Category: celebrity apprentice 4

Following the interview round elimination of Lil Jon and Meat Loaf in The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 11, the final two of John Rich and Marlee Matlin got to work on their final task for 7UP Retro.

First thing’s first. Donald Trump has made the ever so shocking announcement he has no plans to run for President. Although it was all just an attempt to grab some attention, Trump’s not the worst person I can think of to run the country. He’d be hard pressed to do worse than we’ve seen the last several years. Immediately after NBC said he was expendable and would be replaced on this show if he were to run, he all of a sudden made the decision to stick around. Some fresh blood wouldn’t be the worst thing for this show. It’s not like Survivor where Jeff Probst is a critical element to the show’s success. Sure, they don’t want to do another Martha Stewart season, but it wouldn’t be difficult to drop a business person into the show’s current format and basically keep things going as is.

We were left with a cliffhanger, one that I doubt will hurt either team for long.

First, Marlee’s team is dealing with Geoffrey Holder refusing to sign his contract. Yeah, because I’m sure an 80 year old who’s most well known for some commercials in the 1970s has more pressing matters than appearing on the season finale of a popular TV show. Eventually, he does show up as expected.

Meanwhile, John Rich has to deal with Def Leppard. Unlike the other team, which has no backup plan, John is willing to just do the show and send these guys packing, complete with all the bad publicity that refusing to do a celebrity performance would entail. They still refuse to bow to his idea of using a kickdrum, but they’re willing to work with him. I don’t get the sense they weren’t willing to work with him. This is so lame.

Ivanka is pregnant. I’m sure we’ll see her child appearing on the show some time soon, like the rest of the Trump family. Remember when people who were not related to Trump used to be able to get on this show? Or people who were friends of Trump were not given instant get out of jail, go straight to victory cards no matter how poorly they and their offspring performed? Don Jr. is expecting his third child. We’ve already seen his other kids on this show. Speaking of which, Marlee’s basketball game is the perfect opportunity for them to make another appearance.

Marlee’s team knows they have things to do. Except they just don’t know what needs to get done, or who’s supposed to do it, as nothing has been delegated. La Toya’s getting worried John Rich is going to win. By the time the Globetrotters show up, they seem to have everything in order.

The whole cast is back for the live show, minus the jailed Richard Hatch. Even NeNe the quitter is back, although the season’s other quitter Jose Canseco is not. David Cassidy is happy Hatch is in prison. Lisa blames Star for her departure. She’s not alone, but for all the people complaining about Star, she was just better than they were.

It’s not a fundraising task, but that’s not stopping John Rich from getting donations without trying. He raises $25,000, then he gets another $250,000, putting him over the $1 million mark.

Marlee had Meat Loaf greeting people at the door. John Rich decides not to greet anybody, including Trump.

John has another problem. He’s running ahead of schedule. It’s 6:40 when he introduces Def Leppard. He told them 7. They’ll be down at 7 and not a minute sooner. His resolution is to play some songs to fill time. I find him more entertaining than they are.

Both events go well. In the end, I’m not clear how it would have been possible to screw up either.

The 7UP execs have decided they will be using the cans from both teams, which isn’t going to help Trump in making a decision about the winner.

NeNe stands by being a raving lunatic. Star is embarrassed for her. La Toya says NeNe has a good heart, deep down.

Now for the final boardroom. First up, they bring out the cans. La Toya says the other team’s can pops.

John’s defense for the timing mishap is that he was rattled by having raised $275k just before they went on stage. This puts Marlee on the defensive, although Trump says he’s not going to give a bonus for it.

In total, almost $3 million has been raised this season, mostly by Marlee and John.

Everybody initially dances around the question of who should win. Meat Loaf says Trump’s broken the rules already, and should break the rules again and let them both win. In season 4, Trump made this offer to the winner, but Randal declined to share. Star finally gives an answer, saying the money raised in the final task by John Rich takes it over the top. Lil Jon obviously supports his buddy John. La Toya continues this trend. David supports Marlee. Mark McGrath supports John because he had the best season ever, not just one great week.

They keep talking about how close this is, but it has been John Rich’s to lose from the beginning. Either way, they’re both a lot better than either Joan Rivers or Bret Michaels were.

The Celebrity Apprentice 4 winner is John Rich.

NBC has already confirmed that the show will be back next year for season 5.

In an eventful three hour The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 10, NeNe Leakes quit (good riddance), La Toya Jackson got fired again, and then Star Jones got fired when Meat Loaf should have.

They will be interviewed by the three Celebrity Apprentice winners, one of whom, Piers Morgan, actually deserved to win. If the other two are anything to go by, it’s not about necessarily being the best. A sympathy vote apparently goes a long way for Trump, and being his friend doesn’t hurt either.

John Rich would get rid of Meat Loaf, who has been a little erratic. As for Marlee, she’s raised a lot of money, but that’s it. His strength has been writing, but Piers says he’s not impressed. He promises a completely new gear because this is an individual situation.

Bret thinks Lil Jon’s a sleeper who didn’t get here by accident. Strangely enough, he thinks that the final two will be John Rich against Marlee Matlin. This is a fair answer, but you wouldn’t expect it from one of their competitors. Meat Loaf, however, is too emotional.

