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The Celebrity Apprentice: Week Five

18 Mar

March 18, 2012

Last week Trump fired both Adam Carolla and Michael Andretti. It was a mistake on Carolla’s part. As the project manager of a team that I believe did a much better job than the women but lost, he took the fall and brought no one into the boardroom so he had to go. However, it was clear that Team Trump was itching to fire Andretti, and had Carolla brought him into the boardroom Adam would still be here.

This week Lou Ferrigno steps up and leads the team, a team who, to a man, are against him.

THE TASK: Create a viral video for an O’Cedar mop
MEN’S PROJECT MANAGER: Lou Ferrigno
WOMEN’S PROJECT MANAGER: Tia Carrere

Audrey O’Day: “I am not stepping up to be project manager because this brand has been around a hundred years, just like Tia.”  She is really a shitty person, isn’t she? Presumably she went on this show for exposure but she is just being exposed as vapid self-absorbed. “I might be permanently deaf in this ear from Dayana’s bad ideas.” “Tia refuses to use me and I want to sock her in the face.” She needs to sock whoever advised her to go on this show because it has elevated her from barely known singer to widely known pain in the ass.

“If Lisa and Aubrey are not in that essential position up front they get grumpy.” – Tia.
“On every task I was the creator, director, the star, I did everything. And for Tia not to use me makes me angry.” – Aubrey. BTW- Aubrey usually wears more makeup than any three other members of her team.

Lou’s idea for the task is, as usual, he’ll star and flex his muscles. The team is skeptical, to say the least.

The women came up with a risqué theme, which not everyone liked, and Lisa Lampinelli, of all people, thought some of the women were going too far. They were going with women talking about their numbers (as in sexual partners) but revealing that they were actually talking about how many mops they owned. How this related to the virtues of the O’Cedar Promist mop I have no idea.

Lou took off on something the O’Cedar people said, “the mop is the hero,” and wanted to do a superhero thing, which Penn challenged him on and as I said before, I do not think there is anyone on that team more creative than Penn.

However…

“If it is not Penn’s idea all he wants to do is point out negatives.” – Clay. He got very frustrated and voiced his worry that some people in the room (meaning Penn) were trying to set Lou up to fail, and of course that would take the team with him. I have not always been very complimentary to Clay Aiken in the past but he has impressed me on this show so far with his professionalism and dedication. “You don’t have a way but you have a hundred this-is-not-the-ways.” Once Clay got the team back on track they took Lou’s idea and made something good out of it. (But we’ll see what happens in the execution later.) Penn took Clay’s challenge really badly and sulked. He even said that working with people he didn’t choose was a bad idea. Who would expect Clay Aiken to challenge Penn Jillette and win?

 “I don’t even know what viral means.” That’s your Paul Teutul Senior quote of the week.

The men’s video will be a showdown between Lou and Paul Senior and frankly a lot of people would like to see that fight in real life, but for me the highlight was seeing Lou dance around (and fall) with the mop. Could that go viral? Maybe.

In fact, here is what is claimed to be his audition video for Dancing With the Stars:

Lisa to Aubrey and Debbie: “Everyone does not have to be a star. I am sick of the egos. It is BS that every person has to be a star. It is sickening.” However, it was also directed at the other women who complained about not having face time, including Patricia, who was put in charge of getting flowers. Want to know what video will go viral? The clip of her trying to get “peonies” but asking for “penis.”

Clay tried to work things out with Penn, but Penn was still sulking and took it personally and believed that Clay didn’t like him. “I have never felt more set up.” I like the guy, have a ton of respect for h is intelligence, and love his stage act, but he is acting like a two-year old. Clay spoke, Penn sulked. “I don’t feel like there is any solution to this at all,” Clay said.

Lou’s video was pretty good. The theme was “I’m going to mop the floor with you.” It worked on both levels. BTW- Paul Senior came up with it.

Then the women’s presentation came and, well, it was there. But the O’Cedar people seemed to like it.  “They didn’t really use the project.”

