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I shall write about a wide range of topics, from politics to love to hopes and dreams.

Sugar Daddy, 6/1/09: Sugar Daddy

Finally! A new episode of "Iron Chef
America"! New York chef Sam Mason
took on Masaharu Morimoto. The secret
ingredient was skirt steak. Our judges
for the evening were Kate Flannery,
Michael Ruhlman and, of course, Jeffrey
Steingarten. Let the battle begin!

Chef Mason served first beginning with
a skirt steak tartare (typical) made
with a Marjoram emulsion, pickled pumpkin
and shredded cashews. Dish #2 was sous
vide beef with broccoli and egg sheets.
Dish #3 was grilled skirt steak with a
bone marrow creme brulee. Dish #4 was
a steak coated in cocoa and fried. And
Dish #5 was skirt steak ice cream, LOL!

Iron Chef Morimoto also began with a
tartare, coupled with Asian pears and
a sugar cane scooper. Dish #2 was a
dou of skirt steak, one marinated in milk
and the other seared. Dish #3 was ginger
rice with steak cooked in sake. Dish #4
was ground skirt steak served in cabbage
with turnips, carrot and mustard. And
Dish #5 was another dou, teriyaki skirt
steak and another marinated in oyster
sauce and sake.

It's always fun watching Morimoto work.
He's such a perfectionist and a true
artist. The scoring reflected this, with
Morimoto defeating Mason 53 to 46. The
Iron Chef earned a 28/13/12 to Mason's
24/10/12.

Not much else has been happening of real
interest in Reality TV since the end of
"Survivor". Bravo TV has launched it's
latest "Real Housewives" knock-off, this
time of ritzy women in New Jersey. They
also launched a substitute for "Project
Runway". "The Fashion Show" is not as
interesting, especially since it lacks
the wisdom of Tim Gunn. LOL!

I have started watching Mark Burnett's
"The Apprentice UK". As you know, I was
very unhappy with "Celebrity Apprentice 2".
So it's nice to see that the UK version
is pure and more geared toward the original
intent of promoting meritocracy. The man
in charge is Sir Alan Sugar (pictured above).
He's way scarier than Trump and unlike The
Donald, Sir Alan is truly self-made. No
degree from Wharton and a $1 million
graduation gift from daddy. Sir Alan started
off selling car antennas from a used van he
bought for 100 English pounds.

Sugar's humble beginnings sprung from
London's East End. His father was a
tailor, and Sir Alan worked his way
through school, selling produce from
a street cart. In 1980, he began
Amstrad, selling electronic components.
With the PC boom, Amstrad sold it's
own computer, the equivalant of a
Commodore 64. The company soon went
public and by 1990, Amstrad was worth
over a billion pounds.

Knighted in 2000 for his business
prowess, Sir Alan has branched into
other realms, such as a small commuter
and business airline, advertising,
and even followed Pink Floyd's advice
and bought himself a football (soccer)
team. Since 2005, he has starred in
the UK version of "The Apprentice".

The openning to each episode shows
what the contestants are up against.
Sir Alan tells it like it is. He
hates cheats, schmoozers and bull-
$#!%ers. LOL! He also warns the
players that they should NEVER under-
estimate him!

This season, 7 men and 7 women began
the 12-week job interview, dividing
into two gender-based teams. The first
task was selling fresh flowers on the
street, which the men won. Their team,
Impact, went on to win the first four
challenges. By the third episode, Sir
Alan shuffled the deck and mixed the
teams up as the ladies were in trouble.
The first man fired by Sir Alan was
the tall and awkward Matthew in Episode
5, where the teams had to sell artwork.

So it's nice watching the game as it
should be played. "The Apprentice UK"
airs new episodes Tuesday evenings on
BBC America.

Monday June 1, 2009 - 09:29pm (EDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Annie Get Your Guns, 5/4/09: Annie Get Your Guns

"Iron Chef America" was a rerun. *Sigh*
Las Vegas chef, Akira Back went up against
Bobby Flay. The secret ingredient was
spinach. Our judges for the evening
were Donatella Arpaia, Cady Huffman and,
of course, Jeffrey Steingarten.

