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Celebrity Apprentice 2

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apskip:
Pedaler,

The only helpers I saw were Dennis and Brande for Annie. None were shown for Joan, although it is certain that Melissa would be on her team. I expect Melissa will be the hardest worker in the effort to defeat Annie. Some final 8 players were Clint and Jesse, both of which I expect to end up with Joan, and Tionne who I expect to end up with Annie. I don't know about Herschel, Natalie and Khloe. Of course Dennis should not be helping either team with his generally low performance, but I am sure Donald Trump wants to give him the opportunity for changed public perception of his talents off the basketball court.

apskip:
I will be writing a recap later today, but in the interim I want to share my thoughts about how we got to this final 2. I was surprised but not shocked by Joan's reappearance. This gave Trump the opportunity to set up the final 2 that he though would be most explosive, Annie vs. Joan. I think either Brande or Jesse deserved this opportunity more. I thought that Jessie's lack of revealing more of his many facets could be attractive to Trump, but his demonstrated lack of interest in helping others in the fundraising episodes has been his Achilles heel all along and it finally caused his demise. Brande suffers from following in the footsteps of Carol Alt, who did not make the round of 2 in Celebrity Apprentice 1 primarily because Trump wanted Trace Adkins to see a showdown with Piers Morgan. I thought Brande, like Carol, was intelligent, hard-working and well-connected with money sources, but what she lacked was a negative relationship with Annie to heighten the ratings.

Annie is in the mold of Piers Morgan. I am surprised he didn't have more positive things to say about her after his "interview" with her. With her intelligence, drive, hard-working and connections to big bucks for fund-raising, with "a bit of an edge", she is the single individual in CA1 most like Piers. I expect her to get her wish by demolishing Joan.

RealityFreakWill:
'The Celebrity Apprentice' recap: Tuna surprise (not so surprising)

If you tuned in to last night's Celebrity Apprentice expecting to see the fallout from last week's Rivers freak-out, you, like me, were sorely disappointed. After all that yelling, cursing, and storming off, Joan showed up for the challenge the next morning (fashionably late with fashionable oversize sunglasses) with only a passing mention of the previous night's explosion. I didn't buy the ''will she/won't she return'' bit, because if Joan loves anything, it's being the center of attention — it was no surprise she went back.

This week, the final five had to create an original jingle and a 30-second radio commercial for Chicken of the Sea. Insert obligatory Jessica Simpson/''Is it chicken or tuna?'' joke here: Brande represented the endearing ditzy-blonde contingent well, by spelling crap S-R-A-P, cracking up, then explaining it's because she was going to say the S---...that other word but used ''crap'' instead. Now, I'm pretty sure Brande isn't actually a dumb blonde, but I do think she's ditzy enough to have actually spelled crap with an ''s'' by accident, not just because of a slip in speech. Just saying.

The Trump kids helped out dad by keeping tabs on the teams. I'm down with Ivanka — she seems smart and observant — but I just can't get past Donald Jr.'s hair to remember anything about his personality. I know the crazy hair thing must be genetic, but at least Trump Sr.'s got an old guy pompadour instead of a slicked back ''creepy guy at the bar'' 'do.

Annie's musical talent was ''slim'' to Brande's ''none,'' yet the two managed to write a cute, catchy jingle that complemented  their moms-at-the-park commercialperfectly . KOTU, on the other hand, had a Grammy-winner project manager (and one extra member), so their victory in the challenged seemed preordained. Clint wrote a twangy jingle and Joan wrote a cute game show commercial.

In a bout of awkward phrasing (''The radio, which I come out of, you need zippier things''), Joan made a valid point in assessing her team's work. In this case, by ''zippier things'' Joan meant a weird-ass voice-over at the end of Clint's song going "Cluckcluckcluckcluckcluck splash.'' Now, I'm no fan of Clint's, but that is one piece of input I'm glad he chose to ignore. However, the ignored suggestion that he speed the song up a bit, echoed by Ivanka, seemed like it would come back and bite him in the boardroom (which it totally did).

Both teams seemed to perform admirably, but the big tuna execs worried that Clint's country-tinged jingle wouldn't appeal to a broad audience. In a good ol' reality show staple (harp on one outcome so much that it's obvious the other will happen), the Annie-led Athena managed to beat Clint Black in a songwriting challenge. Trump liked Clint's jingle — though did he really? Or was it just an excessive, ego-stroking pat on the back?  But Trump acknowledged it was the project manager's fault, and FINALLY fired Clint. Bummer getting fired for the challenge that catered to his exact skill set, but it was a long time coming.

