Topic: "The Apprentice"

[marigold]

  Oh boy, I know it's gonna be a good one today apskip

[apskip]

The task was to design a 4 page ad layout for Redbook magazine and Dial's new Yoghurt BodyWash product. I was astonished to learn that Donald Trump uses Dial products(imagine him acting as a shill for these companies that pay millions for product placement on his show!; how could it ever happen that a supposed billionaire needs to prostitute himself in such a manner?; maybe this is the secret to how the rich get richer). The Empresario project manager was sure to be Omarosa, as she is clamoring to be it, until Trump casually mentions that the losing Project Manger this time has a high probability of getting fired. You never saw such fast backpedaling in your life. Omarosa immediately tries to weasel out of it and convince Tito to be PM. Tito is way too generous and allows her off the hook, probably because he wants his shot at the $20,000 for his charity(more on that later). Hydra chooses Carol Alt, who admits that she has been on the cover of Redbook 5 times and is clearly the most qualfiied on her team (and probably among all original contestants) to lead this task. Each team gets a consultant and a photo studio for the task.

Each team gets to the point of deciding how far on the "sexy" scale they are willing to go. Omarosa decides that two of their male models need to be topless for the photos and then recommends that Trace join in topless. He has major misgivings, but he does it and the reaction of all females in the room (there a a few besides Omarosa) is stunning. However, Stephen Baldwin, who is acting as de facto Project Manager with the support of Tito, decides at  the end that it is too risky and does not include it in the final Emprasario portfolio, which was based on retaining skin moisture in dry desert air. The actual presentation is spread around the team, but Tito has more than anyone else and he totally botches his part due to nervousness. Hydra bases its campaign around a "stages of a woman's life" campaign with Carol Alt as the model. The last shot in their final portfolio is carol in a bed and a male model in back playfully eating her ear. They debated whether this was too risky but left it in. Piers is the presenter and does an excellent job.

The evaluation committee was composed of the Redbook editor and 2 Dial vice-presidents. They liked both presentations, but saw the Hydra one as having a much more coherent story line. One guy thought the ear-eating went over the line, but this was not enough to destroy the credibility of the whole campaign. The group clearly voted for Hydra, although the show left you in suspense.

Trump brought the teams into the boardroom and played with them, as he loves to do. He gave the Hydra ad to Emprasario and the Emprasario ad to Hydra and asked for their candid feedback. As you would expect in a competitive situation, he got back garbage. So he told them that he had an opinion(although I don't remeber him saying what it was), but that it was irrelevant because all that mattered was the committee concensus. He did not play with them any more and told them it was strong preference for Hydra. He told Carol, Piers, and Lennox to "get out of here". Then he turned to Emprasario and probed to find out who the wekest performers were. He got the surprising anwer from Tito that it was not Omarosa, who had made several contributions(which was really true). It was clearly not Trace, who had performed fabulous work once again as the model. That left Stephen and Tito. Either one deserved the ax, but Trump told tito that he had warned that the Project Manger was going to be held responsible and fired Tito.

However, he saved the biggest surprise of all for last. Carol Alt, who had done an excellent job as winning Project Manager, got $20,000 of Celebrity Apprentice money plus the opportunity to win the big money. Tito is held in such high esteem by Trump that the Donald gave him $50,000 of his own money for St. Jude Research Hospital. Trump is capable of reminding how generous he can be if he really likes someone and thinks they worked hard on his behalf.

Next week: this should not be missed. it appears to be Piers vs. Omarosa as Project Managers. They are both due. I predict before knowing anything else that Piers will give her an unforgettable thrashing. BE THERE, then read about it here. You know I will be relishing the opportunity to be write about the Celebrity Apprentice equivalent of World War III.

[TexasLady]

LOL Ca, I cannot WAIT. Omarosa is no match for Piers.

[marigold]

LOL Ca, I cannot WAIT. Omarosa is no match for Piers.

  Oh look at you, I love your new avatar.

I know I can't wait either. It's going to be a good episode.

[marigold]

  apskip, brilliant and that's what I was waiting to hear, Omarosa pedaling backwards.

That was so funny she said she wanted it being the PM and then had a quick changed of heart.