Meat Loaf thinks that being the oldest was an asset. It worked for Joan Rivers. That was the only very lame excuse Trump had for giving her the win. He doesn’t believe his anger management and emotional issues are a detriment. He thinks Lil Jon is a little lazy, and he didn’t know who John Rich was before he came here.

Marlee calls this the hardest thing she’s ever done. People may think she can’t do some things because she’s deaf, but she’s done well regardless. That said, she had one amazing task, but without that, there’s not much else. Piers questions whether she’s got anything left, and she says she’s been pretty much tapped out.

The three winners were in agreement with the two people they chose.

John Rich would pick himself and Marlee. Lil Jon would pick himself and John. Marlee would pick herself and John Rich. Meat Loaf would pick himself and John Rich. So all four people say John.

Because he said earlier Marlee and John should be in the finals, Lil Jon has been fired.

Meat should have been sent packing last week instead of Star so we weren’t merely delaying the inevitable. Having displayed too much emotion, Meat Loaf has been fired.

That leaves us with a rematch of the highest earning task in history, John Rich vs. Marlee Matlin.

The final task is to launch 7UP Retro, a product made with real sugar. They will design the packaging and in store display, write/create/produce a commercial, and launch the product at a star studded event. One of them will celebrate the 1970s and work with the Harlem Globetrotters, while the other will work with Def Leppard to bring the 1980s to life. They will be judged on creativity of design, commercial, launch event, and inclusion of decade/charity/personality. Both charities will receive $50,000 to get started.

Marlee’s just happy it’s not another fundraiser.

As the leading money winner, Marlee gets her choice of the two tasks. She selects the Globetrotters, which surprises musician John Rich, who thought there’s no way she would give him the rockers. John Rich gets to start team selection. Even though she realizes she may have given John an advantage, Marlee loves sports and would rather have something very visual.

John: Lil Jon, Mark McGrath, Star Jones
Marlee: Meat Loaf, Richard Hatch, La Toya Jackson

That pretty well gives John the musical dream team.

La Toya quickly finds out what the guys have had to deal with all this time as she sits there listening to Meat Loaf’s rambling. He’ll arrive at a good thought eventually, though.

John thinks he’s come up with a hook that’s going to work: 7UP, Still Keeping It Real. They will be going with zebra striped cans.

The other team arrives at a slogan of Feel the Love. They have a disco ball and a boombox for their cans and boxes.

Star’s happy to be on this team with all the guys. John Rich is just lucky he’s married.

Ivanka’s a little concerned that Marlee will be dominated by Meat Loaf again.

Once Meat Loaf leaves, Richard Hatch and Marlee decide to dump his boombox idea. When he finds out, he warns that they’re making a huge giant mistake, one that could cost her the entire game.

John wants to get Dee Snider from Twisted Sister, but there’s a problem. He’s got facial hair that he can’t shave because of his Rock of Ages contract. He calls to get the okay to shave. Their concept is that they’re auditioning really bad 80s talents, and Dee is bad as well, until he gets some 7UP Retro and turns into Twisted Sister.

Marlee wants to bring back the guy who did the original 70s 7UP commercials, Geoffrey Holder. They dial 411 to find him. How quaint. He’s available. The team members will also be starring in the commercial. Hatch has a fro, La Toya’s a superhero, and Meat Loaf is Meat Loaf.

Since we’re approaching the end of part one of the finale, it’s time to throw up some curve balls that at the end of the day won’t make any difference. John Rich gets into a bit of an argument with Def Leppard’s road manager. Marlee gets a call from Geoffrey Holder, whose lawyer refuses to sign the release.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 12, where we will find out who The Celebrity Apprentice 4 winner is, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

Osama bin Laden was killed in The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 9. Oh, and Hope was fired. I think. NBC dropped the ball. There was no reason at all the show had to be interrupted and they couldn’t wait until 11:00 just because the President planned to speak “soon” (aka 11:35).

NeNe acts surprised to find out that Star doesn’t want to talk to her. Realizing that the two can’t work together yet not wanting to fire either of them to resolve the issue that’s not going to be resolved otherwise, Trump opts instead to mix up the teams, swapping Meat Loaf with NeNe. Good luck boys and La Toya.

Their task is to produce a comedy show with three comedians and 50 tickets each (to be sold at whatever price they can get), with the goal of earning the most total money. Jim Kramer will be taking Don Jr.’s place this week.

La Toya will be the project manager for Backbone, while Meat Loaf will be the project manager for ASAP.

NeNe needs some more time to pout, so she disappears from her new team.

John Rich fired most of his ammo during the art task, so his angle this time is to secure a comedian, Jimmy Fallon.

Star gets Tracy Morgan on video. Jim Kramer is not impressed. Why not a personal appearance?

Trump should have gotten rid of NeNe last week instead of Hope. Now he’s in the position of making the call to ask her to not quit. No such luck. NeNe sends La Toya a text saying she quits because she can’t stand this negative environment (which she created for herself).

La Toya doesn’t seem to be making much progress. She’s not comfortable either asking for money or leaving voicemails.

Meat Loaf’s afraid that he’ll lose and his donors, who want to give specifically to his charity, will then end up giving to La Toya instead. They decide to strike preemptively and ask Trump for the okay for each project manager to keep their winnings for their charity. Trump says he can’t promise that because they should be trying to win if that’s the outcome they want.

