The Celebrity Apprentice-Premiere

After the insipid last season of Donald Trump's Apprentice, I wasn't holding my breath for this season's Celebrity Apprentice with a bunch of semi celebrity D-Listers. Who are these people? Jennie Finch, Tiffany Fallon, Nely Galan? Of course, I did recognize Marilu Henner and my favorite semi movie star Stephen Baldwin now turned reality star. Did I tell you I saw his brother Alec Baldwin and daughter eating lunch at the Topanga Westfield mall? But I decided to watch because the apprentice everyone loves to hate, Omarosa was going to be on the show (psst-I think she's had some plastic enhancements!).

Once again, it's the women against the men-or in this case who has the most celebrity clout. I had to laugh when the men were picking their name, Soprano tough guy Vincent Pastore said, lets call ourselves the "Ba Da Bing, Ba Da Bang Boys" and of course, Omarosa had to take the lead and spotlight and name her sassy self project manager. The first challenge was a simple enough, sell hot dogs from a vendor cart on the streets of NY. I think I distinctly remember Omarosa said not to use their celebrity status to sell the dogs-wrong! Celebrity sells-this is America. The guys on the other hand jumped right in with the celebrity thing as Gene Simmons pulled out his black book of numbers and started dialing for dollars. Towards the end, a frustrated Marilu called her contact who brought in $10 Gs. Who was the still wet behind the ears kid? Cute and he had money!

Back in the boardroom, the guys won, ya think! Gene Simmons contacts came through for him in a big way-something like $64,000 to $17,000, wow. I loved it when Nigel down Omarosa (or as Pastore said Ponderosa) by saying, I know you're famous, I don't for what. In the end, Tiffany could not swim against the sharks, Omarosa and Carol Alt and Tiffany was sent packing.

I think this season will be entertaining to watch because the contestants are more mature, more funnier, definitely more seasoned, have more life experience and are celebrities after all. I'm just wondering if their friends with money list is limitless for the coming challenges and I hope Vincent Pastore stays around for awhile, he's the joker of the bunch and will definitely give us good belly laughs dissing Omarosa. -Single D

Since the last Apprentice was so disappointing, I figured the Celebrity Apprentice had to be 100% better and it was. Most people will watch this just for Omarosa and she did not disappoint. She jumped from the starting gate saying she wanted to "go on record" to be the first project manager. All this before they even split up into their groups. Way to step up Omarosa!

After splitting into their respective groups and deciding who was going to be PM, introductions were made in the boardroom. When asked if she knew Stephen Baldwin, Omarosa said, "yes, unfortunately". What poise, what class!

It is going to be the classic girls against the guys with a very diverse group for both sides. The girls started off with Omarosa being all egotistic and confident and Producer Nely Galan bringing props in the form of hats to which she said would bring them closer as a team. Omarosa, rolling her eyes at the hats, became fast friends with Nely. Omarosa starts out winning friends and influencing her team by saying they won't be using their celebrity to sell hot dogs. When the other's voiced their opinions to the contrary, Omarosa rose to the occasion by saying, "I'm running this" and that they will use solid sales tactics to win. That's right Omarosa, you tell them, you're the boss and you won't take crap from anybody!

Meanwhile, the guys, having picked Stephen Baldwin as their PM, decided to use their celebrity to sell the hot dogs. Lennox Lewis, after saying he wasn't taking pictures with anyone, had his mind changed when Stephen told him he will if someone pays $25 for a hot dog. You go Steve! I laughed so hard when Gene Simmons make a reference to Hydra being the guardian to the gates of hell (it was Cerberus wasn't it?) and Vinnie Pastore said, "no, that was my exwife!". While getting the game plan together, Gene Simmons starts calling his buddies and asking, actually telling them, to come down and buy hot dogs for $5000. That's using your celebrity!

The guys got off to a slow start, Piers didn't help them by turning down sales because he didn't think they were paying enough, but the competition heated up with both teams getting contacts donating large sums of money. After telling her team not to use their celebrity, you would think Omarosa would thank Marilu for using her contacts. But no, she was too busy trying to get Tiffany to go out and flaunt herself to get people to buy hot dogs. Great delegating Omarosa!

The guys pulled it out by making $52,000 compared to the girls $17,000. They donated their winnings, as well as the girls winnings, to the Carol M. Baldwin (Stephen's mother) Breast Cancer Research Fund. They also got to watch the boardroom antics from a "war room" via closed circuit TV.

While watching the boardroom, Gene Simmons calls Omarosa a cockroach "you can't kill a cockroach". They keep trashing her as she tries to defend herself. The Donald rakes her over the coals after asking why she didn't use her team's celebrity like the guys did. She quickly recovers putting the attention on Tiffany who failed to use her one big celebrity contact which could have put them over the top. That's right Omarosa, Tiffany should be flogged for not calling Hef in your hour of need! After all, that really wouldn't count as using your celebrity, would it, that would just be calling a friend. Staying true to her friend, Omarosa praised Nely's work as well as Marilu's.

Tiffany failed to defend herself and came off as being quite naive and inexperienced. She heard the words so many aspiring apprentices before her have heard, "you're fired!" At least Omarosa will be around next week to defend her honor and, hopefully, help her team to victory! Double D