Celebrity Apprentice - Is this going to as bad as I think it is?

Cafe Society
81

I was a little baffled by Nely and her Latina Friends. She called them to come purchase tickets, and they brought what, their Discover card, the card that pays them cash back? Why exactly did they have to leave to get money? What’d they think they were doing there? Meeting some scrawny dude in a baseball cap that may be an actor of some sort? And BTW Nely, first, you are not really a star, and second, the jumping up and down shouting “YEEEEEEEEEE” whenever someone made a purchase was obnoxious. Stop that.

Jennie looked like she was a little overwhelmed, at least according to what we were shown. Someone asked what they get for whatever amount of money they were donating, and she asks what they want for it? She couldn’t divide that amount of money by $50 (or whatever the ticket prices were)?

82

Last night Marilu bit the bullet and pointed out the obvious: the women as a group are simply not on the same level of fame as the men. And as Mullinator said above, since the competition is coming down to ‘who can call on the most rich people’, that’s a killer.

Let’s look at them:

Tiffany Fallon. Apparently a Playmate the Year. This year? Past year? Anyway, nobody except subscribers to Playboy are likely to know who she is, and even those who do, are they going to recognize her on the street? I mean, how much time does anyone spend looking at the face of a centerfold? And how many rich guys are going to want to have to explain to the Mrs. that they have to run down to some spot in the NYC streets and hand over thousands of dollars because some centerfold cutie asked them to?

Nadia Comaneci. Okay, a lot of people may remember the name, but they remember her as a scrawny little 13 year old girl doing tumbling runs. I’d bet not one person in ten thousand would have been able to put a name to her if just shown her present day picture.

Carol Alt. An ex-model. And nowhere near the most famous of them.

Nely Galan. Something or other at Telemundo. Which I believe is a Spanish language tv network, so likely unknown to the 85% of Americans who don’t speak Spanish. And is she even on-screen talent? Because if she’s an exec or producer or whatever, even less chance anyone knows who she is by appearance or voice.

Omarosa. Okay, well know to Apprentice fans, but anyone else? I doubt it.

Jennie Finch. Not to put down the winning of a gold medal, but woman’s softball? Not exactly a high profile sport. Couldn’t they have gotten a winning figure skater?

Marilu Henner. I used to watch Taxi, so I’d have recognized her, name and face. But…Taxi was a long time ago. My guess is that anyone too young to have watched tv in the late 60s would have no idea who she was.
In contrast the men’s team has:

Gene Simmons. Ex-rock star. Not really sure how widely known he is. I mainly know his (unmadeup) face because wasn’t he one of the ‘rewards’ in an earlier Apprentice series?

Stephen Baldwin. Actor, appeared in ‘current’ movies. Also did Celebrity Mole, maybe twice?

Vincent Pastore. Actor in a high-rated current TV show.

Piers Morgan. Don’t know what else he does, but two years being a judge on “America’s Got Talent” at least earns him some current face and name recognition.

Trace Adkins. Country singer? At the top of the heap?

Tito Ortiz. Ultimate Fight champion?

Lennox Lewis. Boxing champ?

Now, personally I had never heard of any of the guys except Simmons, Morgan, and Baldwin, but that’s just utter non-sports fan me.

The important point, I think, is ‘current’ vs. “has been”:

Players who are pretty much still doing whatever it is they are famous for, as in, did whatever within the last year or so:

Women: maybe 3 (Tiffany, Nely, Jenny(?) )
Men: 6 (Stephen, Vincent, Piers, Trace, Tito, Lennox)

Players who are basically hasbeens:

Women: 4 (Nadia, Carol, Omarosa, Marilu)
Men: 1 (Gene)

It’s like the men may only be C list celebrities, but the women are F list, or even lower. No wonder they can’t lean on using their ‘celebrity.’

83

And I would even have to disagree about Gene Simmons being a hasbeen. Yes, it looks like KISS may finally have wound down, but he was a key member of a band that was all over the charts for 30 years. And he is even the star of the A&E show “Gene Simmons Family Jewels” his version of "The Osbournes " which is in production for a new season. If anything, I would argue that Gene is by far the biggest star that was on the list.

Oh, and just in case she read here, Marilu was on TAXI in the late 1970s, not the late 1960s. Adding a decade to an actress’ age is not the way to win her heart.

