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'The Celebrity Apprentice' premiere: Pizza with extra crazy
We have to hand it to NBC. Casting "The Celebrity Apprentice" by how off the rails a star is? That's a winning strategy.
On the premiere, the two teams are split according to gender. The men pick Season 1 "Survivor" champ, Richard Hatch, which makes all the sense in the world. He has proven he can play a game. They call themselves Team Backbone.
The women choose former "The View" host, Star Jones, to lead. Again, a good choice on the surface. Our hats are off to anyone tough enough to strong-arm Barbara Walters into speaking nicely about you after originally calling you a heifer and a liar. They choose to call their team ASAPP, which means Artists, stars, Amex and party people, we believe. That's as good as the women's guesses, right?
Both teams approached the first task of selling pizza with gusto -- that is until they realized that they have to actually work the pizza place themselves. It's always fun to watch these privileged celebs find out that they aren't just ringing friends up for donations and ordering others around. Not on Donald Trump's watch.
Both teams made some mistakes in the challenge. First off, Richard may have showed his d-bag card too early. He quickly rubbed people the wrong way. Most notably, a big guy who doesn't like to be told what to do (Jose Canseco) and a small guy for the same reason (David Cassidy). At least, David was brave enough to say something to Richard about being pushed aside. Country singer John Rich had Richard tagged from the beginning, but he kept his opinion under his hat and did as he was told. But if there's one thing we've learned from previous seasons of "The Celebrity Apprentice," cowboys are not to be underestimated.
The other big mistake by the men's team was that they set their goals way too low when it came to money. A few brought in nothing or very little and this challenge wasn't about selling the most pizza. It was about making the most money. In the mistake category, we have to include Gary Busey's frightening turn as the "Pepperoni Profit." We can't quantify how much that scared off customers, but we're willing to bet the grand total is less because of it.
On the other side of town, the women were thinking big bucks. Money is where Star does some interesting things. The woman knows how to get it. Didn't she have everything at her wedding sponsored? At any rate, she wasn't thinking in the thousands, she was thinking in the tens of thousands. That's why we're so confused that she sent Marlee Matlin and Lisa Rinna on a delivery for $300 (when they had agreed to only deliver at $1,000 and above).
Our theory is that she wanted Lisa, who wasn't exactly a fan of hers, out of her hair. Or, she panicked when the big money wasn't coming in and decided they may need the 300 bucks. That backfired on her later when she had a $40,000 delivery and a Curtis Stone/ Trump order for an undisclosed amount (later we learned it was a $35,000 delivery) while Lisa and Marlee were still out.
Back in the boardroom, Lisa had a feeling Star would peg the missed delivery on her if they lost and went in for an early attack. Star defended herself and the other women supported her. As far as closing the shop early, we have no problem with Star's decision on that one. Clearly, there were bigger pizzas to bake. But, we still aren't sure why Lisa didn't mention that the whole chain of events started when Star broke her own minimum for delivery rule. Hm. Luckily for Lisa, the women beat (or should we say demolished) the men and that's where Star's "shoot for the sky" mentality helped them out.
The men were then left to battle it out. Jose threw the first jab at Richard's leadership style and seemed to be fighting David's fight over an alleged workplace assault. In turn, Richard did the old fake apology. You know the one, the "I'm sorry you felt that way" apology. And then he did something very smart. He started to work all the male egos in the room, including the Donald's.
Fans of the show know Donald has a very old school "boys club" mentality. And to watch Richard, an openly gay man, call David "delicate" and "sensitive" doesn't exactly fill Donald with confidence that the former pop idol could be the guy to win this game. So, that, plus the fact that David couldn't raise any money except a grand from his own daughter, "Gossip Girl's" Katie Cassidy, meant he had to go.
Do you agree with David's ousting? Who are your most and least favorite contenders right now?
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Photo/Video credit: NBC
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While I am not exactly a fan of Richard he is fun to watch and I am glad he wasn't dumped in this episode.
I actually am a fan of Richard. I too am very glad he was not fired. Whiny, perfect description of David Cassidy. Entertaining and intelligent would describe Richard. Hopefully he will make it far...
There's a difference between "Moving" and "Striking". You would think that Jose Canseco would be familiar with "Striking" as he struck out so much in his career. But apparently he has been away too long to tell the difference.
Also Canseco kept saying he was only telling the truth and that is all he ever does. Does he forget the two times he beat his own wives? Or the fact that he himself cheated for years in baseball using steroids? Or the fact that he got caught just three years ago bringing in illegal drugs from Mexico and then lied about it, then later plead guilty to that very charge?
That man is the last person on that show that should be calling out others.
The only downside to David Cassidy leaving so early is that we won't get to see his daughter again. Katie Cassidy is fine!
I think they fired the wrong person,
David was working and so were all the rest , all I seen was Richard Hatch ordering people around and pushing David , you did not see him pushing those others around because they were of kick Richards *** ! You did not see him helping making the pizza`s. He was a misfit, just like when he was on Survivor. He knew David did not have the repetition has a fighter. I seen David as being a gentlemen and handling Richard nicely and not treating him like a jerk that he is . All Donald`s show is to have people fight to the death. Be a big bully . You do not need to be a big bully to do what needs to be done. Can you not see what is happening to our world with big bullies . Shame to have fired David to get big ratings . I for one will not watch it again because of what happen . David you did the right thing ! I be seeing in the tabloids pictures of Richards black eye and him sitting on his *** on the floor after getting smacked , probally cause he deserved it !
David Cassidy is a sniveling little man, but when your entire team says "Fire Richard Hatch," Richard Hatch should be fired. I think Trump just kept him around for drama. . . or else there is something in Hatch's contract that keeps him around for x-number of episodes.
I was really sorry to see David Cassidy let go. Richard should have definitely been fired, as he was PM of a team that was beaten so badly and completely. If David had fought more in the boardroom, Richard would have been gone for sure. Mr. Trump loves fighters.
david also didn't do himself any favors by not bringing in more money. I don't think he knows that many rich donors, as it appeared no one that he called could scrape together any money. Let's face it, his career peaked 35 years ago. He's a great singer, but that was a LONG time ago in the entertainment industry. (If only Mr. Kincaid could have come through with a check!) haha
David was being overdramatic and Josie was very angry. David truly didn't do anything to deserve to stay, let alone win. He had some law trouble last year, I guess that was a spolier as to his placement on the show.
Let's hope Rinna and the playboy girl go soon, and Rich for the guys team.
I find it strange that Celebrity Apprentice came on after a NBC special on bullying. Richard hatch bullies David Cassidy (including physical violence which he could be arrested for), and Hatch is rewarded.
David Cassidy handling of the situation proves that he is more of a man than Richard Hatch will ever be. BTW wasn’t Hatch in trouble for abusing his child too!
Shame on Donald Trump and NBC
Hatch makes better TV than Cassidy, as do Busey and Meat Loaf. Watch as they take out the less interesting Mark McGrath, too. The women have easy cannon fodder in Dionne Warwick, the playboy bunny, and supermodel. They'll keep Lisa and Starr wound for the drama.
And in the end, John Rich will win the whole thing because he's way smarter than most of the people pn this dumb show.