Jimmy Fallon arrives as planned, and he surprises them with a check for $10k. Oddly enough, he’s a singer/songwriter.

Star and Marlee convince Meat Loaf to continue and stop moping, but regardless his head’s still not in the game. However, when it’s time for him to take the stage, it’s then that he kicks into gear. Marlee also takes the stage to do a routine.

La Toya’s never been this happy on a task, but she’s left thinking: did they raise enough money?

It’s evolving into a lovefest. Without NeNe, everybody is getting along with everybody else.

Trump’s message for NeNe: you’re fired, you’re a quitter, and Star Jones kicked your ass. He more or less admits that Hope shouldn’t have been fired, but what’s done is done.

John Rich has an offer for Meat Loaf. If his team loses, he will personally match whatever he raised.

ASAP raised $102,080. Backbone raised $82,500. As the winning project manager, Meat Loaf will receive the money for his charity, Painted Turtle. He says this is one of the best moments in his life.

La Toya can’t say anything bad about her teammates, and she is unwilling to pick which one was better.

Lil Jon says it should be the project manager or the person who raised the least. In either case, that would be La Toya. As the only one to ever be rehired, La Toya is also the only one to ever be fired twice.

It’s double episode night. First was The Amazing Race, now it’s The Celebrity Apprentice. One task down, one to go.

Onstar will be selling new technology at Best Buy, and their task is to introduce this new market with video. They will be judged on creativity and originality, product integration, and brand messaging.

George returns to take Ivanka’s place.

John Rich will be the project manager for Backbone for a third time. Marlee will be the project manager for ASAP. The winning project manager will receive $20,000 to be matched by Onstar.

John is struggling with a sinus infection or something. He’s hardly able to read and write, let alone think of the script.

Meat Loaf takes the creative lead on his team’s commercial. Marlee goes along with him, realizing his quest to find a donut shop represents a risk. He doesn’t come up with a script, though. They can just improv. Because Star’s in charge of branding, he thinks it’s her responsbility to come up with a script if she wants one.

The men opt to show a soccer mom and a college girl talking about how great it is they can now get Onstar. Lil Jon would like to get a lot of special effects into this shot, which their studio is not really equipped to handle.

Star is the main actor for her team. She can’t remember her lines. Cue cards don’t seem to be helping either.

Don Jr. notices the tension in ASAP and the fact that Meat Loaf seems to be the one in charge.

After Star finishes her informational part of the commercial, it’s time for officer Meat Loaf to save the day by finding Marlee’s stolen car. Now he wants to find his favorite donut shop.

Marlee realizes she took a little too much of a back seat, and she just hopes they have enough to edit.

Backbone arrives to edit first. John bets the other team got too complicated and fell behind. Lil Jon is confident they have plenty of time, but his special effects will push them close to the deadline. When ASAP does arrive, Star sits back and lets the other two do the editing.

The execs felt ASAP had a much more ambitious project but were a bit softer on the message. They didn’t like the the policeman was seen as the butt of a joke rather than a hero. They liked Lil Jon, but thought maybe he came on too strong. That said, they really sold the idea that this is a new way to get Onstar. One miss was someone was driving a car without wearing a seatbelt, which makes the footage unusable.

John thinks the other team missed the main point. The other team is unable to say the guys did a better or worse job… just different.

Backbone wins, putting the Jonz in the final 4. As the winning project manager, John Rich gets $40,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Marlee would fire Meat Loaf because his working style is different than what they are accustomed to. Star would fire Meat Loaf because of the creative. Meat Loaf would fire Star based on product placement and branding.

When they go out into the hallway, the argument continues. Meat Loaf wants to get into a shouting match with Star, who he calls sweetie, which she takes offense to, though Trump doesn’t understand why.

Somehow, the boardroom ends up turning into a debate about whether it was politically correct for Meat Loaf to call Star sweetie, as if this is accomplishing anything.

Because they lost the task on branding, the person in charge of branding has been fired. That would be Star. Bad decision. She didn’t cost them this task, although she didn’t attempt to salvage it either. With Star being assigned 2 of the 3 criteria for the task, while leaving the commercial in the hands of the other two people, she was an easy target in the event of a loss for any reason.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 11, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

Although she never actually did anything wrong, La Toya fell victim to the demands of her team and was eliminated in The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 8.

NeNe’s goal now is to figure out a way to kick Star’s ass.

In Trump’s opinion, the most important thing to looking good is hair. Their task is to produce a hair show for Farouk Systems. They will be judged based on brand messaging, showcasing of products and tools, and overall presentation.

Meat Loaf and Lil Jon play rock, paper, scissors to determine their project manager, Lil Jon. NeNe agrees to be the project manager for the women because Star thinks she should be. They’re already off to a shouting match before the task has even begun, or at least NeNe has a shouting match while Star sits there calmly. In the process, she calls Hope Star’s puppet. I’m sure the executive has a good first impression. Star asks for an explanation. She does not get one.

John asks if anybody has Niki Taylor’s number. Not only is she a supermodel, but she’s also a former teammate of the women. She’s in and can’t believe the girls didn’t call her.

Meanwhile, the women haven’t said a word since NeNe blew up. Now, they’re forced to attempt to work together, awkwardly.