84

I may not have been paying close enough attention, but I got the impression that last night’s competition came down to whose final donor had the best luck beating NY traffic. I thought it was ridiculous for Trump to call the men’s good fortune that the Virgin chicks showed up with only moments to spare, “good planning”, and the bad fortune of the women’s team’s last-minute arrival(s?) who apparently just barely missed the final bell, “poor planning.”

As for their levels of fame, I guess it all depends on where your interests lie as to whether or not you may know any of these people. For me:

Knew by face and name [ul][li]Carol Alt – But I think I’m the only one. Guess my age is showing, huh?[/li][li]Nely Galan – I’m so ashamed to admit that I know her from her freakish reality tv show The Swan.[/li][li]Omarosa[/li][li]Marilou Henner – I thought everyone knew her. Go figure.[/li][li]Gene Simmons[/ul][/li]Know the face, but wouldn’t be able to tell you their name[ul]
[li]Stephen Baldwin – I would never have been able to provide his first name – I could just tell you from looking at him that he was obviously a “Baldwin Brother”.[/li][li]Vincent Pastore – I would’ve just said he was a famous actor, but I couldn’t have told you his name if you just showed me a picture of him.[/li][li]Piers Morgan – again, couldn’t have told you his name, but would’ve known he was famous for some reality show (probably would’ve guessed Dancing with the Stars, if pressed, which is obviously wrong).[/ul][/li]Know the name but would never recognize the face [ul]
[li]Nadia Comaneci[/li][li]Lennox Lewis[/ul][/li]No freaking clue who they are[ul]
[li]Tiffany Fallon[/li][li]Jennie Finch [/li][li]Trace Adkins [/li][*]Tito Ortiz[/ul] So I knew and recognized more of the women than the men.

85

Mine too. :frowning:

86

Ah, phooey – two-hour episode tonight. Wish I had realized it before I started.

87

Yeah.

Sooooooo…what happened? What is going on with Vinny and Piers?

Anyone care to summarize?

88

Where to even start with this?

Piers and Vinnie caught the women spying on them. They staged a ffight to mess with them. Then Piers sent Vinnie to go act like he wanted to quit the men’s team and join the women’s team, then be a mole and report back to the men. Then Vinnie decided he really wanted to be on the women’s team even though he had already given the men information.

Then it turned into a big, finger-pointing mess with a bunch of melodramatic over-reactions from the women and Vinnie got sent back to the men and it turns out Piers was really only trying to screw with Vinnie after all and I don’t know…I lost track. The whole thing was probably staged anyway.

The women won with a giant shoe concept – probably because the producers needed to throw them a win after losing like the first 6 in a row or whatever it was.

The women acted all smug about it and also lied and said Vinnie hadn’t helped them when he had.

Vinnie quit, then there was a bunch of hassle about it, then he quit again anyway, even though Baldwin was trying to get Trump to fire Piers instead.

Baldwin also tried to convert Piers to Christianity earlier in the show (he was quite surprised when Piers told him he was already a lifelong Roman Catholic).

Oh, and Baldwin gave a world class ass-kissing speech to Trump that started ith the words, 'I don’t want to kiss your ass but…"

In the teasers for next week, they showed the women dumping drinks on Piers’ head, so I guess he’s the “Jen” now. I’m rooting for him to win.

I almost forgot. Vinnie was compalining to Trump that Piers had called him a “fat Italian,” and Piers objected, saying “I did not call him a fat Italian, I called him a VERY fat Italian.”

I’m still trying to figure out if it was a horrible episode or a great one.

89

I vote horrible. The whole thing looked like it was scripted by Don Jr. after inhaling hairspray fumes for a few hours. Vinnie ended up looking like an idiot, as did the women. Vinnie, in the real world, people don’t get wacked for “ratting.” I’m concerned that he really believes he’s a gangster.

And Stephen Baldwin, way to pull a David Puddy with the “I’m a Christian so I can’t pick that up, but you can” business.

In general, everyone seems to be taking this way too seriously. I miss Gene.

90

I agree with this. The fact that I spent two hours fairly agog (albeit with “WTF”), however, I guess makes it effective TV.

What were Vinnie’s contributions to the task, IYO, [b[Dio**?

And – how did the women’s team find the guy who made the giant shoe? Is there some support staff or something? Because there’s no way you could just find a craftsperson that talented by cold-calling around NYC.

91

Loved it.

And surprisingly, I don’t miss Gene because what I liked about Gene on his show was that his family was there to put him down when he puffed up the way he tends to do. “I don’t need to consult the customer, my genius goes beyond mere customers.”