Miss "O" spoke too soon.

What's up with that. She has to be kidding although I know she's not.

From a one name person down to a letter. What next a symbol like prince 

I will definitely be there who can miss this highly anticipated thrashing.

You know from Piers, it's a resentment left from the family low blows stated by Omarosa.

Let's hope that's the last we see of her, at least on The Apprentice.

[apskip]

I am going to put forward a hypothesis (for the mathmetically or scientifically inclined)/hunch (for everyone else):

Omarosa was brought onto onto Celebrity Apprentice and protected in order to bring her to the place where she will be this coming Thursday - in a major battle with one of the other celebrities. It didn't really matter which one. I would have guessed Gene Simmons would have been the one due to his erudite behavior, but his early departure from the scene essentially passed the torch to Piers Morgan as the most erudite and civilized of the men. It could even have been a woman who was slated as Omarosa's ultimate opponent; it didn't matter. What was important was lots of controversy that would build ratings. I will further hypothesize that Omarosa was given something no other contestant got - a guarantee of either money for a charity or an honorarium for herself regardless of how she finished. In other words, she was being paid to act a role and not to just be herself/himself like all the other contestants. As a reality series "star", she had much less celebrity than any other contestant so it could have been the only way for her to appear on the show. If my hypothesis is correct, she would be more grateful to Donald Trump for resurrecting her notoriety (worth $ in future opportunities) than whatever actual dollars she earned for herself or a charity.

What do you think of this scenario? Do it resonate with you? Would Donald Trump try to pull a stunt like this? Would Omarosa go along with it?

[marigold]

I am going to put forward a hypothesis (for the mathmetically or scientifically inclined)/hunch (for everyone else):

Omarosa was brought onto onto Celebrity Apprentice and protected in order to bring her to the place where she will be this coming Thursday - in a major battle with one of the other celebrities. It didn't really matter which one. I would have guessed Gene Simmons would have been the one due to his erudite behavior, but his early departure from the scene essentially passed the torch to Piers Morgan as the most erudite and civilized of the men. It could even have been a woman who was slated as Omarosa's ultimate opponent; it didn't matter. What was important was lots of controversy that would build ratings. I will further hypothesize that Omarosa was given something no other contestant got - a guarantee of either money for a charity or an honorarium for herself regardless of how she finished. In other words, she was being paid to act a role and not to just be herself/himself like all the other contestants. As a reality series "star", she had much less celebrity than any other contestant so it could have been the only way for her to appear on the show. If my hypothesis is correct, she would be more grateful to Donald Trump for resurrecting her notoriety (worth $ in future opportunities) than whatever actual dollars she earned for herself or a charity.

What do you think of this scenario? Do it resonate with you? Would Donald Trump try to pull a stunt like this? Would Omarosa go along with it?

Absolutely apskip I don't doubt it and here's why.

There are sooo many celebrities out there that would have loved to been apart of this season.

The idea of being on The Celebrity Apprentice a chance of meeting Donald Trump if they haven't already

but ultimately the idea of raising money and awareness for their charity is huge.

I do not believe another celebrity could not have been found other than Omarosa to fill this spot.

I would think that it would be a second chance for Omarosa as well to redeem herself,

that she is a contender and qualified to work for Donald. Unfortunately she just can't pull it off.

I'm not saying she's not intellegent but just not enough of everything

that she would ever be considered as a suiteable person to work for Donald.

Overall she has demonstrated poor behaviour such as when she poured the drink and attacked Piers

with the family low blow and finally not stepping forward in her last challenge.

Like I had said previously she cannot handle challenged arguments or disagreement. She clearly acts out with anger.

Or what I call her famous Oh please that's what she always says I mean she might as well have said to talk to her hand.

Anyways I've gotten carried away with this and could possibly go on forever about it 

So yes apskip I absolutely agree with you.

[TexasLady]

I am going to put forward a hypothesis (for the mathmetically or scientifically inclined)/hunch (for everyone else):

What do you think of this scenario? Do it resonate with you? Would Donald Trump try to pull a stunt like this? Would Omarosa go along with it?

