Celebrity Apprentice-There's No Business Like Show Business

One of the reasons why this season's Celebrity Apprentice is so successful are the tender moments shared between the celebrity and their chosen cause, no less in this case, Tito's chosen charity, St Jude's Children's Hospital and the little girl he met with. Was there a dry eye anywhere?

This episode's challenge was to sell the most Broadway show tickets, with Vinny Pastore chosen, and his reluctant acceptance of the guys PM, and Marilu as the women's PM. I think Marilu did some reverse psychology when they were choosing what shows they wanted to sell when they met with Vinny and Lennox. Omorosa remarking to Vinny that she's never seen him move so fast. Marilu did her homework by calling her connections to find out which one was the hottest show tickets in town, something with the word Curtains in the title-never heard of it, then again, I'm not up on the hottest show in town. The closest thing to a Broadway show is my daughter's Christmas school play.

The guys ego's surface from time to time in jocking for the power positions for each challenge, especially between Baldwin and Piers, a love hate relationship. I have to laugh at their verbal barbs, they are like an old married couple and that scene where they are showed laughing their heads off, cracked me up. Baldwin's laughing sounding like some kind of deranged Chihuahua. I love him! He reminds me a hedgehog with beady little eyes.

The girls as usual are good at setting up their house neatly, displaying memorabilia and show ads prominently, and Marilu calling in her friend, my favorite Niles Crane, David Hyde Pierce. I love him but he was not utilized properly as Vince McMahon said. He should have been their come-hither showpiece. The guys on the on hand relied to Pier's Knight in Shining Chain Mail-(Spamalot) as the crowd getter. And no Piers, Ivank does not find you attractive! It was a race to the finish on whose connection would bring in the most money and Pier's friend Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic came through. Our rabid pit bull Nely calls in some of her high power friends to buy tickets and some of them come through, but in the end, her Latina girls couldn't find a place to make a cashier's check and the girls come up short again.

The best statement in the boardroom was made by Ivank saying that Marilu is one of the stronger players and that she needs to be kept. The girls otherwise polite surface is beginning to crack as Carol and Jennie tried to defend themselves against the A type personalities of Nely and Omorosa. In the end, Jennie, the Olympic softball champ did not come out swinging and struck out at the plate and was sent packing. Jennie, you just don't have the killer instinct in the world of corporate players, stick to hitting softballs!-Single D

Apprentice starts out with a tear jerker moment with Tito and Elizabeth from St. Jude's Hospital. I'm sure he will frame the picture that she drew for him.

Selling Broadway show tickets is right up Marilu's alley and she didn't waste any time becoming the PM and getting down to business. There must have been a lot of editing during the negotiations because all you see is Omarosa whispering to Marilu and then they all make their decisions which took all of 2 minutes. It must have been boring. The rest of the episode was not boring with Piers and Stephen arguing about anything and everything. They eventually kiss and make up and all is right with the dream team, Hydra.

Nely sure does think alot of herself considering she would have been fired on the last challenge. She kept calling herself a star and that she has a little black book that is as big as Gene Simmons. I highly doubt that! Back at the ticket booth, the girls do make everything look nice and Marilu calls in a few favors and gets some of the cast to come out to help sell tickets. Marilu must have caught David Hyde Pierce during a nap, he definitely did not look star like in his sweat shirt and baseball cap. I'm not even sure if anyone recognized him. Carol and Jennie were taking money and handing out tickets, Marilu was running around looking uncharacteristically unorganized (that was a mouthful), Nely was jumping up and down and screeching every time someone bought a ticket and Omarosa was no where to be seen, again with the editing. I'm sure she was working harder than anyone there!

The guys again start out at the ticket booth looking decidedly untidy with boxes everywhere. Stephen acquired a megaphone and starts shouting to the streets of NYC for everyone to buy show tickets for charity and letting the crowd know just who is doing the selling. Trace in the city - sounds like a good name for a sit com. This guy looks so out of place in the big city! He seemed genuinely surprised that there are people in NYC who don't speak English. Like Vinnie said, it is like walking around with the midnight cowboy. Loved Piers in the King Arthur get up calling the people "heartless bastards" for not buying tickets for charity. You go Piers, shame those people into donations!

Back in the boardroom, with the women thinking they had won big, Omarosa puts in her 25 cents worth telling the guys she thought it wasn't smart to have Piers dressed as a clown. This earned her a well deserved tongue lashing from Vinnie who told her is was King Arthur and that it shows his team would do anything to win and also threw in a bit about how his father wore a sandwich board to sell sandwiches. Take that Omarosa!