La Toya’s back. She doesn’t know why she was fired (a fair complaint), and she wants a second chance. She does not want to be with the girls, though, and would like to join the guys’ team. Trump says he’ll think about it.

NeNe has decided on a concept of shaking their hair. Getting the feeling from the exec that he wanted to stress that the products are made in America, the men go with feeling good in America.

Star hires some dancers. Marlee says she would be happy to model. Hope is tired of being a model. Bad news then: that is what you do.

Star has no problem helping NeNe in this task. NeNe says she’d better help her because otherwise she’s going to tell Trump. Hope, however, has checked out. It’s hard to blame her, but it’s a good reason for her to be fired, not that I think Trump needs much motivation. She’s served her purpose of being the hot girl, and as we approach the end, he can now cut her loose.

Ivanka sees that the men are relaxed and confident, perhaps too confident. NeNe spends her time telling both Ivanka and Eric that the boardroom will be chaotic.

Once Niki arrives, NeNe goes into paranoia mode, well, worse than before. She doesn’t trust Niki or Hope or anybody else for that matter and is worried about sabotage. Marlee and Hope are also shocked that Niki is working for the men. Why? You didn’t ask her.

In addition to coming herself, Niki has brought three models with her.

The next morning, the hair stylists show up at 8AM, and so do the models. The only thing missing is the women’s team that told them to arrive at that time. They show up half an hour late, and NeNe can’t figure out why it’s an issue. Regardless, they are able to do a rehearsal in as planned. As for the men, Lil Jon feels comfortable with just 10 minutes of rehearsing.

NeNe does not like Hope’s runway presentation. The problem is Hope is a Playboy model, not a fashion model. She’ll tell you that herself. What I want to know is: what the hell did they do to Hope’s hair, and did they think it looked good?

NeNe’s already got her boardroom lineup determined and, for that matter, has for two days: Star and Hope.

The men may have gotten their presentation off to a rough start, but Lil Jon’s energy and their America concept eventually takes off. They have no clue whether it’s good or not because they don’t know anything about hair shows. Regardless, unlike NeNe, Lil Jon’s not even thinking about the boardroom yet.

NeNe says she doesn’t feel like everybody lived up to their full potential. That could have to do with her alienating them from second one. She expected them to just get over her attitude. In her defense, NeNe calls Star a disloyal backstabber. Furthermore, Hope is Star’s puppet on a string. From there, NeNe goes on and on and on and on some more. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear the results of the task before ripping everybody apart?

Lil Jon declines to name a weak player, and it doesn’t matter because they’re not going to lose anyway.

Farouk loved Lil Jon as an MC, thought they did a good job on branding and messaging, and loved the theme of American cities. However, he did not like that they didn’t articulate that the products are safe. For the women, their stylists were informative, and Marlee did well as a model. However, NeNe was a weak MC, there was no real theme or direction, Hope looked awkward in the show, and it seemed like the stylists were running things rather than the team.

It’s pretty obvious what happened here. The men have won. Lil Jon will receive $40,000 for his charity United Methodist Children’s Home. Before they leave, Trump has another surprise: La Toya will be joining them.

Now that she’s back, Trump asks her opinion. Star vs. Nene? She likes NeNe. Well, at least that’s one vote in NeNe’s corner. Hopefully not enough to save her, but I suspect that Hope’s going to be too quiet for his liking and get fired anyway.

20 minutes left. I know what that means. NeNe’s not done running her mouth, no matter how old it already is.

Hope finds it interesting that NeNe’s charity is for domestic violence when she herself is mentally and verbally abusive. That fact was not lost on me either.

Memo to NBC: I don’t need to see Obama taking over the airwaves again. I can read about Osama bin Laden being killed online, rather than during a show I’m trying to watch. And they aren’t even ready yet. The speech is still being written, so they’re going to fill the time until it starts. Ugh. This can’t wait until the news at 11?

20 minutes later, the news anchors continue to ramble, telling us that Obama will make a speech in another 10 minutes or so. What’s left to discuss? You’ve already told the story in great length. If the White House wanted to tell this story, they should have written quicker. I’m off to watch my Tivo’d Undercover Boss. For those of you keeping score at home, the final tally: 50 minutes (not counting the half hour before they interrupted the broadcast that they were telling us a speech was coming soon).

Anyway, it appears that Hope has been fired, not surprisingly, although it’s not as if they’re going to let anybody watch the firing.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 10, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

The men have been begging Trump to get rid of Gary Busey for weeks, but he ignored them, instead watching the team self destruct. In The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 7, Busey’s number was finally up.

Everybody else may be celebrating (including the men), but NeNe takes the opportunity to sulk out in the hallway. She doesn’t like La Toya any more. Not that she did in the first place.

Trump approaches the subject with the remaining contestants. Should he run for President? It’s not so far fetched an idea, although I’m not sure anybody thinks he’s serious. He may not be a politician, but he’s got a strong business background, which would make him more qualified to fix our fiscal woes than the people currently in charge.

This week’s task is to create an ad campaign for the Trump Hotel Collection, which is apparently a real thing. They will create 4 page ads with each page being able to run as an ad on its own. They will be judged on creativity and originality, brand messaging, and the overall pitch. Although Ivanka’s not out of town this week (she’s standing right there giving them instructions), now’s as good an opportunity as any to bring Eric Trump into the show. Ivanka instead will act as one of the executives.