Absolutely he would set this up. Omarosa is an attention seeker of the first magnitude, it gives her camera time and exposure. When Omarosa went to such extremes to insult Piers and his family for no apparent reason but was not fired, that bothered me. It seemed to me then that she knew she was safe.

I would love to have seen Gene Simmons battle her but the upcoming war of words will be far better, the English have the ability to cut an opponent to pieces before they even know the war has begun.

Love your hypotheses.

[marigold]

THIS WEEK ON THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE

PAINTING BY NUMBERS TASK: ART GALLERY

Each team must choose an artist, display their work, and sell the pieces in a shared art gallery.

One team struggles with sales and price point, while the other team has trouble displaying the art.

One team spies on the other, as the other team poaches clients.

In the end, the team with the highest sales figures wins, and a celeb from the losing team is fired.

  What no mention of the thrashing, it sounds like another day in the office.

[Texan]

I agree Askip.. Did n't Omarosa make some comment about Donald liking her or she was safe a few episodes back.  Plus if she volunteered for PM and Donald kept reminding her the PM would be fired similar to Gene bringing the wrong person, he did not want her to go ~ atleast not yet.

I hoep she gets the boot this time.

[apskip]

It's now time for a strategic overview of the remaining candidates' chances of making the Final 4 and my prediction of who will make the Final 2. Before we go there, I am reminded of Apprentice 4, when Randal Pinkett was named Apprentice over Rebecca. Rebecca spent the first half of A4 on losing teams, toiling in anonymity, but somewhere in there she caught the eye of Donald Trump when she stood up to him and took a "Devil May Care" attitude of telling it like it was(from the illustrious Howard Cosell School of Communications, of which I am a heavy subscriber and great admirer).

Why did I tell you that story? The past episode featured a similar incident and the way it was handled predicts great success for the individual who stood up to the Donald. I refer to Carol Alt: "“I’d rather be fired by standing up to a challenge than running away from one.” Trump says, “That’s a good line of crap.” Carol responds, “If it was crap, I wouldn’t have stood up. But I did.” I believe that Carol Alt more or less guaranteed herself a place in the F2 with that exchange plus what she has done previously in the Celebrity Apprentice, which has been solid. She has been a two-time winner as Project Manager, she has been effective as a model for her team multiple times. She has been the power behind the Project Manager several times. She is smart, savvy, tough and beautiful. She has been committed to charitable causes for decades. And she can talk back to Trump. What more could you want? She is first to reach F4 and I think she will make F2.

Next up is Trace Adkins. Trace is almost a mirror of Carol, except that he talks back to his teammates and not the Donald. He has been a Project Manager only once and he lost, but he was not viewed as the cause. He was the reason why his team won many times, either due to his modeling or due to the interesting concepts that he developed into the winning ideas. He has the complete respect of all his teammates and of Donald Trump. He also has many friends that he has called on to make charitable donations to support Trace's team. He is smart, savvy, tough, and very sexy to women. He has a lock on F4 as I see it.

Omarosa is fighting hard to stay in the game, but she is up against real professional celebrities who have many more talents than she does. Donald Trump needed her for controversy and ratings up to a certain point, but we've passed that point and she's on her own now. She'll be leaving before F4.

I thought Stephen Baldwin would be eliminated by now as a result of his machinations, It still could happen, but the competition he has is Omarosa and Lennox Lewis, so it looks like Stephen will make it to F4.

Piers Morgan is probably the most intelligent individual in the competition and maybe even as intelligent as Donald Trump. He has allowed himself to get into petty diversions with Omarosa, but with her gone he should be able to focus better. I think he will easily make the F4. He does have one Project Manager win.

Lennox Lewis is a neat guy, but Lennox isn't very smart and he doesn't work any harder than he thinks he has to. He's extremely tough and ambitious, but he is up against Piers, Stephen, and Trace for F4. There is no way Lennox is going to make it short of a travesty(which could happen; it has several times on earlier episodes of this show).

So, that will give us an F4 of Carol, Trace, Stephen, and Piers. I like Carol and Trace for F2 but it could be Carol and Piers. I don't think Stephen is going to make F2. He will have to content himself with the huge amount of money he has sent home to his mother already for the family charity.

