Joan Rivers is a "Monster"

'Celebrity Apprentice' party planner David Tutera tells Barbara Walters that Joan Rivers is 'a monster'
May 11, 2009, 07:33 PM | by Adam B. Vary

Categories: Radio, Television

Party planner David Tutera, who memorably clashed with eventual Celebrity Apprentice winner Joan Rivers on Sunday's finale, told Barbara Walters on her Sirius XM Radio show Monday that Rivers is "a monster." Tutera was tasked to work with Rivers to plan a charity auction, but he told Walters he quit in part because "Joan and Melissa [Rivers] were completely incapable of giving me their insight on how the party should look. They had zero direction.... In 23 years of being in business, I have never left anyone, no matter how difficult they are to work with. Her behavior towards any human being was so unacceptable to me. [She's] such a monster I cannot begin to even explain."

Tutera, who also hosts the WE-TV show My Fair Wedding, says Celebrity Apprentice producers "manipulated" the situation by telling him ahead of time that he was not to give Rivers any ideas of his own. "When I got into the room and [Joan's team] gave me no ideas," he said, "I was left to sort of stand there and defend myself." When Walters asked Tutera whether he would work for Rivers again, Tutera replied, "Absolutely over my dead body."