Well the women lost again but not by much this time and Omarosa came out with both guns blazing attacking Carol Alt. This shark doesn't take anything lying down and fired back at Omarosa saying she exploits everyone's weak points and does nothing to support anyone. The Donald again, pretty much tells Marilu to bring back Omarosa but she does not saying that she, Nely and Omarosa work well together. In the waiting room, Carol tries to make Marilu see sense by telling her that Omarosa is a cancer eating the team. In the end, Jennie tells the Donald that it is hard working with the group and that it is just mean and nasty with Omarosa and she didn't want to get used to that. The Donald said he didn't want her getting used to that and did her a favor by firing her. Double D

Project Runway 4- Iconic Denim

Well the cast of talent is rapidly dwindling and it seems that Victorya can't get it through her head that Kit is gone because she keeps calling Sweet Pea Kit. "Kit would you like a peanut butter sandwich?" Sweet Pea "I'm not Kit"

Victorya "Kit do you want more coffee?"

Sweet Pea "I'm not Kit"

For their next challenge, everyone met in a warehouse on the docks to which Chris said are we going to make designer cement galoshes as he gazes at the East River. Here we go again, another design by definition-make an iconic denim outfit with Levi jeans. Hmm, let me look up iconic-executing according to convention or tradition and/ or pertaining to an icon. On your mark, get set, GO-another mad dash for the icons-jeans-poor Chris, I bet when he signed up, he didn't know challenges would involve physical fitness sprints. And next time Sweet Pea wear better shoes, her flip flop went flying off in the mad dash but all she could do was focus on getting the jeans and material. I loved that parting shot where she shows the camera how dirty it was in the warehouse by showing the bottom of her very black foot, trust me, we believe you Kit, er I mean Sweet Pea.

Back at the studio, we hear the constant chatter of our poodle, Christian, ah where would this season be without him, certainly much, much duller. When the designers were told that they could use all the accessories, snaps, zippers etc they wanted, all I could think of is where's Tana (of Apprentice fame) and her Bedazzler? Jeans definitely need the Bedazzler.

When Tim makes his visit, he tells Sweet Pea that her outfit is looking like a scary granny, which sets Sweet Pea on the course of design editing again! And the Oscar for best costume editing goes to Sweet Pea! Why is it that she always has to change her design when she's almost done with it? I think Jillian was practicing self flagellation, by stabbing her fingers with the sewing machine needle and then crying out that she was bleeding all over the place. Me personally, I didn't see any blood, I think all that stress was causing hallucinations! And as Chris said, can't it wait 10 minutes-we have 10 minutes left on the clock.

On the runway, I thought most of the designs looked good. I didn't quite understand Chris's outfit and that denim handle on his dress. For once Rami didn't do any draping-can denim be draped? Ricky was an emotional wreck saying something about first you suck then you don't suck wah, wah, wah!

Somehow Sweet Pea always comes through in the squeeze, the judges saying that her pared down dress had that voodoo slimming quality to it. Hey, any outfit that has a voodoo slimming effect, I want 10 pleeze! Hey Sweet Pea great dress, but what were you wearing during the runway show? Polka Dotted Bloomers-I think somewhere, some little clown from Barnum and Bailey is missing his pants. Hey Bello, I know where your pants are!

In the end, Victorya's outfit was auf! It really did look like she pasted the skirt onto the jean jacket-and she didn't even make that jacket-at least Jillian's jacket dress was entirely made by her. I personally loved Jillian's and would buy it. Bye Victorya, it was the right choice by the judges, you just didn't have any bedazzling designs in the end. And Ricky, wake up, yes the judges said you won-your outfit was smart and sassy. Now stop crying!-Single D

I love Levi's!! So I was really excited about this challenge. Poor Fred, I mean Chris having to run again. It was kind of sad to watch him waddling his way into the warehouse, but waddle he did and got the goods. Sweat P was actually behind him after losing her shoe.

Back in the design room as everyone is going through their treasures, Christian starts whining about everything which prompts Chris to say, "give him a bottle and put him to bed!" Just how many times can Christian say, "I'm going to die" before someone actually commits homicide? Someone put him out of our misery!

Paranoia sets in on Jillian as she thinks Victorya stole her coat idea. I'd say the claws will come out but Jillian is too tame for that. And speaking of Jillian, can someone give that girl a watch? She has no sense of time management. She does seem to pull it out every week and finishes.

