Celebrity Apprentice, Episode 10: A Good Day For Reality TV

Last week, the teams created ads for Dial Yogurt Bodywash (no, really!) to be printed in Redbook. Both teams went edgy (sort of), but Empresario backed off in the end and lost the task. Tito Ortiz was sent home for poor leadership and a worse presentation.

For your reference, here are the current team rosters:

Hydra

• Lennox Lewis, retired boxing champion
• Carol Alt, the first supermodel
• Piers Morgan, British tabloid journalist

Empresario

Before we get rolling, let me take a second for a brief flashback into Apprentice history… specifically, to Season 1, Episode 9. The task was to interview some artists, then select one and sell their work in an art gallery. Citing her falling plaster dust wound of two episodes earlier, Omarosa slacked off, taking a lengthy lunch break when she was needed to help with some grunt work. What really makes that episode meaningful is, IT’S THE EPISODE WHEN OMAROSA WAS FIRED!! What I see as especially encouraging for this season is, she wasn’t fired over anything related to the task, but for generally being a contentious and disruptive teammate.

Can history repeat itself? Certainly the faults all remain! (Though it is amusing to look back at Omarosa’s interview with RealityNewsOnline after she was fired and see her complaining about the editing making her look bad after her further Reality TV Hall of Shame behavior this season!)

But let’s get back to this season. The episode starts with Hydra awaiting Empresario’s return to the suite. When they come in, Piers is surprised Tito was fired and suggests (probably jokingly) that Trace knifed him in the back. To us, Trace says he was just playing it honest. I‘ve already said that firing Tito was the right move, and that opinion hasn’t changed.

Next, Trump (not wearing a pink tie) meets with the teams in his fantastic apartment to assign the next task. Wife Melania and son Baron are with him, as are Ivanka and Don Junior. Baron, now 18 months old, babbles unabashedly like some of our contestants are prone to do.

Trump reveals that so far, $630,000 has been given to charity. Umm, by my figures, it’s $320,000. Don’t get me wrong, that is still an impressive amount!

Trump outlines the task ahead. They must select an artist from a group, price their work, and sell it in a gallery. The team with the greater sales win. Money won above an unspecified minimum goes to the winning PMs charity.

Trump wants the PMs named now. Omarosa and Piers step up. Tempting fate, Omarosa reminds us that this was the task she was fired on before.

I notice there’s no film of Carol presenting her charity with a check this week. Why not? I’ll mention for her that her charity is a family foundation targeting kids, and she won the traditional $20,000.

Omarosa talks with the gallery owner to learn the tricks of the trade. He suggests all the artists can be sold and recommends, “Follow your heart. Whoever appeals to you the most is who you should go with.” Trace admits in a solo interview that he doesn’t “get” most art. Baldwin imagines that Piers will take the most expensive artist. Omarosa figures Piers has the contacts to pull that off.

Next, Hydra meets with the gallery owner as Carol tells us the team has no real experience in art. Piers asks if space is an issue with any of these artists and instead learns that they can sell multiple copies of some work by “new media artist” Shirley Shor. So although Shirley only offers about a half dozen different designs, there are more total pieces of her work to sell than any of the other artists. The team all agrees that this is the right way to go.

Back on Empresario, Omarosa asks the team to rate the artists. Again, the choice is unanimous, and they choose David Kramer. The reasoning is that he has the most pieces and the lowest price point. Alas, the decision is based on incomplete information, as they did not find out the details of Shirley Shor’s work. Omarosa confidently informs her team she’s going to call in her contacts. Baldwin is also calling friends, asking them, “Buy a piece of art from Stevie B tonight.” At least one thinks the price point is too high.

Piers is doing similar phone work on Hydra. One of his contacts is chef Gordon Ramsey, who appears on Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, among other shows. Potentially, Piers seems to be nailing down some big sales. He is very serious this week and tells us, “This wasn’t business, this was personal.”

Omarosa wants Baldwin to stop calling his contacts and learn about the artist instead. She then changes her mind and asks him to do both. He says he can’t do both at once. Omarosa asks him, “You can’t multi-task, is that what you’re telling me?” He says he cannot read and talk to someone at the same time. She responds, “That’s funny, because I’m doing okay. Can you give it a try, maybe?” He asks which she’d rather him do, and she says both. Baldwin recognizes that Omarosa is setting him up in case they lose this challenge.