Annie seemed really excited about her win (as she should be, she's the winningest project manager of the season, and she beat a Grammy winner in a songwriting challenge), then called Joan a cancer, which I can't decide is better or worse than Hitler. Jesse congratulated Athena for pulling the win ''out of their ass,'' then the four were called back into the boardroom. Reigning champ Piers Morgan interviewed the remaining contestants, then reported back to the boss man with his thoughts on who should be in the final two. In the interviews, Brande talked about how she's totally smart, Joan said she regretted comparing Annie to Hitler because Annie doesn't have a mustache, Annie talked about herself a lot, and yet again, Jesse's worth was measured only in the fact that he's married to Sandra Bullock. Unfortunately, the underdogs didn't pull through this week, and it'll be an Annie-Joan finale (surprise, surprise).

Did you see the Hitler versus Cancer final two coming a mile away? Who were you sad to see go this week? Who are you pulling for in next week's supersized three-hour live finale? Were you offended by Joan's Helen Keller joke? And how cute was it that Piers used the British ''two fingers'' when referring to the rude gesture we do with just one?

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/05/celebrity-appre.html

TexasLady:
Pedaler and apskip! You both had it exactly right!  :tup:  I admit it, I didn't see the Joan/Annie ending. I thought Jessie would step up and show some leadership ability but he didn't. (Which helped Clint to be eliminated in the end, Clint has no "off" button.) I have to say, I admire Jessie for not using his wife to get money to win and I thought it was almost insulting when Piers and then Trump uses that against him. 

I feel sad for Brande, she doesn't realize how badly she was used, and Annie does the "I", "I", "I", "I", speak quite effectively to Brande's detriment.

 
--- Quote from: apskip on May 04, 2009, 06:34:16 AM ---Pedaler,

The only helpers I saw were Dennis and Brande for Annie. None were shown for Joan, although it is certain that Melissa would be on her team. I expect Melissa will be the hardest worker in the effort to defeat Annie. Some final 8 players were Clint and Jesse, both of which I expect to end up with Joan, and Tionne who I expect to end up with Annie. I don't know about Herschel, Natalie and Khloe. Of course Dennis should not be helping either team with his generally low performance, but I am sure Donald Trump wants to give him the opportunity for changed public perception of his talents off the basketball court.

--- End quote ---

It was surprising that Dennis was on Annie's side, I'm not sure if he will be a help or hindrance. We'll see.

Can't wait for your recap apskip! Thanks for posting the interview Will!

apskip:
RECAP of CA2, 5 Players Remaining

Somewhere near the beginning of this episode Donald Trump says that there will be 3 celebrities eliminated by its end. Who will survive to the Final 2? Will it be the two best qualified to raise money for charities or the two who will get the highest ratings for this show?

Brande opens by stating that she wants Joan to return so that she can kick her proverbial butt. Joan has called her "dumb blond" in the prior episode and Brande is so motivated that she uses the unlikely phrase "Game On." Trump gathers the 4 remaining players and then, in a ridiculous staged event, Joan Rivers gets out of the elevator to rejoin her team. The sponsors are Chicken-of-the-Sea brand tuna and they want a new jingle and a 30 second ad based on the original Chicken of the Sea jingle but in a more modern style. The cathwords convenient, natural and healthy should be used. This is something Clint Black does for his living, so he volunteers to be Project Manager again with Jesse and Joan on KOTU. Annie is the Project Manager for Athena of herself and Brande. I will go with those women despite Clint's purported advantage because all his weaknesses should come back to haunt him in this task. He thinks he will breeze to victory, but he thinks everyone loves his style of music (Country&Western), which they asssuredly do not. Annie and Brande have no preconceived notions and I think that will help them.  Chicken of the Sea Executive VP John and his colleague Mike will be the judges. Trump says the winning Project Manager gets $20,000.

