The task tonight was to sell artwork that each team created themselves. Well, almost all of it was created by them anyway, more on that later.
Project Managers:
Backbone - John Rich - charity St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
ASAP - Marlee Matlin - charity The Starkey Hearing Foundation
Before the men left for supplies Jose Canseco came to Donald Trump and said his father was fighting cancer and had taken a turn for the worse so he would be leaving the show to be with him. Trump was nice and gave Jose, who has contributed little or nothing thus far, $25,000 for his charity, Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.).
The men went off to shop for art supplies and it was obvious from the start that Gary Busey was treading on Meatloaf’s last nerve already. Apparently the time they’ve spent together has been too much for Meatloaf. He was on Gary in the art store, and finally left to go shopping with Mark McGrath at a sporting goods store across the street for some space after picking out his paint and sponges.
As the women were in the van on their way to get supplies, LaToya Jackson pulled out a T-shirt that her brother Michael had made for his “This Is It” tour before he died.. It was one of only two shirts made and he had worn it and signed the back of it. LaToya said she had carried it with her everywhere since he passed away and it was a part of her. You could see the emotion on her face and Marlee said she got goose bumps when LaToya offered it up for the fundraiser. It was a great gesture, especially since she could have held onto it for her own PM task.
Back at the art studio, the men began unpacking their supplies and Meatloaf immediately accused Gary Busey of taking his paint and sponges. There was so much rage in him that it took most of the team to hold him back. Gary stood looking even more dumbfounded than usual at the outburst. There was so much bleeping going on it was a little hard to even hear what happened. John Rich stepped in and got Gary out of the room, then told them both that this was about charity and things cooled down. Then someone found Meatloaf’s bag of paint and sponges sitting in a corner. Priceless.
Meatloaf and Gary sat down later and had a talk. It was actually a touching moment between the two men. Gary asked Meatloaf if he’d been to anger management and Meat said he had. That’s a little scary. Meatloaf sincerely apologized to Gary for the outburst and Gary accepted calmly. He then gave him an acronym for “FORGIVE” but I was laughing too hard to hear it, sorry! Gary then said that Meatloaf was “dancing on a rainbow with no fear and no doubt.” Man, they don’t make ‘em like Gary anymore (thank goodness).
Team ASAP was not a well oiled machine, even with out the Dionne the Diva this week. NeNe was all over Star Jones for some reason. We must not have been shown all of it because it really did not appear that Star did anything to start it. NeNe said she had her “good eye” on Star tonight.
The men got their artwork done early and headed for the gallery to set things up. The women were nowhere to be seen. As the men waited Mark McGrath and Lil Jon decided to go have a look at the women’s gallery to size up the competition. There was nothing in the ASAP gallery, not even a mouse. So the two men decided to film (on Mark’s phone) an episode of “Cribs” in the ASAP gallery. It was pretty funny.
The ladies arrived at their gallery finally and still had no art. Their truck was stuck in NYC traffic. It showed up with five minutes to go before opening. Marleee handled the stress like the professional she is though. When it got there they all chipped in and moved the stuff as fast as they could.
Once the money started rolling in it was obvious this was going to be a big night for both teams. With John Rich calling in every country star in the business he made it clear to his team that whoever did not pull in money would be in danger of being fired. Richard Hatch was seen swallowing hard. Apparently he was not in the big money wing of prison. One of the first people in the door was a spokesperson for Trace Atkins, currently entertaining troops in Iraq, with a donation of $5000. The game was on.
With Star Jones on the computer calling friends herself, the women were making it quite a contest. Though it did not look close (and in the end it wasn’t) the Rolodex of Star Jones and Marlee Matlin were working overtime.
The men were doing well themselves, with many $5000 art purchases and a $50,000 purchase of a John Rich hat. Then they sold a Gibson guitar he painted for $470,000... Yep, you read that number right! John cried at the donation and went to hug one baby boy with cancer who was brought in by his mom from St. Jude‘s. Collin has been fighting cancer for a long time and it was a tear-jerker.
Star continued her rolodex flipping and credit card running and finally announced a $150,000 donation, followed by three $99,000 donations in a row (one for the MJ shirt). Things were getting really exciting.
When we finally got to the boardroom it was really a toss up as to which team had won the task. Trump asked John Rich who the best artist on his team was and he said Meatloaf and Lil Jon. Lil Jon thanked Donald Trump for introducing him to art and said he plans to continue doing it.
When asked about the Meatloaf meldown, all on team Backbone agreed that John handled it professionally and ended it quickly.
All the women agreed that Marlee was a superstar as a leader. There was also an art judge for the task, Federico Castellucio from the Sopranos and an artist, who chose one piece of work to win a $25,000 prize for their own charity. LaToya Jackson won the prize for AIDS Project L.A.
Trump announced that this was the largest money take in the history of any of The Apprentice shows, and he had a deal (after pimping his book “The Art of the Deal”
) for the PM’s. Would each agree that each PM would keep the money they raised for their own charity? Both agreed completely.Here’s the tally:
Backbone: $626,908
ASAP : $986,000 HOLY BUCKETS! Marlee's interpreter was even crying at the announcement.
Trump was so impressed with Marlee Matlin that he donated another $14,000 to make her donation to charity an even cool million dollars. Amazing! Both charities were winners!
Now it got weird. Trump told Marlee Matlin that he was going to leave it up to her. Since Jose Canseco had already left the men’s team, did she want him to fire another guy tonight? At this point Star Jones, standing behind Marlee, leaned down to whisper in her ear. Marlee took it in stride and explained to Star that wasn’t going to work since she‘s deaf. She consulted her team and told The Donald that they (the women) had struggled through many boardrooms and it was only fair to cut another guy. Way to go, Marlee!
Trump kept the women in the boardroom for the firing process. In fact, he nearly asked them to do it for him. John Rich said he’d told his men in the beginning that it was all about brining in money. Richard Hatch had brought in the least. Trump then asked aside from money, what else would matter going forward. Not really a fair question since they don’t know the tasks. John said he though focus would be most important and Gary Busey lacked that the most. The rest of the men joined the pile up on Gary.
Marlee Matlin then stepped in to say that she’s known Gary for a very long time and is personal friends with him. She said they would truly miss his creativity if he was fired and that Richard Hatch should go. That was really all it took. Quick like a band-aid Trump said his final words to Hatch, “Richard, you’re fired.”
Off goes Richard Hatch from Celebrity Apprentice… and now he’s back in prison. Imagine that. Looks like Marlee saved Donald Trump from looking like a fool tonight in his own boardroom.
I know Gary Busey is crazy, but I also think he’s partly playing a role. He was likely told to create drama, and tonight’s explosion by Meatloaf was completely unprovoked. The guy is a method actor and has been in the business, successfully I might add, for most of his life. He’s come back from a near deadly brain injury and has been nominated for several awards. I think most of this bat-stink crazy is an act.
Sorry for the extra long post, but this week’s Celebrity Apprentice was worth it! Tune in next week for more craziness and catch up on any of the episodes you missed this season here.
Celebrity Apprentice: NeNe Takes Down Dionne Warwick
Celebrity Apprentice: Busey’s in Charge and Niki Taylor Takes the Fall
Celebrity Apprentice: Lisa Rinna Gets Thrown Under the Bus
Celebrity Apprentice: David Cassidy First to Get Fired on a Season of Crazy
Copyright @ 2008 TV Review
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