10:07.  The Boardroom.

In the boardroom Paul, Dee, Arsenio, and Clay all praised Lou. If it was honest, they all loved him.

Tia praised Lisa for being a brilliant, fast writer. Lisa then criticized Tia, egged on by Trump. When asked by Trump, Dayana pointed out that Debbie was stressed. Debbie then blamed it on Tia.

Lisa: “I am consistently frustrated in this room” because the main creative part falls on her, Aubrey, and Debbie, and the others were less creative but somehow still valuable. Who would Lisa say is the least valuable? Dayana. “I never heard an idea out of her that was usable in the last five weeks.”

Tia was coming off as a week leader who deferred to her teammates, which Trump challenged her on. It was making her look weak, especially when she didn’t do much to argue against Lisa who claimed she was not creative. Patricia also argues that she didn’t like the theme and that yes, she is creative but not listened to.

Trump asked Penn to explain the concept, which he did, and then Penn said “he was way funnier than I expected him to be.” If the team loses, who gets fired? Dee said Paul Senior. “Oddly there was nothing for him to do.” Paul agreed, there was simply nothing for him to do. Bear in mind, he came up with the theme. Arsenio picked Paul “but without him we don’t have a concept.” As Trump Jr said, he might have only contributed for five seconds, but they were the most important five seconds.

If he loses, who does Lou bring back? Paul and Penn. “He is a bull in a china closet with a superior attitude.” I think of the three Paul will clearly survive. I think he picked Paul only because he realized that Paul was the only other one to be criticized. Penn he picked for not being a team player. Clay backed him up “Penn has admitted that he doesn’t like not being in charge. If it is not his decision he will disengage. He has a tendency to become condescending.” Dee said he was a “fact checker” and “there seemed to be an emotional disconnect.”

Penn: “I believe I did some writing and some typing.” Not a great defense.

Aresnio: “I was proud of the man [Clay]. He stepped to [Penn}.”

THE WINNER: The Men. And after weeks of taking crap from everyone Lou must have felt great.

Back in the boardroom. “Dayana, were you surprised?”
“No, not really.”

Lisa criticized the concept but she also did so back during the brainstorming session. Lisa is a fighter in the boardroom. She also said that Dayana was lying about not liking the concept since she went right along with it.

Did Dayana have another idea? “Every idea I give is not taken.”

Aubrey: “This was the least enjoyable time I’ve had here.” Why? Because she was not included in a major way. Even the men, watching on TV. laughed at her.

Who should be fired? Patricia: fire Tia. Lisa: fire Tia. Or Dayana for being “The most distracting.” Aubrey (to Trump): “I’d like to be part of your family.” UGH. But who should be fired? Tia. Who is a weaker player than Tia? Dayana.

Patricia, who is the weakest player? Teresa.

Teresa: “I finsihed my third book. I have a ghost writer. I can be a writer.” Correct me if I am wrong, but having a ghost writer means you cannot be a writer.

Tia: Aubrey “hates not being the center of attention.”
Arsenio: “She is so self-righteous no wonder Diddy fired her. If there is a god she is out of here.”
Tia: “She never stops talking.”

GOING TO THE BOARDROOM: Tia, and no one else, and what a dumb move that was. This is for charity! FIGHT! Now she has to go back to her charity and say “I gave up without a fight.”

NEXT WEEK: The celebrities have to throw a party.

A New York Minute (17)

14 Mar

March 14, 2011

Before the New York Minute begins I’d like to take some time to jump on the bandwagon and begin my own serialized pulp drama. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Hollywood Russell in The Case of the Virtuous Vixen.

Chapter One.

Hollywood Russell entered the room. His steely eyes twitched to the left, then the right.

To be continued.

And now, your New York Minute.

Hollywood may be the movie capital of the world, but New York might be Hollywood’s favorite city.