I do hope Heidi went to a cocktail party after the judging, that dress was way too cute to waste on a runway judging! Ricky again turned on the water works when the judges said they liked his dress. If he ends up winning this, he will cry for a month! Get a grip Ricky! Thank goodness Sweat P shortened her dress. It made a world of difference and makes me want to lose 20lbs so I could wear it! I liked Chris' dress except for the unfinished edges and Ricky's was just adorable which won him the challenge. Jillian ended up on the bottom for once but was saved win Victorya was auffed. Cute outfits for most in this episode, I would like to see several of them in the Levi's store. Chances are we wouldn't be able to afford them! Double D

American Idol-Season 7-San Diego and Charleston

The best part of American Idol is when the auditions are over-how many days do we need to suffer through the untalented, the deluded, the deranged unsinging masses? Is there anyone in the 12,000 people in San Diego that has any singing talent? First there was Monique and out of her mouth, not a sound, not a note, not a thing, Monique keep your day job. Then there was the mime and Pancho villa duet-what is this a talent show or a costume show? There was a paper airplane carrying love notes to Simon-yes, there are many women who think he's hot (and I'm one of them!) and as my daughter said "Mom have you noticed that Simon is nicer this year?" Simon what has happened? have you gone into therapy? taken anger management classes? found religion? He even let the brother and sister, Michelle and Jeffrey, the duet from Charleston go through because he couldn't break them up! Simon's a softy, Simon's a softy!

Simon did manage to show his sassy side however, when this poor girl showed up and Simon asked her if she was dressed by three different people. I think he gets more irate when an auditioner shows up badly dressed and then sings horrible to boot.

A special shout out to our flower child Alberto, Mr. 8000, you know the one with the long hair and the long fingernails and sang like a gloomy Gus? At least his mother thinks he has talent-Alberto go to a park and make yourself a daisy chain necklace!

PS-if you still want more outtakes of Idol castoffs you can view them on Idol Wrap on the TV guide Network. I actually saw Mr. Angel- you know the one that had the white feather hat that had Simon on it, and was wearing a white cape, giving his critiques-jeez, how do I get signed onto something like that? Next week they are promising to have our flower child, Alberto, I guess they are really giving each one their 15 minutes of fame. -Single D

Simon is getting soft in his old age, that or he just knew that first contestant in San Diego will fall on her face. Like he said, she is good but not great. Don't look for her in round two. She was followed by the heart string tugging widowed father who really was good. Then there was Michael from Australia - 2 words, hubba hubba!! He's good too ;)

Doesn't this show have like pre-screeners? I mean, come on, since when was any American Idol a mime?! And the one guy who has auditioned 11 times - when do you get it? At least he left the Statue of Liberty costume home this time (he still didn't get it).

Alberto the 3 inch nail flower child. What can we say about him? Plenty! But I'll just say, take those fans and go back to sniffing your flowers or whatever you have been sniffing.

The auditions can be entertaining. I was actually feeling sorry for Simon, he really hasn't been hard on anyone but the hopelessly untalented people always come out saying how he bashed them. I'm there for you Simon! Double D

Ghost Hunters International - Italy & Wales

This episode takes us to Principata Di Lucedio Abbey in Turin Italy. The abbey was built in 1123 and in 1650 a group of girls started practicing demonic worship which lead to the Pope excommunicating the abbey in 1740. It is believed there is an evil spirit in the crypts beneath the abbey and a "weeping column" in the judgement room said to be weeping because of all the evil done there.

The team starts investigating in the People's Church and right away things start hopping. Donna seemed to be the target of a shadow which followed her around the church and, at one point, touched her shoulder. She naturally freaked out and didn't want to go back in, but being the trooper she is, went back into the church to finish the investigation. After seeing shadows around her again, she asked whatever was in there to touch her hand, and something did! At the same time team all heard a whisper saying "go now" which was caught on audio. Poor Donna gets targeted again in the dormitory room when the team, again, sees shadows following her. She seems to be a pretty popular girl with the deceased!

In the judgement room, little Andy tries to debunk the weeping pillar. He finds cracks in the ceiling above the pillar with obvious water damage. He rigs up a bucket of water and pokes a hole in the bucket to see if the water draining would cause the pillar to cry. He unsuccessful and could not debunk the weeping pillar.

Barry and Brian go to the crypts below the church and immediately see something move and the reading on their Ion Meter rises, indicating something paranormal is present. In the second set of crypts, they hear a knocking sound and see a shadow. They follow the shadow which leads them to an alcove containing a piece of wood. Who was knocking wood?!

Nothing was caught on video but a lot of personal experiences were had, just ask Donna, and two EVP's were caught. One was the "go now" heard in the church and another, in Italian, which translated to "stop now, I'm getting angry". Final verdict, haunted.

On to Aberystwyth, Wales and the Nanteos Mansion. Built in 1738 it is the scene of a woman who roams the halls looking for her missing jewels and the sound of a harp playing is also heard. The house is built on top of the original house which, legend has it, 7 monks brought the Holy Grail to the mansion for safe keeping. As the monks died, they were buried in the basement of the original house.

Barry and Brian go to the basement and find a tunnel to which Barry says "oh, I like those!" Unfortunately, he is unable to fit into the tunnel and Brian goes instead. He finds a lot of bones and then a shadow comes toward him and he makes a hasty retreat.

