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Celebrity Apprentice 4

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georgiapeach:
Richard Hatch gets 9 months in prison, will miss Celebrity Apprentice finale

Read the whole story from Andy Dehnart here:

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/survivor/2011_Mar_11_hatch_new_sentence

apskip:
CA4, Ep. 2

Star Jones is shown delivering to her cardiologist a check for $169,732 that she won for the American Heart Association as the episode 1 winning PM.
 
Donald Trump assembled the teams to announce the next project, writing a book to be read by 4 and 5 year olds and presenting in a performance to a selected audience of them. The criteria for deciding which team wins was originality of the book, the on-stage performance and appropriateness to the target age group. The book had to be about one teams member. Backbone chose Meat Loaf as its PM and ASAP (with NeNe Leaskes stating on camera that this was a move to get rid of Lisa) chose Lisa Rinna. The judges were Holly Robinson-Peete and Marjorie Highland (who also served briefly as a consultant to both teams).
 
The teams dove in to share overall concepts. The men seemed to be able to share their ideas without pride of authorship getting in the way. The women had a battle between Dionne and Marlee over how advanced it should be on diversity and spotlighting sign language for deaf people. Some thought the concepts would be too advanced for 4/5 year olds. Hope, with several young children, expressed concern that the word "shy" is too advanced. Marlee pleaded with Lisa to "tell me what to do" and NeNe referred to Dionne essentially as a 70 year old autocrat. In the Boardroom later Trump asked Marlee if she regarded Dionne to be a music LEGEND. Marlee got the best line of the night with "I have no idea, Mr. Trump, I'm deaf." The focal point of the women's story was La Toya as The Lion in "Why can't I roar?" Don Jr. was concerned that this approach would get low originality marks due to similarity to The Wizard of Oz. Lisa failed to step in and settle these turf disputes, but later she did make a decision on not giving Dionne and Star credit on the cover. I think Lisa was right, but Star and Dionne continued sniping at her.
 
The women delegated writing of the book, selection of fonts and book graphics to Star Jones as they went off to gather and move props, get costumed and rehearse their performance. Lisa allowed Star to micromanage those the book. The story and graphics were fine, but the text was in tiny font not appropriate for children.
 
The men had primary contributions from John Rich (using his Country Western simple lyrics approach), Gary Busey and Mark McGrath. The focal point of their story was around Lil Jon. Jose was upset that his skills as an author had been completely ignored. Meat Loaf got incorrect information on where the proper place to deliver the props was, which annoyed Jose and Gary.
 
Eric visited Backbone and viewed conflict between Meat Loaf and Gary. Don Jr. visited ASAP and witnessed Dionne openly challenging Lisa's leadership. The key for Backbone was going to be Jose's ability to memorize and deliver his lines. Jose and Richard were costumed as females for comic relief.
 
The ASAP performance began with Donald Jr. and Eric in the audience with their families. ASAP had Lisa as narrator showing the pages of the book to the audience as she read it. This was very effective. Marlee was on stage doing the sign language version so that children would get some exposure to that. The women's performance was good in my opinion.
 
The men's performance was weaker, but the men's book was superior. Their theme had more impact on 4/5 year olds. Their fonts were large and easily readable. Their graphics were as good as the men. Plus, they had a more original concept. Still, it was not a slam-dunk on who won.
 
Trump played with several of the celebrities as the Boardroom started. NeNe stated that Lisa had no control over the group (true). Dionne said some important things were forgotten (but if so, she and Star were more responsible for that than Lisa). Star said that Lisa had a big voice and big attitude. Trump asked fewer questions of Backbone.
 
Trump announced that Backbone had won a major victory. The women had screwed up on using concepts not appropriate for 4/5 year olds and having a small font. The men had done some scary things like confetti at the end, but it was their book that won it for them.   Meat Loaf was going to present $20,000 plus the profits from the men's book to his charity, Painted Turtle. The men were excused to watch the next segment of the boardroom from the comfort of their suite.
 
Marlee spoke up to support Lisa, but none of the others (Hope, Niki, LaToya) stepped up. Lisa selected the obvious Star and Dionne to join her in the final Boardroom. They came out swinging and she had a more restrained approach. Donald Trump pointed out that she was not making a strong case, as she seemed constrained by the realities. I believe he has no interest in those realities favoring a person's case if they they do not aggressively fight for it. Lisa was not doing so, so he fired her. I think Dionne should have gone home.  

chill_sd:
Excellent analysis, apskip.  I agree with your final statement also, Dionne should have been the person fired.

It's shameful that the women were able to torpedo Lisa that way.  But nothing will change unless The Donald actually watches what goes on during the challenges.

apskip:
Thanks, chill_sd. However, I think the key to improvement of this show is in Donald Trump abandoning his belief that combative fighting is what should be rewarded.

apskip:
CELEBRITY APPRENTICE  4, Ep. 3
Meat Loaf was shown presenting a check to his charity the Painted Turtle, which is a camp for seriously ill children.

