Month: March 2012

With the men stumbling over a fashion task in The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 3, project manager George Takei was eliminated.

Dee does not consider the decision the correct one because Lou needs to go.

This week’s task is to do a 10 minute presentation and 10 minute question and answer segment to introduce the new Buick Verano. They will be judged on informational content, brand messaging, and creativity.

Adam is the project manager for the men, in spite of Trump’s suggestion that it be Michael Andretti. He says he races vintage cars, so he feels more suited to this task than the pro racer. Debbie is the project manager for the women. Unlike last week’s task that was geared toward them, the women feel less comfortable with cars.

Aubrey continues to be the idea person for her team. Debbie’s not a fan, but she will use her to the extent she feels comfortable.

Adam’s a comic, but the executives are very reserved. They are open to some humor, allegedly, but his traditional style of humor is not going to fly with them.

Lou mostly just wants to tear his shirt off because that’s what he does.

The women listened to the executives, who emphasized things like safety and technology. That should set them on the right track, whereas Adam just wants to be funny.

Teresa, Tia, and Dayana are relegated to the uncool van, the one in which the occupants are disregarded while the rest of the team comes up with the concept. Tia calls and asks to be put on speaker so they can join the conversation, but they hang up and offer to call back once the idea’s already set. Apparently, Debbie cannot review her notes and have someone on the phone listening at the same time.

Adam’s made up his mind. He wants the others to heckle the presenters and say things like “You suck” and “Shut your pie hole.” He gets complaints from all directions that this is the wrong way to go, but he’s not listening.

The women don’t have anything written as the clock ticks down, except for Tia, whose ideas are immediately dismissed because she was not in the cool van.

With their own comedian on hand, the women are also heading down the comedy route, plus Debbie Gibson’s opportunity to sing a song that was popular 30 years ago. Then Aubrey gets up and pretends her mom died in a car that was less safe than the Buick Verano, or Verona as she calls it. Teresa’s up next with her whole family.

The men mostly have the Adam Carolla show on their hands, though Michael does get on stage for a bit and talk about his experience test driving the car. Their comedy bit does, mostly, go over well, and their car knowledge comes in handy.

Lisa likes most of what Debbie did.

Dee says Adam was amazing. Then Trump gives Michael a hard time for not being the project manager, and I can see why.

Lou thinks he should have been utilized more. Again.

Penn doesn’t think their presentation should have been funny because the executives shied away from it. They prefer witty, which would not be Adam.

Adam says that if they lose, he will not bring anybody back. Trump’s going to remember that.

Teresa and Tia felt left out. They didn’t know what was going on. If the women lose, Debbie would bring them back. The equally marginalized Dayana seems to have escaped the blame this time.

The executives liked how the women integrated the four key features, Lisa’s role, and Aubrey’s passion. They did not get a great sense of the brand, weren’t sure what Tia’s role was, Aubrey called the car a Verona, and they didn’t understand their concept, which the team doesn’t seem to understand either.

They thought Adam was engaging and had a command of the product, the Q&A was very good, and they loved Penn getting out of the car. However, they wondered why Michael was not more utilized, didn’t get a sense of the voice of this particular vehicle, many players had too marginal a role, and they felt a lack of sense of community on the team.

The women have won. Debbie receives $50,000 for her charity, Children International.

When they return to the suite, Debbie apologizes to Teresa for ignoring her, but Teresa’s not buying it.

Adam didn’t realize they were being judged on how many people on the team were utilized. I did not realize that either. It sure was not one of the criteria set out at the beginning of the task.

Paul calls Lou the weakest. Arsenio agrees. Lou says Michael was the weakest because he didn’t step up more in spite of his background. Trump repeats, for the 20th time, telling us he won’t say it again, he was shocked that Michael was not the project manager. The way they keep going on and on and on, the task didn’t matter. It all unraveled at the PM selection. The men should have just taken the day off.

Michael’s defense, a very sound one, is that this was not a car task. It was a marketing and presenting task. Based on his presence on stage, it was clear Michael was not at home in this environment, though his knowledge managed to shine through regardless.

Dee would fire Adam because it was his task. Michael would fire Lou, who is complaining about being underutilized but only says it in the boardroom.

Adam declines to select two people. Because of that, Trump will fire two people tonight. He has a pre-determined target in mind, and he’s not going to let him escape. Jackass. Just let Adam go. Didn’t you learn anything that night you fired four people, which was the beginning of the end of regular Apprentice? Nobody likes stunt firings. Let the rules be what they are. Don’t make them up as you go.

Because he refused to play Trump’s game, Adam has been fired.

Trump tries to twist Arsenio’s arm to make it seem as if would fire Michael. Arsenio still declines to agree. Aside from Lou, nobody has said Michael should be fired. Dee would still fire Lou. Not one to care that nobody is coming to his aid to back up this theory that he’s had for days, Trump fires Michael anyway. Two strong players down, and they still have Lou. The purpose of the show is supposed to be for the strong to survive to the end, but Trump went the extra mile to see how much he could do to cripple the men.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 5, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

Once the dust settled from the over the top drama in The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 2, Victoria Gotti was fired.

