Joan Rivers Dies

Entertainment legend Joan Rivers died today.  She had been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack during a medical procedure. Rivers was 81.

Joan Rivers Named Celebrity Apprentice

It's really no surprise, since Trump can make the rules to fit the situation, it was not only how much money you could raise, but several other criteria. As tradition dictates, fired candidates came back to help with the final task which was to put on a silent auction with Kodak for their respective charity. As was expected, Poker player Annie Duke raised the most money, however she did a rotten job of incorporating the corporate brand into her theme.
Joan Rivers raised only a quarter of the money that Annie did, but had a very creative presentation with celebrity inpersonators and what not.
As Trump occasionally does, he fired Annie before naming Rivers the Celebrity Apprentice. Rivers, 70 something, is undoubtably, the oldest apprentice that Trump has named.

Celebrity Apprentice: Black Out

As this season begins to wrap up, the word is out that the show is being renewed. Yes 2010 will bring us another season of Celebrity Apprentice.
This week's show begins with the candidates being summoned to Trump's office where, all of a sudden Joan Rivers arrives in dark sunglasses. Joan wants to get back into the game and get revenge on the girls who she believes, railroaded her daughter.
The task this week is to come up with a radio spot for "Chicken Of The Sea" Tuna. Athena gets discouraged because neither of it's 2 members Brande and Annie are musically inclined. KOTU, on the other hand has Clint Black has been a control freak, alienating most of his team. He is a Grammy Awards winner though and this is his biggest strength. Both sides work hard and Annie is motivated, in the end, Athena pulls off an upset. This does not bode well for Clint and he is fired. There is no time for the candidates to relax. They have to interview with last year's winner Piers Morgan. He decides that Brande is not that bright (she is sweet though) and Jesse lacks the passion to be the next Celebrity Apprentice. Trump fires both of them, leaving Joan Rivers and Annie Duke to fight for the "crown".

Celebrity Apprentice: Trump Dams The Rivers

When Joan and Melissa Rivers were picked to be contestants on Celebrity Apprentice, viewers knew the potential hazards that existed because of the necessity that one of them would have to be fired before the other and that dynamic came to fruition last night. Melissa, it seems had a miserable time in high school, at least that is what is indicated by her persistant rants through the evening. When Trump passed a note in the middle of the boardroom, it brought the memory smack right to her and when Trump fired her, she went to pieces.
This is not to say that she deserved to be fired, Annie Duke, who was super in many tasks, did an unbelievably miserable job in a project that she practically took over from start to finish. Brande Roderick, came across as an inarticulate marshmallow. Perhaps, it should have been a triple firing, because no one in the show left with their hands clean.
The project was to create a four page advertisement for "Right Guard" the venerable men's deodorant. The subject in the advertisement was rising NBA star David Lee, who is not by any means the most popular guy with "David Lee" in his name.
Trump asked Jesse James to rejoin the KOTU team, Jesse, who had been the quiet soft spoken classy guy in the competition, seemed to turn into a sulking, bickering troublemaker. He couldn't get along with Clint. He refused to respect Clint as this task's project manager. His team won however and was spared anymore embarrassment, other than Joan's outburst after her daughter was fired.

Celebrity Apprentice--It's All Annie Duke

If you like me had not heard of Annie Duke before watching this year's version of Celebrity Apprentice--you sure know her now. The Poker pro has played this season with a "take no prisoners" attitude that the Donald would have to appreciate. Duke displayed her many talents and spoke of a few others in last night's double tasked extravaganza.
The first task was an old Apprentice stand-by--the celebrity auction, nothing gets Trump's juices going like big money flying around to help a worthy cause. Duke was an amazing auctioneer begging and cajoling money from her attendees.
In contrast, the big debacle was Kotu' Clint Black, a seemingly washed up celebrity, who does not realize how washed up he is--that would become apparent in the next task.
Team Athena wins and Joan Rivers hits the ceiling because in a previous task, Duke brought Melissa into the boardroom. Hey Joan, it's a game! It's the boardroom not a gas chamber. Natalie Gulbus is fired for a "Bay Of Pigs" type failure to sabotage Annie and for picking Jewelry that doesn't look good on the runway
Why I stuck around for the second episode remains a mystery but the Celebs have to come up with a meal to promote the obscure frozen food brand Schwans. Clint comes up with an idea of using a celebrity bus. It sounds a loser from the start. Hershel is the project manager and wants to do a chicken recipe, only he does not eat chicken.
The task is highlighted by Annie's little comment in the kitchen. It doesn't matter who won, you either love Annie or loathe her.