The scoring was low as could be expected.
Let's face it, spinach is not very exciting.
Flay won, 45 to 37. He scored 23/11/11 to
Chef Back's 17/13/8. OUCH!

I'm going to review "Celebrity Apprentice 2"
today instead of tomorrow, because, quite
frankly, it was a light episode. First, a
correction. I wrote last week that Clint
Black's charity, which he won $20,000 for,
was for Teres Syndrome. I misheard his
twangy drawl, it's Rett Syndrome.

The show began with the lingering question
of will Joan Rivers return? She left in
a huff after her daughter, Melissa, got
fired by Trump. Melissa threw a temper
tantrum, in classic spoiled-brat style, and
marched off the set with her mommy in tow.
When the rest met with Trump, his kids and
some suited execs the next day, Joan did
show up to work.

It's bad enough that she's turned her envy
of Annie Duke into a vile, personal brawl.
To come back after all her big talk of
standing by her daughter, etc, shows that
noy only is she a quitter, Joan Rivers is
an obnoxious diva-quitter.

The suits were execs for Chicken of the Sea.
The task was to make both a 30 second radio
commercial, plus a new jingle that still
incorporated elements of the classic jingle.
The Project Managers were Clint Black for
KOTU, the obvious choice for a song-writing
challenge, and the fearless and talented
Annie Duke for Athena.

Clint set about working on the song while
he let Joan and Jesse James work on the
radio spot. They came up with a rather
lame psuedo-game-show commercial. Initially,
they hired pro voice-over actors but Joan,
in her inflated ego, decided she could do
better. So they sent the actors home and
Jesse and Joan did the spot themselves.

Over at Team Athena, Annie and Brande
Roderick wrote their commercial first, a
standard bit with two mothers of young
children trading lunch tips. They paid
attention to the execs and incorporated
most of the key points they wanted. Then,
Annie worked with a musician to come up
with their jingle.

The next day, Athena performed their
jingle for the execs first. It was very
snappy and upbeat. Unlike KOTU's which
was slow and too 'country'. Mind you,
Clint Black does have an extremely good
singing voice and executed it perfectly.
KOTU's presentation became lame when
Joan talked Clint into allowing her to
carry a sign they made in front of the
stage. She had wanted to 'cluck' while
doing this, but Clint vetoed that idea.
Good call, Clint! LOL!

Both teams then faced The Donald, along
with Don Jr and Ivanka in the Boardroom.
Clint and KOTU were very pleased with
their work. Annie, for the first time
in the series, was a bit intimidated and
uncertain. After all, how could she, a
mere poker player, compete musically
with a multi Grammy award winning star?

Trump had both jingles played. KOTU
was surprised how nice Athena's was.
The execs also liked it, in fact, they
liked it more than Clint's. LOL! They
thought his was too slow and 'country'.
The execs also liked Athena's radio spot
more, too. So Annie was handed her third
victory as PM and another $20,000 for
Refugee International, or whatever it's
called. She was very thrilled that she
wrote a better song than Clint. Could
this be the start of a new career?

Needless to say, this just stuck in the
craw of Joan Rivers. Once again, Annie
showed her up. Athena left all giggly
for the Champagne Room to celebrate as
Trump pumped KOTU for the fall guy. Of
course, as PM, Clint was most responsible
and he accepted it gracefully.

Jesse and Joan then enter the Champagne
Room and the mood changes sullen as Joan
spread her bad vibe. Fortunately, she
did not stay long and merriment ensued
after Joan departed. But the fun did
not last long as Trump called everyone
back to the Boardroom. He congratulated
the four finalists and then dropped a
bomb on them. They were to be interviewed
by Piers Morgan. After which, based on
Morgan's reccommendations, Trump would
fire two more people tonight!