This week’s task is to design living window displays for the Ivanka Trump Collection, to be judged by Ivanka and an executive from Lord & Taylor. Dayana volunteers for the women, getting the nod over Teresa. The gay guys are nominated for the men, with George drawing the short straw.

Everybody is drawn to Aubrey’s ideas for their team, and like last week, it’s not long before she takes over.

For George, the first trick is to figure out just how many windows they are responsible for doing. Once he realizes the task says two, they’re off. They want to see hot twins. That’s about it.

The women had already come up with a day and night theme, and after meeting with the executives, the men are on the same path.

Unlike the men, who have to go hunting for models, the women already have much of what they need present. Debbie believes she can fit into that role, but at age 41, she’s outside the target demographic and quite a bit older than multiple members of her team.

Adam used to be a carpenter, so he’s right at home when they start building their sets. So much at home that he declines to run his ideas by the project manager. Not that George seems overly concerned. He’s willing to defer to his team to run with what little guidance he provides.

Having planned to jam multiple themes into each window, the women realize something on arrival. These displays are a lot smaller than they thought. They try to talk the team in the van into reducing their ideas to just the best ones, which those who are not physically at the location are reluctant to do. By the time Don Jr. arrives, their concept doesn’t seem to exist yet.

Deciding there is a need to also display Ivanka’s jewelry, Debbie makes a call to Ivanka asking for access to that collection as well. Simple enough to get a yes.

Dee finds out the diagnosis on his finger is not as good as he’d hoped. He needs to have surgery, now.

One thing the men have neglected to notice that Ivanka stressed: her brand’s color is coral. What they did manage to do thanks to Paul is create signs that are brand specific. The women have a coral border around their windows, which ultimately ends up covering their shoes.

Having struggled with their photos the night before, the morning of the presentation, the women’s struggle continues. With an hour until the presentation, their photos and sketches, which are the center of their theme now, are sitting in traffic. So they think. The sketches are printed. The photos are not. That leaves one window display blank with 10 minutes to figure out an alternative. Aubrey comes up with a plan B on the spot.

As the task begins, Dee returns with a cast. The one armed man isn’t quitting. Arsenio insists this can’t be done with one arm, but that didn’t prevent Dave from winning Hell’s Kitchen 6.

During the pitch, George mentions Lou’s name as someone who didn’t want to get involved. Lou’s standing right there. Here comes another tantrum.

When they arrive in the boardroom, Dayana still struggles to explain their concept.

Teresa thinks Dayana was great. Nobody disagrees.

Tia declines to comment on the weakest player. Teresa continues the lovefest. Dayana doesn’t want to mention two people to bring back because they won. Trump tries to bully her into answering, but it doesn’t work. So who would Aubrey choose? She doesn’t want to answer either. Who would she want to stick around? Lisa and Patricia.

Clay has been hard on George throughout the episode, but when asked in the boardroom, his response is that George did a perfectly fine job. Arsenio liked working for George because he left him alone to do his job.

The judges liked the women’s attention to detail, use and integration of the logo throughout, the living aspect of the window, and clear understanding of the demographic. They did not like the fan because it wasn’t a photo shoot, and they did not like the lost visibility of the shoes.

On the men’s side, they loved the signs so much that Ivanka wants to use them for her shop, and they also liked the twin concept, brand messaging, and Arsenio’s presence in the scene. They did not like that it was hard to see the second window due to their choice of a very dark midnight blue color, they did not feel that the clothing was appropriate to the setting, and they felt the team lacked creativity and did not take risks.

All things considered, the men did a good job, but the women did better. As the winning project manager, Dayana wins $20,000 for her charity, the Latino Commission on AIDS.

Lou suggests that Adam’s reluctance to call George and ask whether midnight blue was okay is the reason for the lack of visibility in the second display, but this was a color George had already signed off on.

Arsenio was the only person on the team willing or able to choose the clothing. They can try to blame him for this, but none of the others would have stepped up to the plate in his absence. Because of this issue, Lou would fire Arsenio. Arsenio’s input is that, if the clothing was a problem, maybe he should be fired.

Paul would fire George due to his communication. Clay would also fire George because he didn’t necessarily delegate tasks. Adam would fire the project manager.

Penn says he was self marginalized, since he doesn’t have a good eye. Teller does all of their visual work.

George will be bringing back Arsenio for the clothing and Lou for his lack of a role.

Lou doesn’t think George is an aggressive enough person to be the project manager.

Arsenio doesn’t know what happened at the location with Adam’s subteam, and neither does George. That said, what they do know is that there are members of the team who wanted Lou to be elsewhere.

George assumes he will be fired. With that, George has been fired.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 4, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.