John Rich reluctantly steps forward to be the project manager for the men. He wouldn’t stay at Trump’s hotels. Star volunteers to be the project manager for the women, and she has stayed at his hotels.

Star’s concept is individual elegance, collective luxury. La Toya’s unimpressed.

The men’s concept is “live the life” because that’s what the executive said. What that means or how they’re going to translate it into a campaign, they’re not sure.

Star sends NeNe and La Toya on errands. So send the two people who don’t get along shopping together. Granted, I’m sure NeNe could find a way to hate any of these women, then act like the victim. This pairing allows them to have a therapy session before proceeding with the task.

Eric is concerned that the men are a bit long-winded. Nobody’s going to read a thesis when they’re flipping through a magazine. The most interesting thing for me is that people actually still read magazines.

It doesn’t take the women long to get in their element. They hire a manicurist and makeup artists and have Ivanka’s representatives bring over some jewelry. Unlike previous project managers, Star is smart enough to want to get Hope to model for them in a bathtub.

John is happy when Meat Loaf is removed from the mix, leaving him alone to work with Lil Jon on the campaign.

Don Jr. thinks the women are organized, but he’s not sure about the demographic they’re targeting.

NeNe and La Toya go shopping as planned, and they’re actually getting along. There’s a problem, though. Star told them she wants them back in an hour and a half. Now she realizes they’ll be lucky to get down the street in that amount of time.

The photographer is worried about time, but that’s okay because Star’s worried enough about that for him and the rest of the team. There are two shots that have to be done in the daylight. The bathroom shot, which NeNe is in charge of, is one of them. Thanks for coming back. Now you have 5 minutes to prepare for the shoot, and you’d better hurry up and get through it. NeNe doesn’t care if nobody else will snap at Star. She will.

Meat Loaf is directing the photos for the men. He took a bunch of shots of a butler, and every shot looks the same, so there really isn’t much to choose from. John Rich thinks he’s looking at an undertaker, so they chop his head off.

John doesn’t want to miss something stupid that will be obvious to Trump, such as a word that’s spelled wrong. Perhaps they shouldn’t have used such big words then, including supersede, one of the most misspelled words in the English language. And there are a lot of words, too. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure they have a spellchecker handy in Microsoft Word. If not, there’s probably a free one online.

After the women are done, La Toya reiterates her concern. What they have done has been done before.

The men offer up a presentation of personal experiences. The women go with Star’s idea, which is for each of them to say a word and then the next one says a word and so on. I don’t get it.

One of the execs says the women’s campaign is like an ad placed under a windshield wiper for a sleezy club. The men, meanwhile, have too many words, including some that are not spelled right. They also lack a call to action and are too traditional. Ultimately, they were not pleased with either ad.

Hope thinks Star is the best member of their team. NeNe says Marlee. John Rich will not be naming names.

Neither team did well, which brings us to a question of the lesser of two evils.

For the men, their ads had a good concept and theme, and the pitch was good. However, there was too much copy, the photos were overplayed and not creative, their ads weren’t really pitched, and they did not provide a way to contact the hotels. For the women, the name Trump stands out, and the words were on point. However, the ad was cluttered, the buzzwords were not subtle, the ad was literal rather than conceptual, there were too many photos (many were too small to recognize), there was no emotional connection, the pitch was way too formal and highlighted the Collection rather than the ads, there was a disconnect between the ad and their task directions, and it seemed like it was a flier for a strip club. In summary, two words: Greek tragedy.

We already know the men won the pitch, and after we’ve heard that lengthy list of negatives about the women, it seems safe to assume the men have won the task, or at least not lost it. They’re just lucky Trump was not judging this task because he would have gone to town over the lack of contact information.

As the winning project manager, John Rich will receive $20,000 for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Star wants to know whether Trump really needs to fire someone. Yes, yes he does.

Trump thinks the reason for the win is because the men did a better pitch. Star accepts responsibility for the pitch, but she should not be fired.

Marlee continues to argue a point that doesn’t matter. Like Star, she think they did a better job than the men.

NeNe doesn’t want to answer who should be fired. La Toya, however, thinks that Star should be. If she didn’t support anything on that page, it wouldn’t have been there.

Marlee would fire La Toya. Huh? Her argument is that La Toya is the weakest throughout the competition. Don Jr. argues that Hope should be in that same boat. NeNe agrees La Toya’s the weakest link. Trump’s argument is that La Toya has been a star in two tasks.

Star selects La Toya and NeNe to return with her to the boardroom because they are the weakest links. Hope has some damage control to do in the coming weeks, having been labeled as a weak link.

So why’d Star bring NeNe back with her? She wants her to bad mouth La Toya, and she’s not shy about saying that.

La Toya contends that Star is too controlling, and she keeps coming up with bad ideas, whether she’s project manager or not.

Not one to argue with the demands of a team that someone be fired (unless that someone is a dramatic character like Gary Busey), Trump fires La Toya.

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

Once again the men begged Trump to fire Gary Busey in The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 6, and once again he ignored them, instead opting to fire mark McGrath, who’s less capable of creating drama. If Trump like Busey so much, why doesn’t he just make him Vice President then? Or at least Secretary of State.