The interviews went as could be expected.
Morgan challenged Brande's skill sets.
He took Joan to task for injecting too
much personal rivalry into the game. Piers
and Annie got along swimmingly, though he
did call her on being too chatty. With
Jesse, Morgan called him out again for
not raising much cash or utilizing his wife,
Sandra Bullock, in any capacity.

All return to the Boardroom after Donald and
Piers had a chat. Trump questions Brande
about riding Annie's coattails too much. She
tried to defend herself given she's raised
the second most amount of cash. Annie tells
Donald that she considers Joan and Jesse
easier to beat because of Brande's fundraising
abilities.

But Trump has made up his mind and fires Brande.
He then picks apart Jesse and Joan. Joan vows
to move heaven and earth to win. Jesse all but
admits that he has been sandbagging raising
money. It's obvious that Annie will be in the
finals, so it's between these two. Ivanka is
critical of Jesse for not raising more money.
Annie adds that she's raised lots of money for
everyone's charities, because they are all worthy.

Trump fires Jesse, setting up the battle of the
vixens. The old, worn-out, Joan Rivers, and
the hellfire of poker, Annie Duke. This ought
to be a lot of fun. Three hour finale is on
Sunday. Needless to say, I'm pulling for
Annie to trounce Joan. I really want her to
beat Rivers badly. That hag deserves it for
all the grief she and her daughter have caused.

Finally, it would not be a Reality Monday without
a few words on last week's episode of "Survivor:
Tocantins". Sierra was booted off and Coach got
caught in a lie. So much for the honorable warrior.
He first told JT that Sierra had tried to coerce
Debbie and he into an alliance to boot the former
Jalapaos off. When Stephen joined the conversation
with a tale from Sierra that Coach and Debbie tried
to do likewise with her, Coach changed his story.
Now it was Sierra and Debbie trying to coerce him.

When confronted by Sierra after the Immunity Chal-
lenge, Coach stuck with V2.0. The damage had been
done, however. So Coach will soon find himself in
quite the pickle. Spoilers for this coming episode
show Debbie throwing him under the bus.

Of course, the oddest move of the week was when
Erinn voted against Stephen. Where did that come
from? Stephen just about went crazy when he heard
his name called out by Jeff as he counted the votes
during Tribal Council. I suppose the simple answer
is payback for when Stephen sent her to Exile Sand
Dune. But is there something more to her madness?

Monday May 4, 2009 - 09:18pm (EDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Catfight! Part 3, 4/28/09: Catfight! Part 3...

As we last left off on "Celebrity
Apprentice 2", Clint Black squeeked
by and remains in the competition
after Herschel Walker got fired.
The next day, or whenever, Jesse
James delivers his prize check of
$20,000 to the Long Beach Education
Foundation. He spends the day with
the kids working on a car.

The sun rises over Manhattan as both
teams gather at the NBA store on 5th
Avenue. Trump arrives along with
Ivanka, CNBC's Jim 'Mad Money' Cramer,
and a couple of suits. Trumps decides
to even up the teams transfering Jesse
James back to KOTU. If Trump wanted
to be nice, he should've moved Melissa
over to them. Jesse is not overly
pleased with the move.

The suits turn out to be execs from
Right Guard. The task at hand is to
create a 4-page print ad to appear in
Sports Illustrated. The ad will focus
on their new deorderant, Fast Break,
and will feature NBA star, David Lee.
The winning Project Manager wins $20,000.
The PMs are Brande for Athena and Clint
for KOTU. Ivanka and Cramerica will be
the viceroys.

At Athena's war room, Brande delegates
most of the tasks to Annie. This drives
Melissa crazy. She tries to make sugges-
tions but Brande and Annie ignore her.
LOL! The execs visit both teams. Athena
is more interested in how riske they can
be with the ad? At KOTU, the execs share
the importance of the patented 'Power
Stripe". Clint asks about using pretty
ladies in the ad.