[marigold]

  apskip your spoiling me!!

I can't wait to read your post, apskip rocks.

[marigold]

I so agree on your views of Carol. I admire a woman who has it all. She is everything you said she is.

She reminds me of Jennifer Massey another woman I admire I think from season 2

and I was very disappointed she hadn't won and I believe she should have.

Anyways back to this season. I hope Piers can stay focused once Amarosa leaves.

He does have the ability to make it to the final 2 if he can forget about Amarosa

and his cockiness and just do what he is capbale of doing, I just don't have a doubt with him.

Stephen is stubborn as they said he has an idea and runs with it.

I would like to see more creativity with him instead of just using a model as part of the task.

My hope for final 2 are Carol and Piers these two are phenomenal.

[apskip]

ca bb fan, you make an excellent point about Jennifer Massey. She was the winner in my view, but Trump awarded the Apprentice 2 to Kelly Perdew. What a mistake! Jennifer was quick, bright, beautiful, hard-working, and able to pull a team together to get things done. So what if she didn't have leadership experience in the military and had only been a lawyer. Trump has made several major errors in selecting the Apprentice over the years. Jennifer was his first mistake and Rebecca was his second.

[marigold]

ca bb fan, you make an excellent point about Jennifer Massey. She was the winner in my view, but Trump awarded the Apprentice 2 to Kelly Perdew. What a mistake! Jennifer was quick, bright, beautiful, hard-working, and able to pull a team together to get things done. So what if she didn't have leadership experience in the military and had only been a lawyer. Trump has made several major errors in selecting the Apprentice over the years. Jennifer was his first mistake and Rebecca was his second.

  apskip I’m impressed

I like a man that isn’t intimidated by gorgeous intellectual women.

I think that is what Donald Trump’s problem is and why Jennifer and Rebecca were not hired.

Donald can certainly admire beautiful women but is intimidated by them I’m guessing in a professional business environment.

What a coward.

Those ladies deserved to win.

[apskip]

Let's be fair to Donald Trump. His criteria were clearly different from the ones I was using. The job of Apprentice, in spite of the massive PR that it is leading a division in the Trump organization, isn't anything close to that. It is primarily a Public Relations position for the Trump organization with an internal consultant's role thrown in. I am going to speculate without really knowing that the Apprentices in their initial assignments do not manage anyone. SO, do they to have massive leadership experience to qualify for that type of position? You've got to be kidding if you think so.  Yet that is the reason Kelly Perdew was chosen over Jennifer.  Randal Pinkett was chosen over Rebecca because he had 10 years business experience while she was a journalist and had almost none. So Trump chosen the leadership and high experience types.

Why that was a mistake was because he wasn't judging future potential and he didn't need all that leadership and business experience initially. He had two of the smartest females around who had the intellectual capacity to easily outthink Kelly and Randal. They were also poised and easy to get along with, which I did not think either Kelly or Randal really were.  For the real job I think he should have chosen them. For the "phony facade job" Kelly and Randal were the right choices.

[marigold]

I agree with Randal he was more experienced than Rebbaca and thought she did a wonderful job.

Jennifer I really thought she was better than Kelly.

Kelly had a more military background and I just couldn't see him as a VIP employed by Donald Trump.

Maybe it's just me but he didn't give off that image.

Where Jennifer did exhibit confidence and professionalism over all a suiteable candidate.

It's only a matter of opinion and heavens knows that does exist in the professional world, it happends everyday.

I would have hired Jennifer over Kelly, as attorneys do have leadership skills.

I mean what postion doesn't really require someone to take an initiative and I guess guide others.

Length of experience I could overlook presuming there is some

[marigold]

 
omg I love this episode and Piers kills me, wtg Piers and Carol!!

[RudyRules]

Yeah, it was a good show.  I just wanted Omarosa to stay one more week, but she did good getting to the Final 5!  Please don't hit me dear Apprentice fans, but I thought she did a purdy good job, other than her poor taste in remarks and childish water pouring over Piers head!

Kudos to her for having the guts to be on a Celeb version of the Apprentice.  I give her credit for that as well as demonstrating some good business skills although she's far from being an expert.