The women are thrilled to see Gary return, knowing it’s bad news for their opponents. John thinks he’s the saboteur, sent there merely to see the guys get eliminated one by one. Seems he has just answered the question “Who is The Mole?”

Today’s task is to write, produce, and star in a live cooking demonstration using Omaha Steaks products. Each team will create three occasion specific meals, as well as creating and naming an original variety pack. They will be judged on brand messaging, variety pack, and overall presentation.

Hope will be the project manager for the women because she’s the only one who has not been PM for the women thus far. She doesn’t cook, and she’s not a meat person. Gary will be project manager for the men.

Rather than asking the men whether any of them can cook, Gary says Meat Loaf is the chef. Lil Jon can cook, but he’s willing to let Gary sink himself.

When the execs arrive, Gary starts asking them questions like whether they buy their beef from Arizona, as if that matters. He also wants to know the meaning of the term suspended animation, rather than whether this company sells more chicken or fish.

It doesn’t matter who’s project manager for the women because Star will make sure she’s in charge, too.

Star goes with the heart healthiest option available (there really aren’t any), and NeNe and La Toya will also be cooking. For their variety pack, they’re doing poker night.

Gary’s driving his team as crazy as they could have expected. In addition to the general craziness they have come to know and tolerate, he hasn’t given them anything to do. None of them particularly care whether he’s fired or not.

Lil Jon and Meat Loaf are preparing to go to the kitchen. John tells them they’d better not leave him by himself with Gary.

After arriving at the kitchen, the women decide to change one of the meals. Coincidence or not, that meal would be La Toya’s.

Gary gets stuck on this idea of a multi-flavored steaks pack. The men think he is some combination of frustrating and hilarious. Eventually, Meat Loaf comes up with the ultimate celebration variety pack, which is more doable, but not particularly exciting sounding.

NeNe’s surprised that La Toya doesn’t know how to cook because women should know how to cook. At least multiple women will be cooking. Meat Loaf is all by himself, while Lil Jon does what he was told (nothing).

Upon Ivanka’s arrival, Meat Loaf says he doesn’t know what’s going on, and he doesn’t cook. Lil Jon begs her to take him with her.

Rather than having time to do a trial run, NeNe and Marlee are sent shopping. Don Jr. arrives to see that it appears Star’s running things as usual, and he says that eventually this role may come back to bite her.

Lil Jon finally gets a task. He will be cutting papers numbered 1-35. Twice.

John is unsettled now. Off camera, Gary called him “boy.” Now it’s on. After confronting him about it, Gary apologizes. John will not be accepting that apology because it took a day for it to happen.

Hope wants La Toya to project herself. Bad news then. Have you known La Toya to be a loud person? Should have thought of that sooner.

When the men finally look at the menu that Gary approved, they find out it is not accurate.

La Toya and Star have opted to cook everything before the presentation. NeNe would have, too, if she weren’t out shopping, which means at least that one person will be cooking. Although they brought some live cooking to the table, NeNe and Marlee kept saying Omaha rather than the full name.

In spite of all the drama about how unprepared they were and how this was going to be a disaster, the men do a good job, and one of the execs comments that Meat Loaf really knows how to cook a steak. What the execs don’t know, however, is why John and Lil Jon didn’t do much.

Meat Loaf likes Gary… but he was frustrated with the entire project. John Rich calls it a catastrophic collapse of time management. Lil Jon would prefer a project manager who remains on Earth with the rest of the team.

In addition to the incorrect menu items, the men’s menu also has two typos.

Gary gives a demonstration of his presentation in the boardroom. Everybody is lost by his rambling.

Although she wasn’t shy about tearing into a few of them during her confessionals, Hope won’t name names in the boardroom.

NeNe thinks Hope was great… or good.

La Toya would be willing to be acquaintances with everybody on her team, aside from NeNe.

For the women, the execs thought the presentation was great, loved that the logo was on the aprons, liked Star’s healthy meal, and Marlee’s poker night theme. However, they didn’t like the lack of their full name or that there was a lack of live cooking.

For the men, they thought Meat Loaf did a solid job and could be a spokesman for them, liked the live cooking, and the choice of the meals. Gary’s presentation dragged, though, the variety pack was too varied, and having the studio audience come up on stage was awkward.

Omaha Steaks thought the women were far better than the men. Hope’s charity, Best Buddies, will receive $20,000 plus a portion of the proceeds from the meals and variety pack they created.

NeNe leaves the suite complaining about how she doesn’t understand this label she seems to have earned herself as being negative.

Okay, Trump, enough is enough. Get rid of Busey already.

Gary says everybody did a great job. So after we continue to drag the drama out for the sake of filling time, the outcome is obvious, although it’s been obvious the last two weeks that Gary should go home as well. Finally, Gary has been fired.

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

Aside from the fact that his whole team cited Gary Busey as the person needing to be fired in The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 5, Trump instead fired Richard Hatch without giving him a chance to defend himself, in spite of his oft-used reasoning for firing people being that they don’t fight for themselves.

The men aren’t happy that Gary’s still around. Then again, La Toya, who did a great job last week, still feels like the women don’t want her around either.

The task is to create a glass box or, uh, something, for Australian Gold sunscreen. They will be judged on creativity and originality, brand messaging, and marketing theme outside the box.

