Continuing "Back Again with Celebrity Apprentice"

As you recall, I was falling asleep watching the 12 April episode of Celebrity Apprentice and so did finish writing about it. That was past the mid-way point, with about 45 minutes left to go.

The contestants all left the boardroom and Joan talked to Annie about how she did not say what she had told Joan the previous night. She did not. When asked by Donald about what she thought of Brandy, she made some sort of spineless, wishy-washy statement about her not being... it was some kind of poker analogy (I guess) but it was not a strong statement and did not convey any real intent to anyone. I guess I should back track and get that comment...

Oh, yes. The losing team had to explain the loss. At one point, George (I don't remember his last name but he has worked for Donald Trump for years and has been on the show when it was just The Apprentice and was a long, on-air job interview for candidates to prove their worth to take over a building or something of that nature in Mr. Trump's employ. He's really a great guy, and very observant) said to Melissa (after Donald asked her if any of the blame fell on her shoulders and she of course denied it), "No, no, no, you lost focus. If you spent a lot of time on the presentation, you might have ended up with a superior product."

Melissa said, "Wait, can I just defend myself, please, George, completely respectfully?"

(In my line of work I hear statements like that and immediately I know that the person attempting his or her own defense is nervous and leaving lip prints all over my butt. I hate fawning statements like that.)

She continued, "I could not do anything to help Annie and start editing until she gave me something finished. So instead of sitting and doing nothing, I went ahead and got into research mode."

(I hate the use of "mode" that way, too. It is sort of what happened with the word "like", except that "like" gets used 50 times in a five minute conversation...)

George did not let her get away with it but Joan, in the other room with the winners, was watching this on the huge telly there. She clearly wasn't happy with George. She stated that they are "out to get Melissa" and she was so upset, she said she was out of there.

Donald asked each person who he or she thinks should be fired. Annie was asked how she feels about the negative statement Melissa made about Brandy. Whatever Melissa's faults and flaws, I agreed with her that the person who should be fired in this task is Brandy. She was useless and brought nothing to the table. But Annie said in response that Brandy is an incredibly hard worker but due to the low number of contestants, she is not much value now. She said that Brandy "doesn't stick her neck out" and that in poker there are people who "play to last and people who play to win" and that Brandy wasn't playing to win.

It was a strange statement.

Brian picked Brandy and Melissa to return to the boardroom for termination. When he did that, Joan immediately said, "See? They're goin' after Melissa." She got so worked up she picked up her champaigne flute and smashed it on the floor! Champaigne everywhere and broken glass to boot.

Joan had her stuff bagged up and was pissed off. She said she couldn't sit in a room with Annie. Joan ran into her in the outer room and approached her on it. Joan was upset and did not say anything inappropriate, but Annie tried to say that she was strong. Joan did not believe it. It's obvious that Annie and Melissa do not like one another.

Melissa, back in the boardroom, said that they had problems from the outset. Brian told Donald Trump that he can't fire anyone. Brandy did not have to say anything. Donald noticed that Brian was not really all that interested in staying and fired him. On their way out of the boardroom, Melissa shot, "Love you, George." Personally if I were George I would have been pissed off. Employees don't make comments like that where I work.

Then they were all called back in to the boardroom.

They all got a new task: hold a fashion show/jewelry auction with Ivanka Trump's jewelry. They pick the whole nine yards: the clothes, the jewelry and the models. Annie jumped at the chance to be project manager and the other team mentioned maybe Herschel but Donald jumped and said he'd suggest Joan. (I don't know why they - or Joan - was thinking of Herschel for this.) She took it. At that, Annie, smirking, said, "I will crush you, Joan".

Well, that is really stupid and a very obvious way of throwing down the gauntlet. I'd have put a brick in the gauntlet and then hit Annie with it.

The teams dispersed and began working. Annie had Melissa as the person selecting the jewelry, then gave Brandy the task of selecting the clothes. Melissa had thought to do that, too. But Brandy jumped in and said she'd call the agency to get models, as well. She said that Melissa would be really busy with the jewelry.

There was an undercurrent to that as clearly Brandy was pissed off that Melissa tried to (rightfully so) throw her under the bus in the boardroom earlier.

She did call an agency and set up the models, and Annie said to her, "Wow, girl, you are really rockin' out!" and it was the most overdone, almost fake sounding thing. As in she was sucking up to Brandy, her new best friend, and making a dig at Melissa. At least that's how I heard it. And I would imagine anyone watching this season would see it the same way. It was really quite obvious. There was a lot of sucking up between Brandy and Annie. Melissa did not present well in the interview bits put in there - but they all sound like 8-year-olds in the schoolyard.

Joan made one comment that I found completely baffling... she selected Natalie, the professional golfer, to pick the jewelry for the show and gave a multitude of reasons, including that "she's straight, which for a golfer is very unusual" - huh? I am around a ton of golfers. I have not noticed a prevalence of male or female golfers that are homosexuals. What in the world did that come from?!

Annie told her team that should they lose, she will bring in those team members who brought in the least amount of money. Way to motivate!

If I were there, I would work my ass off, but I would wait to start asking my very wealthy friends for huge donations until I was the Project Manager and pull the big favours in then, when it is MY charity that we'll be working for. I would imagine that others (such as Jesse James) felt that way, too.

The jewelry... well... it was silver and diamonds (at least the stones I saw were all clear or diamond-looking). But it was mostly way too big and kinda bulky. Melissa went for all huge, ugly, bulky stuff. I hated that jewelry. Natalie picked all really pretty, delicate pieces that I would want to buy! I loved her taste. But both Melissa and Joan (not anywhere near each other) said they wanted to pick stuff that would "pop". I guess displaying it via a runway show is difficult, due to the size of the pieces and distance of the viewers.

Still... I would not select huge oversized rings and enormous necklaces for this. If it was visible like that from a distance, just imagine how god-awful huge it will be up close!

While they were working on the project, Annie and Brandy were sitting near each other and Brandy leaned over to whisper something into Annie's ear. At this point I was reminded forceably of school and how kids would whisper things just to make another person feel left out. That is exactly what this was. It was very childish and quite obvious. And Melissa found it as insulting as I would have. Two people who had nothing to do with each other all along suddenly acting like children... it was quite appalling.

It kept going on, too.

Natalie at one point came up with a wonderful idea. And since I find Annie rather annoying and childish, I loved the idea that much more. Natalie started calling Annie's biggest rivals on the poker circuit and called them for donations. What a truly amazing idea! And if bringing in big money is the idea, then this is perfect! Right? If anyone else had thought of it, they'd do it, too.

Joan certainly liked it. In fact, Herschel and Clint seemed to find it acceptable, too.

And this will be continued as well...