After the execs leave, Joan wastes KOTU's
time with some lame ideas. Jesse offers
an entire concept, but Clint has different
ideas. He does take Jesse's image of having
Lee standing before the NYC skyline. Over
at Athena, Annie leaves with the photographer
to line up shooting venues. She learns that
they'll have their session with Lee, whom
Annie is personal friends with, first. When
Annie phones Brande about this advantage,
Melissa starts whining about being ignored.
She tells Brande that she's on to Annie and
her plots. Waah-Waah-Waah!

KOTU meets with their photographer, but
Jesse decides that he can shoot the skyline
shot himself. Clint sets up the interior
shots when Ivanka stops by. She seems to
be impressed with what Clint is doing and
asks Joan about him. Joan answers that she
is getting along with Clint, but is less
happy with Jesse. On the road, Jesse thinks
his team will lose.

Athena's photo shoot is going well and Melissa
feels more paranoid. Brande tells Annie about
her earlier rantings. Annie couldn't care
less. Both gals think Melissa is overly sensi-
tive. Trumps injects his weekly dose of wisdom.
Sometimes you don't like who you work with, so
get over it! Jesse returns and Clint likes one
skyline shot and incorporates in his design.
But this still does not satisfy Jesse.

David Lee arrives at Athena and both Brande
and Annie fawn over him. Melissa feels more
left out. Annie tries to be nicer to her,
but it's just a poker tactic. LOL! Lee
then does his shoot with KOTU. Clint runs
a tight ship. Jesse continues to argue with
Clint. While finishing their ad, they are
visited by Brande and Annie. Joan is upset
with their phoniness. Jesse tells Clint
the ad stinks and they should start from
scratch, using his concept instead. Joan
thinks Jesse is uncooperative.

The next day, Jim Cramer stops by Athena
as they make final preparations. Annie
tries to impress him with everything she
did. Melissa tries to tell him it was an
equal venture. KOTU presents to the execs
first. While Clint makes the pitch, Jesse
scoffs at him. Annie then pitches to the
execs for Athena. Melissa finds faults with
everything she does. Trump then meets with
the execs. He learns that they liked both
teams' ads. KOTU used more brand elements,
Athena had better pictures.

It's Board Room time. Trump asks Brande how
she did as PM? She thinks she was a good
leader and that the team did well. Clint is
asked the same and says they did the best
they could. Jesse then unloads on Clint for
being close-minded and stbborn. Clint then
goes into a long defense speech, which sends
Athena to yawning. LOL! Trump shuts him
down and Joan adds that both men are too
stubborn, but Clint has made progress.

Trump asks Brande if her team won? She
thinks they did win. When Annie mentions
that she is a personal friend of David Lee,
Joan rolls her eyes and snipes at both
Annie and Brande. Annie defends Brande's
leadership skills, but adds that she, Annie,
did most of the work. Brande admits to
giving Annie a lot of responsibility, but
did so because she has the talent. This
makes Melissa start whining about being
shut out on purpose.

This prompts Joan into another anti-Annie
rant. Annie retorts that she has never
attacked anyone personally in the Board
Room. Cramer wonders who really was in
charge at Athena? Melissa claims that the
secret plot Annie is hatching is to elimi-
nate her because she's more of a threat.
Annie responds that she can beat Melissa
easier than Brande, based on money raised.

Trump allows each team to see the other's
ad. He then declares KOTU the winner. He
adds that the execs liked both teams' works
but choose to use KOTU's in "Sports Illustrated".
Clint wins $20,000 for the International Teres
Foundation. KOTU heads to the Champagne Room
while Athena bickers in the lobby.

While KOTU celebrates, Trump confers with his
viceroys. Cramer says Brande needs to go.
Ivanka observes that while she may be the
obvious choice, either Melissa or Annie could
hang themselves. OH HOW TRUE!!!

Trumps bring Athena back in and asks Brande
why she should stay. She lists her hard work
and the fact that she has raised the second
most amount of cash. Cramer calls her whimpy
for not attacking Melissa directly. In the
Champagne Room, Joan calls Brande dumb.

Trump then asks Brande if she feels she has
to work harder because she is so good looking?
She says she has had to prove herself more
and supposes that Ivanka would understand since
she's beautiful, too. This gets a positive
response from Ivanka, who then tries to prod
action from Melissa and Annie. Annie defends
herself citing her accomplishments, especially
of raising the most money.