I don’t think the women were spying. There were just shadows behind the glass, which could have been passers-by or producers.

Plenty of hypocrisy to go all around. Trace felt awful about it, but said nothing. Baldwin felt awful about it but merely mumbled something while he ate and giggled, both of which he does constantly. Vinnie felt awful about doing it — after he’d been found out. And all the women felt great about stealing Vinnie and using his ideas to win, ideas that they acknowledged — until they won.

The only virtuous person was the evil Piers. That’s like one pier plus one pier, not like piercing the heart, though Drama King Vinnie did his best to fall on the sword. Except that Trump isn’t entertained by such foolishness, and was left at the end of it all with a “Wow, that was weird” feeling.

Great ending from the editors, by the way. Just stop it mid-bar — from music to silence in an instant. No fade to black. No ending tonic chord. Just merciful relief.

By the way, the biggest hypocrite of all was Vinnie, calling Piers Brit-this and Brit-that in the context of insults, and then crying that Piers was being “racial” for using the word “Italian”. All this from a borderline psychotic who thought the women were going to kill him for his espionage. Excuse me, his sabotage. Piers explained the difference well.

I’m pulling for Piers now. If he somehow manages to knock out Omamonster, he’ll be my hero for life.

92

I suspect that this was the result of clumsy (or perhaps deliberate) editing. Stephen was quite vocal about voicing his disapproval outside of the boardroom, after all.

Alternatively, it could be that he was concerned that Donald might approve of the corporate spying, especially in light of Ivanka’s comments. Stephen might have wanted to imply his disapproval without overtly telling Donald that this corporate espionage was wrong.

93

That was a direct copy of the ending to the Sopranos finale – sudden cut to black in the middle of Journey’s “Don’t stop Believing,” right after the words, “Don’t stop.”

94

He came up with the cardboard Carol Alt idea, telling them they needed to use their celebrity more. There may have been more. Nely gave a TH talking about how much the women liked his ideas.

95

Fascinating. Thanks, Dio. Never knew that. (Never watched the show.)

96

Oh, right, I’d forgotten all that.

Yeah, given that, their repudiation of him seems all the more weaselly. Let’s face it, not a single person came out of that whole episode looking good. Esp. not Piers, who I was rooting for up till now.

97

Really, twickster? What was it you didn’t like about Piers? I thought he was the only honest one in the whole bunch.

98

Yes, I rather like Piers. I wish he’d replace Simon on American Idol. Of course, he does not come from a music background, but I think he’d do equally a good job and be more intelligent.

99

Piers was about the only entertaining part of the mess last night. I loved when delusional Vinny was talking about getting wacked for being a rat, and Piers explained that he didn’t think Vinny was going to be murdered by Marilu Henner. :smiley:

I hope no one tuned in last night for the first time on my recommendation. I’ve told a few people that I found the new and improved Apprentice fairly entertaining this year, mainly because the celebrities don’t take it so seriously and it just seems more fun in general. Then of course we have last night’s episode when everyone treats it like they’re racing to cure cancer or something. OMG they spied on us it’s the end of the freaking world! Everyone except Piers needed to get over themselves bigtime.

Regarding my comment on Stephen, I was referring to the famous scene in Seinfeld when the “pretty religious” David Putty wanted Elaine to take her neighbor’s newspaper because hers was missing.

David: “They forgot to deliver your paper, why don’t you take that one.”
Elaine: “But that belongs to Mr. Potatoe Guy.”
“Come on, get it.”
“No. If you want it, you get it.”
“Sorry, thou shalt not steal.”

Stephen appeared to do the exact same thing. He wouldn’t pick up the note himself, so he called one of the other guys to do it. And of course one could argue that spying on your opponents on a TV show is not exactly a mortal sin.

100

In Piers’s favor: He knew what he was doing and why he was doing it, and was able to present his reasons clearly and coherently. He was absolutely on a different planet from everyone else on that criterion alone.

Why I had a problem with him:

  1. His original premise was flawed – the women weren’t spying on them – thus no “retaliation” was necessary.

  2. I think there’s a very strong possibility that he got so distracted with playing the side game of manipulation and sabotage that he failed to play the actual game – “Apprentice task” – with sufficient attention and care. What if they had spent more time improving their display and presentation, and less on complicated backstage schemes? Their slogan was head and shoulders above the women’s – but their overall display (a plain box, effectively) was much less eye-catching, and they definitely failed to provide the backup “stuff” that the women had (brochures, T-shirts, etc.).