Tag Archives: Apprentice

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.

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: The Call

12 Mar

March 12th, 2012

THE CALL
After weeks of silence, Junior calls Senior to give his condolences on Helen’s passing. Then PJD starts a charity build for the March of Dimes while OCC finishes a two-bike build for John Christner Trucking.

This week, Lamar construction hires PJD to build a bike for charity, the March of Dimes. The bike is going to be raffled off and hopefully raise a lot of money. Paulie and the crew visited some parents and kids in the hospital to get inspired for the project. It was moving and although he didn’t say anything, you could see that Vinnie was touched, being a father himself.

Over at OCC, the twin build for John Christner Trucking moved along. The old school bike was nearly complete and the focus was on the modern bike. Rick, who announced his wedding last week, was the lead fabricator as usual. What is interesting about him is that he depends less on the machines than the others in the shop, most of what he does is by hand.

When painted, the old school bike is very nice and the modern bike is shaping up very nicely too. It has tail lights mounted under the seat in the seat assembly.

It has only been a couple of weeks of TV time but two months have passed since Senior’s step-mother Helen died. Paulie finally, for whatever reason, decided that he was wrong to not call his father. “I had my reasons.” Maybe it was only guilt, but he is finally going to do the right thing.

At this point, I want to remind you of something Paulie said a few shows back:

Paulie, his wife, and his mother sat down to talk about the Helen situation. Bottom line, he feels it should be handled in private. As he pointed out, he didn’t allow discovery to film his wedding and there were no cameras in the courtroom during all the legal drama with his father.

So of course this week it will all be done on camera.

PJD starts their build while still brainstorming a design. The bike will be “a rider” and not a showpiece, which is usually a better bike in my mind. Most of the build seems like a build-by-the-seat-of-their-pants thing. It will corporate the March of  Dime’s colors, purple and white.

And now, the results of Mikey’s weight loss challenge! You may recall he started at 350 pounds and now, 45 days later, he weighs 337 and 3/8,  and that included the hair-weight he lost when he shaved his beard. 13 pounds in 45 days, a big guy like him? He should have lost that much in water weight alone. I guess his motivational trainer was a bust. This is true- when Mikey’s weight was announced the crowd nearly didn’t applaud, they were shocked that he lost so little.

And speaking of Mikey, the Free Rick T-shirts made another appearance. OCC’s legal team clamped down on Mikey because of them and since he can’t sell them he gives them away. Another reason he can’t sell them? They are butt ugly.

Some of you have asked about V-Force, Vinnie’s company. I got the following information from the Times Herald-Record website:

V-Force is still owned by Vinnie and Cody, and it is doing well. It’s on Route 17K in Rock Tavern, and they have an open-door policy. Don’t be afraid or shy to stop in and say hi or buy a T-shirt. The guys will be happy to sign it for you.

OK, OK! So you want to know what’s going on with Vinnie. He is still working at V-Force: Paul Jr. subcontracts Vinnie through V-Force. “Vinnie working over at Pauly’s hasn’t hurt the business at all,” Cody said. “The show is giving V-Force good exposure.”

Part of the agreement of Vinnie being on the show was that he could wear hats and T-shirts bearing the V-Force logo for the simple fact that he didn’t want people thinking that V-Force was out of business. Cody has also made a couple of appearances on the show.

That article is about a year old but I assume it is still accurate.

At 9:39 the moment we were all waiting for arrived. Paulie called his father and of course his father’s phone went straight to voicemail. He left a nice, if slightly awkward, message of condolence.

They went to commercial and when they came back, it was back to the usual nonsense. It is 9:50 as I type this, they are going to commercial, and so far Senior has not gotten the message. Discovery really knows how to stretch five minutes of drama into a full show.

Back from commercial at 9:53 and it is back to PJD’s build. For an episode titled The Call they are doing a nice job of ignoring it.

Then at 9:55 it is the OCC unveil. In the words of Milhouse, “when are they going to get to the fireworks factory?”

And finally, at 9:57, Senior hears the message! “I think it was good to hear his voice, I think it was cool that he called, maybe it gives me an opportunity to go over there.”

NEXT WEEK:  

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior
Drastic Step
Mikey launches a “Fill the Diaper” fundraising campaign for March of Dimes, OCC starts an eco-friendly build for CIMA Green and PJD unveils the March of Dimes bike. Meanwhile, Senior takes bold steps to reunite with his sons.
 
The commercial: Senior walks over to his wife and very seriously says “guess where I just came from.”