La Toya will be the project manager for the women because either way she’s in the line of fire regardless. Mark McGrath will be the project manager for the men.

The men are focused on hot chicks, but eventually they come up with a pirate theme. Their treasure will be the half dressed girls. Gary’s never seen a pirate movie like this. Surely there’s a NC-17 movie along these lines, though.

La Toya doesn’t have any ideas for a theme, nor any decision what sounds good.

The executives say that their demographic is anyone and everyone that loves to have fun outdoors. Thanks for narrowing that down.

After their meeting, John Rich joins Gary in his protest for the pirate theme, but the others are stuck on it. Probably too late to change anyway.

Lil Jon has been put in charge of costumes, props, and Gary.

La Toya makes her decision: she wants a man and a woman inside the box painted gold. The smart thing here would be to make Hope, the Playmate of the Year, that woman. Hope volunteers to do just that, but La Toya would rather have her do the accounting and shopping. Surely she can play do both roles.

Star has a concern. They are more than double their budget for printed materials. La Toya doesn’t care. She wants everything they have can get, whether they have the money or not.

The women go shopping, but none of them have any idea what they’re supposed to be shopping for because they still don’t understand the concept. La Toya shows up at the designers without a plan. She starts giving them random ideas off the top of her head.

Lil Jon has decided to leave the koala bear outfit behind because it’s not exactly like the one the company uses for their mascot. Having heard the execs stress how important the koala is to them, the women, however, make sure they get the koala suit.

Ivanka likes the way Mark is leading, although she doesn’t think he’s the idea generator. She views the women’s idea as safe and obvious, which leads La Toya to want to add something else, though she doesn’t know what.

La Toya calls the shoppers to ask them to buy 125 bags of sand, 50 pounds each, so 3 tons of sand. This does not sound at all insane to her.

The morning of the event, La Toya has decided to add a winter element to the summer theme. A little late for that, even if it is more original.

Don Jr. is confused by what he’s looking at when it comes to the women, but he likes the brand integration. La Toya says there’s no togetherness. The never shy NeNe says La Toya is not good, and she’d be surprised if they win, just hoping that the guys suck. The men, meanwhile, have a defined theme, a lot of energy, and are mostly a cohesive unit.

Meat Loaf greets the executives for the men. Gary drags them off to the side, and he won’t let them leave. Somebody better go save them before he talks any more. The others come up and try to distract them, but he refuses to stop babbling, shoving Mark aside.

NeNe thinks La Toya was just okay. Marlee says her energy and style were different, with less control.

Mark says that, if they don’t win, he’ll take full responsibility for the loss.

For the women, the executives liked the messaging, use of the mascot, and the motto, but they did not like the public interaction and not making Hope wear a bikini. For the men, they liked the crowd interaction, the job they did with the product, and John’s chant, but they didn’t like the pirate theme, lack of a mascot, or Gary’s presentation.

The women may have been safe and boring, but the men thought too far outside the box, so the women have won. As the winning project manager, La Toya will receive $20,000 from Trump and $20,000 from Australian Gold for her charity, AIDS Project Los Angeles.

In spite of their win, NeNe doesn’t take time to celebrate, instead opting to get into a screaming match with herself about La Toya.

Mark’s willing to fall on the sword as the project manager, but this is yet one more opportunity for everyone to gang up on Gary. Meat Loaf strongly defends Mark and goes after Gary. Lil Jon agrees.

Ivanka doesn’t think Gary cost them the task, but nonetheless he is viewed by the team as a liability. The women don’t think Gary’s going to go, as he knows what he needs to do in the moments he has clarity, mostly in the boardroom. John echoes those sentiments.

Mark will be taking only Gary back into the boardroom with him. In regular The Apprentice, the reward for that is being fired. Let’s see how it works out here.

The men have brought up an issue they had during the meeting with the executives, two of whom were women. Gary said the product makes him feel very sexual, which made everybody uncomfortable. He doesn’t remember saying that.

Once again, Trump does not care that Gary is a loose cannon. On the contrary, he likes it, for the sake of the drama it creates. Having come up with the losing theme, Mark has been fired.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 7, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

Seemingly tired of the process and at least some of the people from her team, Dionne Warwick became the latest person to put her hand up to leave in The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 4, although she did not leave with the same grace Niki did the week before, instead opting to call NeNe a coward on her way out.

The women return to the suite in turmoil. NeNe’s still upset by Dionne, while La Toya’s frustrated by the lot of them.

Trump calls everybody back into the boardroom for another task. They will create their own works of art, whatever they want, whatever will sell. Each team will sell them in their own gallery. Additionally, they will design and decorate 7 baseball caps. These proceeds will go to their team’s totals, plus the celebrity that makes the best hat will receive a donation for their charity.

La Toya would like to step up as project manager, but Marlee shoots her down. John Rich will be the project manager for the men.

Before even getting into planning for the task, John makes a call to start fundraising. His folks in Nashville will get a jet, and he guarantees $500,000. He says this is called Celebrity Apprentice for a reason. If they don’t bring in a donation, he will hold it against them at some point. To be fair, some people have friends with deeper pockets than others, but everybody should be able to bring in something, even Jose Canseco, who once again claims he cannot get any donation of any size.