Brande FINALLY throws Melissa under the bus for
being over sensitive. Cramer chides Brande for
still not being direct enough. Brande raises her
voice and vows to bring in more money than anybody!
Jim is becoming more impressed with her now. Then
Melissa claims that she has been the hardest
working player. She rattles off a long list.
Trump tries to ask her a question but she cuts
him off. OH-OH!!!

Melissa goes on some more while Ivanka challenges
her. Trump writes and passes a note to Cramer
who nods in agreement. Jim tells the gang that
he now admires Brande for standing up. He adds
that he thinks Annie is safe and that Melissa
should be fired. Trump raises the money issue
with Melissa, who has raised the fourth most of
all this season. She keeps whining and Trump has
had enough. He fires Melissa, who gets up imme-
diately and storms out.

Melissa goes on a tirade through the studio.
She wants all of her belongings immediately!
She will not give a post-game interview. She
vows not to return for the finale. Melissa
stops by the Champagne Room where she finds
her mom putting on her coat. Joan tells Clint
and Jesse she's leaving and won't be back.

Melissa returns to the hallway and keeps
yelling at the production staff. Trump,
Ivanka and Cramer can hear her from the
Board Room. They are flabberghasted! As
Brande and Annie enter the Champagne Room,
Joan unloads on each. She calls Brande
stupid and Annie evil. She's just a trashy
poker player and all the cash she raised
is tainted with blood. Joan and Melissa
leave together. For good???

SPOILERS: Will Joan return or will we be
down to the Final Four? My guess is she's
not since the following week is to be the
3-hour finale. That ought to be loads of
fun if Joan and Melissa stop by and Annie
wins the competition. Which I think she
will.

Tuesday April 28, 2009 - 09:17am (EDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Battle Butter! 4/27/09: Battle Butter!

Why is there a picture of a lamb made of
butter here for a Reality TV Monday?
Finally! A new episode of "Iron Chef
America"! Chicago chef, Koren Grieveson
takes on Cat Cora. The secret ingredient
is BUTTER! Our judges for the evening
are Isaac Mizrahi, Clint Arthur and Elizabeth
Blau.

Chef Grieveson served first beginning with
popcorn encrusted sea scallops with leaks
and corn. Dish #2 was a Pullet egg on
brioche. Dish #3 was pan roasted sea bass.
Dish #4 was veal Milanese with buttered
veggies. And Dish #5 was a dessert of
caramel ice cream with a buttery pound cake.
YUMM!

Cat Cora started off with a plate of bread
with a goat butter blended with parsley.
Dish #2 was a butternut squash tarte and
salad with a buttermilk dressing. Dish #3
was butter gnocchi with sage butter. Dish
#5 was pork tenderloin sous vide in butter.
And Dish #6 was a mix of buttery desserts
of buttermilk ice cream and Rice Krispie
treats.

With such an ingredient, the scoring was
very tight. In fact, it wound up being a
tie! 54 all. Grieveson scored 26/14/14
and Cora earned 25/14/15. The only loser
of the evening was Alton Brown, who did not
get to sample anything made. LOL!

"Survivor: Tocantins" was full of surprises
this past week. The big surprise was when
Tyson got booted off, smashing the so-called
'Warriror Alliance'. This consisted of Coach,
Tyson, Stephen and JT, with Debra, Taj and
Erinn being 'outriders'. A new alliance be-
tween the former Jalapao members and Erinn
blind-sided Tyson, and his two loyal allies,
Coach and Debra. Even Sierra, whom planned
on voting against Tyson anyway, because she
despised him, was taken off guard by this
new alliance.

The Warrior Alliance seemed to be intact up
until after the Immunity Challenge. The
plan was to vote off Sierra, as she had been
tight with Brendan, who was booted the pre-
vious episode. But when Tyson failed to win
immunity, he became a higher-priority target.
Given that he won the first two individual
immmunity challenges, who knew when they
might have another chance at getting rid of
him?

