NY rooftop deck owner fires 'Apprentice' producers

[November 19, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The dirt is flying in New York City between Donald Trump's producers for TV's "Celebrity Apprentice" and the owner of the city's glitziest rooftop garden.

Plans to shoot the NBC show's season finale atop 230 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan were nixed after owner Steven Greenberg accused Mark Burnett Productions of being "scam artists."

A location scout first expressed interest in the 22,000-square-foot deck called 230 Fifth, with its 360-degree Manhattan panorama. Work was to have started before dawn last Monday.

But Greenberg says by late Nov. 12 the producers still hadn't made up their minds. He told them he felt he was being "jerked around."

A production executive apologized and said "Apprentice" was still interested.

But Greenberg declined. He jokes he "fired Trump" on Saturday.

[Associated Press; By VERENA DOBNIK]

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