On the staircase, Donna asks for a sign of a presence and is rewarded with a spike on the EMF. Andy and Donna follow the EMF readings down the hallway and hear sighing. Donna assures the spirit they don't want to upset it and asks if she is the woman who is upset looking for her jewels. Later, when listening to the recordings, they hear something answer Donna's question with a "yes". Creepy! The team also recorded a "help me" when no one was around. Donna debunked the Holy Grail legend after doing research. Verdict - paranormal activity but nothing threatening. Double D

Amazing Race-North to Alaska and the Finish Line

And the winner is TK and Rachel! Ok, I concede, they probably could use the money and in the end they turned out to be a force to be reckoned with. On this final leg of the race, the three teams left standing, Christina and father Ron, Nick and Gramps, and TK and Rachel leave for Anchorage Alaska. Right off the bat, Nick and Gramps make a huge mistake by not reading the clue completely and left their gear at the sporting goods store. When they reached their next destination, they realized they did not have their gear. Gramps immediately got on Nick for not reading the clue completely, hey Gramps, Nick carries your pack, at least you should read the clue also! I love it that the two challenges were Grab the Crab and Cut the Cod. The next time someone lets out gas, I'm going to say, who cut the cod, Who Cut the COD???

Speaking of cutting cod, it was amazing that Christina found the tiny capsule clue amongst all that fish guts. First off, I didn't think cod could grow that big and what was in that cod's stomach?-it didn't look like something a fish would eat, it looked like digested rolls of plastic.

Father Ron said a smart thing when he chose the cod over the crab, because he said that they would have pincher's and this we see when TK and Rachel tried to grab the crab. One word-ouch! Luckily for Rachel, TK pulled the right one out.

Back at the cod cutting tables, Gramps was good at cutting the cod open and I had to laugh when he told Nick to look for the clue in the fish guts and Nick said "with my hands??" uh da!

The next time I go to Alaska, I want to go on one of those high speed boat rides, that looked so awesome! I thought for sure, Christina was not going to make it up that shear ice cliff. We women lack in upper body strength, this I know, I'm such a weakling. Father Ron made good time surprisingly up that cliff, as well as all the others even Gramps. All I could say is come on Christina, pull yourself up-this is for the million dollars after all!

The final road block was very complicated with all the elements of every leg of the race put on a platform to win the final clue. I thought for sure, our Princeton educated Christina could pull it off, but then she starts to second guess herself and praying-praying! Come on, use that $100,000 education and THINK! She only had one wrong, when she started pulling items off the platform and getting behind. And then there was Nick, the big Goofy, lumbering his way. I thought if he manages to do this, I would laugh my head off. However, I knew when Rachel said, let me do it, I can do it, that they were probably going to win. They have been the surprise team of the season and their competitor spirit finally surfaces in the end. It was by luck and a dreadlock hair that they squeaked by Ron and Christina. Christina said at the end, that they took away much more than a million dollars, for me, I would have like the million dollars, I could always pay for family therapy.

And to the winners, TK and Rachel goes the spoils, in this case a million dollars. Now maybe TK and Rachel can go buy some shampoo, some new clothes and that VW van and somewhere out there "Cat's in the Cradle" is playing.-Single D

On to Anchorage! I hear it's really pretty there, but I can't get past the fact that it is Alaska and cold! They were obviously there in the summer and it still looked cold. I was hoping for a action packed photo finish to this one and was immediately disappointed when Nick & gramps blew the first clue by not getting their gear. Then TK & Rachel keep getting bad taxi drivers which finally makes a normally laid back TK lose his cool. OK, so now we know it can happen! Father Ron & Christina charge ahead with a huge lead and it was left to see who would come in second.

After retrieving their gear, gramps proved he was pretty handy with a knife gutting the cod and Nick proved he was a big sissy for not looking through the guts. Come on Nick, the least you could do is prod around in fish innards for a chance at a cool mil! TK & Rachel decide they would rather get pinched by crabs than look through fish guts. Just as they had had enough of the pinching, TK finds the lucky crab and they jump ahead of Nick & gramps (what is his name anyway?). All is not good in hippyville as TK & Rachel get another lost taxi driver. TK mentions that it was easier to communicate with the taxi drivers in India.

That boat ride did look like fun, I've always wanted to see a moose. At the glacier, father Ron scrambled right up that ice! I guess the fear of falling into that cold water would get me up there pretty quick too. Gramps climbed right up also making Nick look like a slacker.

The last challenge was to assemble items they used along the race. Who remembers this stuff? I really thought Christina would get it first and fast, but it was Rachel who pulled it out and got them the million dollars. Kudos to father Ron who has made an amazing turn around and finally appreciates his daughter. And congrats to gramps (Don, and you didn't think I knew his name) for being the oldest person to finish the Amazing Race! TK & Rachel can now afford a hairbrush, Ron & Christina have mended fences and Nick & Don have taught each other a thing or two. This race had an impact on everyone involved, for the better! Can't wait to see what happens in the next Amazing Race! Double D