Marlee hopes to bring her team together for the first time. Having said no to La Toya’s request to lead this task, Marlee immediately turns to her to get something, which she’s afraid she can’t do on such short notice, so she instead offers to do some things in memory of her brother.

Jose says there’s an illness in his family. He will be leaving the show. Trump agrees to give $25,000 to his charity, B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team). Richard Hatch asks: would Jose make this up just to save face, seeing as he hasn’t raised anything and doesn’t seem to be trying to do so? I’ll admit, the thought crossed my mind as well.

Everybody goes to the art supply store. John Rich does a PSA: don’t sniff glue. Cue Gary Busey. While shopping, Gary seems to have done something to upset Meat Loaf, who warns his fuse is about to blow, and it will not be pretty.

La Toya says she has a shirt of her brother’s. There were only a couple of them made in the world before he passed away. She has one of them and is willing to give it for the task in his memory.

Meat Loaf doesn’t have any paint when they get back. Did Gary buy all the paint he’s using? All of a sudden, Meat Loaf goes psycho crazy on the taking it very calmly Gary. As crazy as they make Gary out to be, Meat Loaf’s a raving lunatic and/or putting in a show. After much shouting and threatening, it turns out Meat Loaf’s bag was just in a corner. John Rich asks that this embarrassing energy and language be stopped so that they can focus on the kids instead.

The women make a painting with each of their handprints. Everybody’s going to get their hands dirty today, even Star, though she ain’t happy about it.

John doesn’t know anything about New York, but what he does know is traffic is crazy. He doesn’t want to try to get across it at any point after 3:00. Meanwhlie, the women are still doing their paintings 20 minutes later.

Don Jr. shows up to talk to the women. Star says it’s nerve-wracking, and NeNe responds that’s what Star thinks about every task. Marlee just got a call for $133,000, but she’s worried about John. Don thinks everybody seems down and out.

George got kicked off the show when Trump made it a family affair, but he’s back for his occasional cameo. He thinks the men’s spirit is good.

The women were going to leave at 3, then 4, then 4:30. They have 3 hours to get to the gallery in bumper to bumper Friday night rush hour traffic. The men, however, are ready to go and don’t have anything to do, so they take a trip to see what the girls are doing. Uh, sitting in traffic.

While they wait for selling to get underway, Meat Loaf apologizes to Gary for how he acted earlier.

With half an hour until their gallery opens, the women finally arrive. Now they just need art. The art delivery guy’s stuck in traffic, too. With minutes to spare, the art arrives. They’re not going to have time to fuss about placement and such, so they just get what they can where they can.

The men open their doors to a line waiting to come in; the women open their doors to about 5 people. Unlike the party town with open bar that the men have going on, the women look like they’re ready for a funeral. Eventually, though, business starts to pick up.

With multiple $5,000 donations, the men are not doing too badly so far, but now the cavalry is here. John sells a hat for $50,000 and another $50,000 for the boots. Seeing the money pour in, Richard Hatch is getting desperate, so he slashes his prices in hopes that somebody will buy something, with both of his paintings now on offer for $1,000.

The women don’t have a plane full of hillbillies, but they are lucky that the rules are pretty lax for this task. The person or their representative does not have to show up, and they can take credit card information by phone, fax, or e-mail. They are limited by their max credit card amount, but seeing as that’s $99,000, the three donations in a row they get of that size should go a long way. Marlee had one donor for that amount, and La Toya’s T-shirt also got that.

While they are focused on selling, Federico Castelluccio shows up. He says he’s not just from the Sopranos, but he’s also a painter, who will be judging the hats.

The prize possession of the men’s auction is a guitar. The bid: $470,000. No matter how impressive a showing the women put up, it would seem that should cement the men’s victory.

Trump asks about the argument that happened with Meat Loaf and, well, Meat Loaf, for which they have now kissed and made up. The net result is that the men were very impressed with how their project manager handled a volatile situation.

Star says it was an honor to work with Marlee. La Toya says Marlee was the star.

Before we get to the main event, it’s time to reveal the winning hat: La Toya. Her charity, AIDS Project Los Angeles, will receive $25,000.

Trump would like to make a deal. If they both agree, the losing team will keep his or her money for their own charity. They agree.

The men’s team raised the most money of any team in The Apprentice history: $626,908. That money will go to John Rich’s charity, St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. The women did very well, and they actually pulled out a win with $986,000, which will go to Marlee’s charity, Starkey Hearing Foundation. Trump offers $14,000 to bring it to an even $1 million.

Seeing as how Jose left already, which probably helps the men more than it helps the women, Trump has another offer. Do the women want to forgo firing one of the men? Marlee has to make a decision, but Star’s whispering won’t help her any. Because they have lost so many tasks in a row, the women think it would only be fair that one of the men gets fired. They can now stick around and offer their input.

John says the weakest player, based on fundraising, was Richard.

Hope would fire Richard. Star agrees.

Money aside, Gary, with his lack of focus, is pointed to as the weakest. Meat Loaf agrees. Mark, too. Lil Jon gets on the bandwagon. Marlee interjects to come to Gary’s defense.

Ignoring the pleas from every member of the men’s team and not allowing him the opportunity to defend himself, Trump fires Richard Hatch for not raising enough money.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 6, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.