Aside from Omarosa, I'm rooting for Trace and Carol to be the Final Two! 

 

[apskip]

Yeah, it was a good show.  I just wanted Omarosa to stay one more week, but she did good getting to the Final 5!   

Not, quite, Rudy Rules. There are still 5 Celebrity Apprentice candidates left standing (Carol, Lennox, Stephen, Trace, Piers). After next week, we are likely to lose either Lennox or Stephen.

I agree with your thgoughts that Omarosa plays hard. She may be nasty and a back-stabber and a jerk, but she did earn her first 8 weeks of Celebrity Apprentice through hard work and her willingness to be the villainess.

[apskip]

I almost don't need to do a recap this week. I called it last week and I don't even own a Ouija board. A very determined Piers with something to prove vs. Omarosa is NO CONTEST. I predicted a thrashing and that is what we got. The task was the old chestnut of selecting an artist, then displaying and selling selecting pieces in an a Manhattan art gallery. There was a bunch of B.S. about Hydra being assigned the space in the back(giving Emprasario the more strategic space in the front) and about Stephen spying on Hydra. It didn't make any difference, as it was the battle of the rolodexs once again. Piers was the master at this and had the big sales of the night. Lennox stole someone waiting to see Stephen and turned her over to Carol, who sold the man a piece of art. Their team sold a total of 14 higher priced (in the $10,000 range) pieces. Emprasario sold 3 (2 by Trace, 1 by Omarosa, 0 by Stephen) lower priced ($2000 range) pieces. Donald Trump classified it as the greatest slaughter in Apprentice history. It was obvious that Omarosa was going down. The question was whether ayone else would go down with her. It would not be Trace, so that left Stephen who admitedly had not been able to get his contacts mobilized to come buy art.

Piers started heckling Omarosa and she returned the favor. Hydra was sent to the Suite to watch the final Boardroom action. Omarosa was asked by Trump why she had a vendetta against Piers. She claimed he was weak because he was a closet homosexual.  Piers was invited back into the room by Donald Trump and he did the funniest thing ever seen on any Apprentice show, which was to go behind Trace and then kiss him on the cheek and then he left the room. You have to see this and know the context to fully appreciate it; the phrase Never Kiss a Cowboy came up. Soon thereafter Omarosa was accused of having a defeatist attitude after her loss. She tried some desultory defense, but what can you say when you have been thrashed and know that the Project Manager will be held responsible and you are the Project Manager? Stephen got lucky and survived to fight again next week. He may be able to make Lennox the one who gets eliminated if he and Trace can pull out a victory.

[marigold]

I have to admit I would have liked to see Omarosa put up a good fight before she left.

I am disappointed she couldn’t argue better instead of resorting to her low blow tactics that never

impress anyone. Too bad. She knew she was defeated and looked defenseless. Even Ivanka I

believe was disappointed and would have rather seen her give a good argument it would have been

more impressive.

Wishful thinking on my part but I love a great challenge. I would like to these remainder celebrities

duke it out as singles and see what they are made of instead of complimenting each other as a

group because I do feel some of them lack the creativity and can’t do it on their own. I have no pity

they are celeb’s but want them to try harder as this is still The Apprentice.

[RudyRules]

ca bb fan & apskip, you both express yourselves very well and I have really appreciated both of your commentaries this season.  Thank you bunches!

We have what, three more shows?  I think?

[apskip]

March 13 drop the 5th contestant (probably Stephen or Lennox)

March 20 cut 2 (the one above who didn't get fired on the 13th plus the tough call of Piers, Trace or Carol)

March 27 Final episode (probably live)

You are correct, Rudy Rules, that's 3.

[marigold]

ca bb fan & apskip, you both express yourselves very well and I have really appreciated both of your commentaries this season.  Thank you bunches!

  Hey RudyRules, I have to tell you it wouldn't be the same without you.

I have really enjoyed reading your posts as well.

I think we had a great season with this celebrity edition and I don't feel disappointed that Donald gave us this special edition.

I really did enjoy it and this thread.

I'm going to miss you guys on here but am glad to see you once again for next season.