Both teams use a division of labor to get the task accopmlished. Clint is the sole expert for the jingle. He writes it, he tests it, and he sings it with some backup instrumentalists and singers. It is quintessentally Country and quintessentially Clint, a slow and lazy syrupy tune. Jesse and Joan begged him to use the faster version they got him to record, but only Clint knew what is good musically. Joan offers a little comedy infusion (which was a terrific idea) but all Clint will allow her to do is walk with a logo sign below the front of the stage. She wants to finish the perrformance with the line "cluck, cluck, cluckl, cluck, splash" but Clint probably correctly thinks that is too tacky.  Jesse and Joan write the commercial as comedy lines and it is hilarious. After writing the script, they have paid actors in to read it, but decide that the best performers for this commercial are Jesse James and Joan Rivers. And they are right. It is terrific.

Neither Annie nor Brande admit to any musical genes, but that does not stop them from knowing what they like. They rightfully figure that they can hire actors to perform it better than they themselves could. Annie takes the jingle and Brande has the radio spot. The words convenient, healthy and natural appear in both the jingle and commercial, as they  do for KOTU's equivalents but to a lesser extent. Brande's spot is funny and good, but not excellent like the Jesse/Joan one. Annie's lack of musical talent does not hurt her a bit. She is very intelligent and hard-working, so she comes up with some catchy words and a tune evolves over time. She is rightfully proud of her achievement, such that she states that her creation is so satisfying that she can lose to Clint without feeling negative about that. She does expect to get creamed. So she goes ahead with testing and a singer is hired to perform it. It is much faster and more upbeat than Clint's jingle but does not have the rich harmonies that Clint developed. So both performances happen and the teams go to the boardroom to hear the results.

Both teams get to listen to the end products of the other team. Donald asks for comment, but nothing really important is said. All wait for the verdict from the chicken of the Sea executives. They like both of the jingles and both of the comercials. Athena's jingle mentioned the product name thrice and was much "zippier" than KOTU's but the biggest issue is the limiting nature of using the Country&Western music style to an audience not enamored with that. The executives voted for Athena and Trump gives them the win. Annie and Brande are besides themselves with glee. They ought to be since their performance was a case study in how to do a difficult task.

It is obvious this time that the person most responsible for the loss was Clint. It was his jingle that was not as good as the competition (even though it was quite good). Joan and Jesse were protected by an excellent radio commercial. Trump had no real flexibility. Clint's too-long run on Celebrity ap[rentice 2 is over.

Who knows eactly what tiem of day/night this transpired, but Trump congratulates the final 4 and tells them that there are about to be 2 more firings. He has brought in hatchet man Piers Morgan to assist him in evaluating the talent of the remaining candidates. At this point, it is clear from Project Manager, team and individual performance and fund-raising ability that the class act of everyone still in it is Annie. She has to make it no matter what. This is comparable to what happened to Piers in CA1. Piers interviews all 4 candidates for "about 2 minutes" each, but at this level any player who was not ready for a succinct statement of his or her strengths and weaknesses was so foolish that they deserve to lose. Also, since Piers will have prepared by watching each episode of CA2 before arriving, he already knows the basis for everything that he will conclude.

Piers says that Brande is not smart enough. He says Joan is a complicated person but her attacks on Annie were unreal and unwarranted. He worries about her sanity. Piers says that Jesse has made a serious error in judgment by not bringing in any money form the Hollywood crowd including from his wife Sandra Bullock.  Jesse essentially stonewalls him with the reminder that he does not mix business with pleasure and he will not try to fundraise from his wife. Piers would love to see Jesse forced to reveal more of himself.  Annie is evaluated as fast-talking, highly intelligent and with "an edge". What did we just hear? Except for fast-talking that sounds like a bio for Piers Morgan.

So Trump conveys all of the above paragraph and adds a little bit of his own, but Piers has captured the essence of those 4 quite accurately. It's time for decisions. Annie should be definitiely in, but who do you pair her with. Last season probably the #2 player was Carol Alt, but Trump chose to go for the championship fight between Piers and Trace Adkins. Unfortunately that analogy holds. Brande is the sacrificial lamb this time. I would have picked her because she was the 2nd best fund-raiser behind Annie. Donald Trump doesn't care. He knows that the championship fight has been going on for many weeks and it should have one final chapter. I mean Annie vs. Joan, a grudge match between two women who are been supremely talented and who hate each other. Jesse is dismissed for his lack of cojones with repsect to Hollywood. The finale should provide huge contrasts in how the Final 2 do things.

I have my money on Annie. I don't see how Joan will be able to match Annie's fund-raising ability. We will see with a 3 hour special finale starting at 8pm Eastern time. Be there.

 

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