In 1908 The Thieving Hand was shot in Flatbush Brooklyn, and the upcoming Avengers will be set in New York, though mostly filmed elsewhere. In the years between Hollywood has taken us to New York’s past in Gangs of New York, New York’s future in Escape from New York, and gave Charlton Heston the New York surprise of his life in Planet of the Apes. New York’s trains have been hijacked in The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, chased in The French Connection, helped a gang escape to Coney Island in The Warriors, and crashed in Die Hard with a Vengeance. 

Yes, Hollywood has made its fair share of New York films and more than its share of fair to mediocre at best New York films. And that brings me to The Bowery Boys. During the 1940’s and 1950’s Hollywood cranked out dozens of B-movies featuring a rotating cast of juvenile delinquents from New York. Since these films were comedies these youthful offenders, led by the increasingly not-so-youthful Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey, never smoked dope or ripped off a liquor store. The Bowery Boys were more likely to get mixed up with Nazi spies, spend a night in a haunted house, accidentally break up a crooked boxing syndicate, or somehow help the police track down a foreign princess. They were also known at various times as the East Side Kids, the Dead End Kids and, early in their history, The Little Tough Guys. People usually only change their names that often to avoid creditors. In at least two quote unquote memorable films they met Bela Lugosi, demonstrating in just which direction his career was moving.

Of course, any student of history will tell that history lies, and any student of the movies will tell you that Hollywood lies with every agent’s breath, so it is a sad fact that the real Bowery Boys were nothing like the bunch of clumsy nincompoops featured onscreen. 

The Bowery Boys were an anti-Catholic, anti-Irish gang based north of the Five Points section of Manhattan in the mid-19th century. This was a time of great Irish immigration. They gang was based in the Bowery section of New York, hence their name. It was said that the gang was so strong and even popular during its time that many of the smaller or weaker gangs in Bowery followed their lead. One of their main rivals was a gang called The Dead Rabbits. I don’t know about you, but I think The Dead Rabbits is a lousy name for a gang. But I would never say it to their faces.

The Bowery Boys were young men who frequented the saloons and brothels of the Bowery and dressed in black stovepipe hats, red shirts, black flared trousers, high-heeled boots and black vests, with slick hair. I mention this because they were generally well-dressed and most of them even had respectable jobs. One famous member of the Bowery Boys was William Poole, also known as Bill the Butcher. As far as I know, none of them were named Satch, Slip, or Glimpy. It took Hollywood to come up with those brilliant monikers for The Bowery Boys films. Their most famous leader was known only as Mose the Fireboy, and some research suggests that he may have simply been a tall tale or urban legend. Ballads and songs were sung of him in the Bowery and his name was a common battle cry among the Bowery Boys throughout their existence. He was supposedly eight feet tall and had the strength of ten men. It was sort of like if Paul Bunyan joined the Crips.

At this point I would like to mention that I never saw and refuse to see Gangs of New York, despite how good I hear it is. But I digress.

Some odd facts popped up while researching The Bowery Boys. For example, they ran their own local fire department. They were fiercely patriotic and were actually allied with the Metropolitan Police Department. This makes sense when you realize that New York had two competing police departments. The Metropolitan Police Department had a feud with the Municipal Police. Over the course of two days in 1857, fighting between the two police departments, The Bowery Boys, The Dead Rabbits, and several smaller gangs left eight people dead,. That was only the official number. Unofficially the body count may have been much higher.

The gang was cruel and violent. During the New York Draft Riots of 1863, the Bowery Boys took part in much of the looting while fighting with rival gangs. The brawling was so bad that the military was called in to stop it.

Eventually infighting and other disputes caused the gang to splinter and weaken and they eventually disappeared into history, with only their name carried on in such films as Spook Busters and Dig that Uranium. Sigh. History may forget you, but it takes Hollywood to insult you.

This has been your New York Minute.

An audio version of this legend recently appeared (or is about to!) in the amazing FlashPulp website. Check them out for awesomeness and goodies!