Gary Busey Finally Voted Off the Island!

So to speak!

I won't miss him at all. Neither will Lil Jon, John Rich or Meatloaf, who normally an intelligent, verbose, well-spoken man was reduced to gibbering at several points when asked about the task, Gary's being the project manager and other topics. This poor guy has been destroyed each episode by Gary, who has long since lost his marbles, and while he rallies back each time, it's clearly taken his toll. For Meatloaf at most and the rest of his teammates, as well, they all must have slept like babies when Gary was fired!

The women, on the other hand, seemed unhappy, even distressed by this. Keep in mind that this is in the last few moments of the show, so we did not really get a feel for why, but if I had to guess, I'd say it is because no matter how much actual cat-fighting went on with their team, they always knew the men had the great Achilles' heal, Gary, who brought down the last three tasks. Now the men, while only numbering three, can make the very strong, cohesive team that they should have been before!

Now their flaws - most notably LaToya Jackson (shiver) and Star Jones - will be laid bare and this is where they will have to fight to sink or swim. The men's team was kicking their asses all over when there were enough team members to overtake and distract Gary (which was not difficult) from making a total ass of himself. Now they are well rid of him again.

LaToya should have lost the Australian Gold task due to her dithering and complete inability to make anything resembling an opinion. She was wussy and pusillanimous right through to the end. She ignored her teammates who, contrary to her opinion, were not trying to slit her throat as team manager, but trying to advise her so that they would win. She kept insisting it was a conspiracy to get her off the show. What an idiot. And have you ever heard her talk? Mew, mew, mew, too low, too soft, too spineless. Yikes! (This all, of course, supports my theory that she and Michael Jackson were one and the same person.)

Now, if you have been watching the show regularly, you will know why Star Jones is actually more of a liability than a help at this point. This situation has been slowly but clearly evolving over the whole show (I remember griping to Luis about it back in the second or third episode). The issues are two-fold; 1. the woman runs the show on almost every task. She did not pull that off with Marlee Matlin, who never, ever allow that, but with almost all the others she was the mouth, the frontispiece, the main spokesperson. That was not making her popular and Donald Trump Jr. finally commented on it the last time (with the Omaha Steaks task). The second problem is that Star does the same thing every time: the graphics. She does do great graphics; but that is all she does. And it takes all the live long day for her to do it. This I remember seeing almost immediately - she never waited for a task from the team leader; she just stated she'd do the graphics (because that's what she does).

NeNe Leaks (whom I'd never heard of prior to the show) is getting tired of Star and really, actively hates LaToya. Which if you have NeNe's personality, you would see why this is the case. Anyone as wussy as LaToya will get on everyone's nerves - most notably those of us with much stronger personalities but right on down to other wimpy people as well. On the other hand, NeNe is so unaccustomed to anyone attempting to boss her around that Star grates on her nerves as well. I would agree to that as well. I'd be gunning for LaToya first, although smart thinking dictates taking Star - the bigger competitor - out first. LaToya hasn't a prayer in hell of making it to the Celebrity Apprentice winner's circle, no road! Worry about the person who might actually win first.

My two picks for the winner are Marlee Matlin (hands down) and Meat Loaf, although I have to say I have been very impressed by John Rich and Lil Jon. I'd never heard of either of them, and they have not only put on a good showing, but have been excellent team leaders! Now I have to say that John Rich is as strong a contender as Meat Loaf and Marlee but I don't know if Lil Jon could beat them. For the rest, no way. While Hope and NeNe did do well as Project Managers, they did not come in as top contenders as Marlee and John Rich did. Meat Loaf does so well and with great cheer at any task given, he'd be an advantage no matter what.

The other contestants from the beginning: Dionne Warwick, Nikki Taylor, David Cassidy, José Conseco, Lisa Rinna, Richard Hatch and Mark McCarthy were a mixed bag.

Destined for failure was Richard Hatch, David Cassidy, Dionne Warwick and Lisa Rinna. They were not great people and not inspiring Project Managers (those who made it to PM). Nikki Taylor and Mark McCarthy could still be there (certainly Mark could be) had they not made the classic mistake of offering only themselves up for termination. Pity, too. Had Mark not done that, none of those guys would have gotten stuck with Busey yet AGAIN! They may have won the Omaha Steaks task as well.

I personally found José Conseco to be a very gently, pleasant, well-spoken man who had a temper that he kept under wraps well. He's also a huge, tall man with incredibly wide shoulders and a very masculine look. I liked him both physically and for his personality. And in the first episode, he and Richard Hatch, who has the worst people skills ever, hated each other. Richard is a fairly big guy, too; but he was smart enough to keep a physical distance from José. He did, however, get mildly physical with David Cassidy, who was really a pygmy - in general and definitely next to Richard. José witnessed a lot of this, and it was an effort for him not to jump in to defend David.

It did, however, come up with all those who heard and/or saw it in the boardroom. It was even more clear by the glowering look on José' face that he'd have loved nothing more than to beat the ever-lovin' crap out of Richard. Quite frankly, we'd have cheered him on. Richard pissed off everyone.

So it has been a good season so far. I'm enjoying it rather more than usual, and I normally like it.