out a statement that didn’t make it sound like Michaels was risking his life by being on the show, although he had been in the hospital up until his plane trip across the U.S. for the finale. “We are all making sure that he is not taking any undo risks and we are certainly taking every precaution possible to insure his health and well being,” she said. “No doubt these recent medical complications have been tough but he wants to continue to live his life, enjoy every day and get back on the road.”
This wasn’t the first time Michaels’ appeared publicly to talk about his life-threatening ordeal – he spoke to Oprah Winfrey earlier this month. But that was before he went back to the hospital last week due to complications that included a warning stroke and finding that he had a hole in his heart.
Michaels’ Apprentice “you’re hired” won’t be the last of his appearances either. He’ll celebrate the victory with a series of interviews, reports the New York Times, and will soon be back on VH1 with a new reality series, Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It..
Here’s Michaels talking about his health last night:
