Oh, No! Not Joan Rivers!

Within a week, I tallied two losses in my “reality-TV” bracket. Still reeling from Alison Iraheta’s departure, I watched last night as mean, nasty Joan Rivers took the “Celebrity Apprentice” prize away from poker player Annie Duke. Of course, I could see it coming. The task was to throw a fund-raising event, and I saw that Joan clearly threw the better party, complete with drag-queen celebrity impersonators, and Kathy Griffin-caliber celebs like Constantine Maroulis and Kathy Griffin. Crucially for the task (and the show), the ever-important Kodak branding was sadly lacking on Annie’s side. More pointedly, Mr. Trump gave small indications that her favored Ms. Rivers. He ignored her rude outbursts, never fully addressed the ugly personal attacks against Ms. Duke, and gave the slightest tone of disdain when talking to the poker champ. Her pair of threes was basically trumped by Joan’s pair of fours.
I have really lost a lot of respect for Joan Rivers after this show. I had always respected her career, and really thought she was a genuinely funny lady. But the way she acted over the course of the show was utterly abysmal. She acted so incredibly childish—even to the point of plugging her ears with her fingers when Annie spoke, and making “blah-blah-blah” noises; as well as repeatedly interrupting and filibustering when Ms. Duke tried to answer Mr. Trump’s questions. I just thought she was more sophisticated than that. Mr. Trump was extremely forgiving when it came to Joan’s disrespecting the hallowed boardroom, which to me was the harbinger of the competition’s outcome. Ms. Duke would have had to magically produced a royal flush out of her sleeve to have won this task, as well as the competition itself.
Just a sidebar—Melissa Rivers actually looked kinda hot last night. Sexy dress, cool hair; (But I think it was the blue eye shadow that did it for me!) OK, where was I? Oh yeah, I was pretty much done. Let’s wrap today’s blog so I can go out running with Bocce, my Italian Greyhound.
So to me, the highlight of the night was Annie and Brande Roderick using ACN notepads for taking notes! Our logos were visible and large on the screen about four or five times! Yay! That was the coolest! But other than all the Joan nastiness, it was a great show last night! And NBC purchased season 9. Now for my “reality-TV” bracket, the only thing I have left is if that cute Paula beats that dweebie Danny on “Hells Kitchen”. Fingers crossed!

Rivers and Rivers

Oy, vey! Last night’s “Celebrity Apprentice” once and for all demolished any shred of respect I had for Joan Rivers. After clinger-on daughter Melissa was voted off, in a somewhat surprising decision, I thought that I would enjoy the ensuing meltdown. But as the drama unfurled, and Melissa threw a tantrum that surpassed even reality-show standards, my shädenfreude-driven glee soon turned to discomfort as disturbed mother Joan joined her ousted daughter in a shameless breakdown. It actually became downright disturbing. Profanity-laden, personal attacks erupting as Rivers and Rivers furiously scrambled to make the most dramatic angry exit possible; screaming at P.A.’s to GIVE THEM THEIR F'ING PURSES RIGHT NOW, and explosively informing segment producers there would NOT be an exit interview NO F’ING WAY!!! Sheesh! The funny thing is, the pair acted as if this was actually a real job! Don’t they get to go back to their lives and their “real” careers now?

Over the last few weeks, Mama Rivers really seemed to lose it as the game went on. For some reason she became fixated on poker champ Annie Duke, who skillfully used her poker-playing acumen to do amazingly well in the game. Madame Joan increasingly leveled personal attacks on Ms. Duke, becoming more nasty and vitriolic as the show went on. I’ve witnessed cut-throatedness, and personal vendettas on this show before, but never to the level of almost psychotic fixation that Ms. Rivers was displaying. It had gotten to the point of being pathetic, and it was soon obvious a complete meltdown was imminent. I’m not sure whose idea it was to put these two together on the show anyway, as I’ve blogged about before. Especially when they were placed on opposing teams. Joan could not restrain herself from overprotecting her daughter, and this led to a somewhat compromised team loyalty. And then poor Annie Duke! She became Joan’s white whale. While definitely as cut-throat and scheming as you’d expect from a million-dollar poker champion, Annie never acted the Hitler, whore, bottom-feeder, scum, slime, and all other epithets Ms. Joan accused her of being. Every other contestant knew this show is a game, and the ousted took their oustings with grace and sportsmanship—including my favorite, the kute Khloe Kardashian. Joan took this game way too seriously, and gave no regard to how petulant, petty, and just plain nuts she came across to the viewing audience of approximately 20 million.

Now, Melissa… Hmmmm. I’d have expected Mama Joan to throw out her dignity and treat us to a huge tantrum, but I really didn’t expect Melissa to blow the gasket like she did. Now I do see that she is truly her mother’s daughter. I watched as she tried vainly to keep her cool, but with each second her anger overtook her. She even broke the cardinal rule of snapping off on Donald Trump (gasp!) in the boardroom, and subsequently scurried out the door, cursing everyone as she went. Joan followed her out—porting about six shopping bags and totes, looking like she was going down to 5th avenue to finish her shopping. I’d like to say I’m gonna miss the drama of having these two on the show, but I really won’t. The creepiness factor has been finally eliminated (at least one element), and the last contestants can now finish out the game with competitiveness and good, clean cut-throatedness. (Unless Jesse James punches out Clint Black—fingers crossed!)

Doing the next-to-impossible!

I set myself a huge set of goals, that I can only meet with the help of the Lord Almighty! It can definitely be accomplished, but for me, it'll be a tough act; requiring more discipline than I've ever had to conjure up before. Here's my twin goals: Executive Team Leader by December 31 (and max out my bonus) and Team Coordinator by March 15 (Again, maxing out my bonus!) If everything goes my way, with God's help, I'll have made $10K and positioned myself to explode when NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" features ACN on March 22, and Mexico opens up a few weeks after that.
Ready, set, PRAY! Then WORK! Then PRAY some more!
See y'all at the TOP!