This episode’s task was about the business Camping World to show off on adjacent outdoor plazas in Madison Square Park, New York City. The winning PM will get $20,000. There is a choice between a low-end and a high-end Recreational Vehicle (RV) or two mid-value RVs that could be customized with the available $5000 for that. Backbone nominated Gary Busey as PM for his charity Center for head Injury Services. ASAP nominated Niki Taylor as PM. The CEO of Camping World Marcus Lemonis would be judging teams on originality, brand messaging and overall presentation. Marcus is clear with the teams that this challenge is about promoting Camping World, not the RV lifestyle. The women claim they knew the guys would go with the larger RV, so they focused on ones that were more homey and family-oriented. The negotiation went smoothly as both teams got what they wanted
.

There was dissension on Backbone between Gary and Lil John over the non-leadership style Gary is using. Jose is causing trouble and John Rich is trying to write a Camping World
song to accompany their presentation to Marcus. Both teams visited Camping World’s outdoor store. The women were spending money on all sorts of interior décor, with one room the responsibility of each member of ASAP. The men left plenty of funds for their exterior space for trees, shrubs and Astro-Turf carpet. Gary nearly ran out of money by allowing Richard and Mark to duplicate their efforts and Gary had a convenient memory loss when Mark reminded him of his commitment on shrubs.

Gary did individualize his managerial approach to his teammates. Some of them saw this as anarchy, with no demonstrated leadership. Others went with the flow. Gary and Jose hung out together and played catch with baseball gloves and a hardball. When Gary was showing no leadership, John Rich carried a 150 pound generator that needed to be set up to its rightful place. It weighed almost as much as he does.

On ASAP the main issue was getting more interior décor purchased that night so it was all in place without scurrying the next morning. Niki directed where to go and what to buy, including balloons in a range of bright colors. Niki kept making the mistake of referring to a 20th century experience, not realizing that that took us back at least 11 years. When corrected, she got a laugh for: “This is the 21st century for a hundred years. It’s gonna be the 21st century for the rest of our lives!”

Ivanka showed up at the Backbone RV site and was told my Gary that his approach was LUCKY and “L-U-C-K-Y stands for Living Under Correct Knowledge Yearly.” The sad thing is that he really believes that. Niki came up with “it’s tough to have Star on your team” as her best line.

Don Jr. came to visit ASAP. Don asked if there were any issues with team members; Niki said no. Don asked if they don’t win, does that mean it’s Niki’s fault? Niki stated, “It’s probably my fault.” Don believed that the women are all together now, but when they come into the Boardroom it would be different. We’ll see. He next asked Marlee who was the weak link on ASAP.  Marlee responded that Dionne has been hanging around and was not very proactive, doing only what she was asked to do. Niki had a minor run-in during the tour period with Dionne.

Entry to the site by the public was opened. Visitors could see that the women achieved their goal on interior décor, but they had almost no exterior decoration. Their signage was minimal and poorly positioned on the periphery of the space. Marcus came by for an inspection tour and he appreciated the product knowledge that LaToya had developed on her tour of the units back at Camping World headquarters.

The men had an outstanding exterior space, with comfortable chairs, Astro-Turf, trees and shrubs (Nikki was jealous because she had not thought of several of those). Their interior décor was rated as “what you get when you let men handle it.” Their signage was significant and well-positioned. They had John Rich out front on guitar performing his song.

Donald Trump got a private assessment from Marcus. He learned that ASAP had done great interiors but had poor signage and forgot about the exterior. For the men it was pretty much exactly the opposite. So which team won? As always, you must wait for The Donald to enlighten you.

Next it was Boardroom time. Trump went through his usual “how well did the PM do?” type of questions. It was clear that there were some negative opinions of both PMs. Lil Jon, Mark and Richard were all pretty vocal against Gary’s style of leadership.  Gary says Marlee sent him to see her doctor, the head of the Hearing Foundation, who made him two hearing aids because apparently he was only able to use 40 percent of his hearing and he had been legally deaf because of the accident that caused his brain damage.  

Trump asked about John’s song, so Meat Loaf went to get the guitar so John could play it for Trump. Trump asked Niki if, on hearing the song, it changes her assessment of the probability of ASAP victory. She said it didn’t.  Star volunteered that it didn’t because ASAP was superior in brand messaging.

It’s getting late, so Trump finally has to reveal the winning team. It’s the men. Gary and team joyously retreat out of the Boardroom. Niki is left holding the bag. She actually deserved it because it was her decisions to minimize exterior décor and signage by not paying proper attention to them and spending all the money on interior décor. Although Dionne was available as a scapegoat, Niki was too decent to try to throw anyone under the bus. She stated that her entire team had worked hard and did what she asked them to. She elected to go down like the captain of a sinking ship, with great dignity. Trump admired that greatly, but he did have to fire her.

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