Stephen, who has been playing the puppet-
master role in every alliance he's belong
to, raised the issue with Taj and Erinn.
He then approached JT about booting Tyson
now. JT seemed reluctant, caught up in
the glory of the Warrior Alliance as told
by Coach.

So, whatever plan Coach had for a divine
meritocracy to rule The Game quickly came
to an end during Tribal Council. Since
Coach, Debra, or even Sierra, were not
consulted about the switch to Tyson, they
are now the vulnerable ones. The old
Jalapao tribe, who entered The Merge short
handed, is now in control.

Unless, Coach can manage another twist by
rallying the Timbira members. Debra is
sure to go along and possibly Sierra, too,
since JT has made it clear that he does
not trust her at all. This leaves Erinn.

Erinn is the 4th Wheel. She was essential-
ly an outsider throughout The Game. Now
that she has sided with Jalapao, she is
in the position of either finished 4th
with her new pals, OR, possibly 3rd with
Timbira IF Coach can play the right card.
Given that Sierra accurately called Erinn
out as the least trustworthy, this will
be a tall order to fill.

Monday April 27, 2009 - 09:29pm (EDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Catfight! Part 2, 4/21/09: Catfight, Part 2

As we last left off, the teams,
KOTU and Athena, were tasked by
Trump to raise money via an
auction. They were to get folks
to bid on jewelry from Ivanka
Trump's own personal line during
a fashion show. The Project
Managers of both teams, Annie
Duke for Athena, and Joan Rivers
for KOTU, are embroiled in a
personal grudge-match. Joan thinks
that Annie is out to unfairly get
her daughter, Melissa, fired.
Melissa feels left out of Athena's
decision process by Annie and her
new gal-pal, Brande Roderick.

To keep control of the situation,
The Donald calls in his big gun to
help be his eyes and ears. Piers
Morgan, the winner of the first
season of "Celebrity Apprentice",
well oversee the teams along with
Ivanka. Both visit KOTU first as
Ivanka introduces the team to Piers.
They arrive as Clint Black and
Herschel Walker are selecting models
for the fashion show. Piers is not
impressed with their methods.

Joan shows up and tells Piers that
if Melissa gets thrown under the
bus, she'll quit the program. Ivanka
tells Joan that her daddy would be
disappointed with her if she allowed
herself to be put in front of a bus.

The two viceroys next visit Athena.
Brande sucks up to Piers, telling
him how wonderful he is. LOL! He
asks Melissa about get thrown under
buses? Brande interjects that they
were all told by Annie that she will
grade the team's performance by how
much money each raises. Piers seems
to like Annie's approach.

Speaking of Annie, she gets a phone
call from Phil Hellmuth, reigning
poker champion. He's wondering why
Natalie from KOTU wants him to donate
money to her team? Annie is shocked
and tells Phil what's up. She then
calls the person who connected Natalie
with Phil and reads him the riot act.
Annie's so loud that KOTU can hear her.
She tells him that Natalie lied to him
and after the call, she seeks out
Natalie and confronts her over the affair.

Melissa watches and is frustrated that
nobdoy on Athena appreciates her. KOTU
pools all their money and gives it to
a bidder they'll plant in the audience.
Their plan is to have him bid on the
cheapest item so they reap the maximum
profit.

Athena starts their auction first and
Annie emcees it. She's happy to see
that her and Brande's big-money friends
have arrived. And what great friends
they are! The bidding is lively and
generous. Annie schmoozes the crowd
and raises a ton of money!

KOTU takes the stage with Mr. Excitement,
Clint Black, as emcee. He stinks! The
crowd is dead as nobody bids on the first
item. Joan gets frantic. Piers thinks
they are insulting Trump with their poor
performance. The second item gets a bid
from Brande's pal! Joan switches the line
up and sends out the fifth model next, the
one who their plant is to bid on. Clint
gets confused and still goes by his script
describing the 3rd item. Joan scrambles
on stage and gives the correct description.
The audience perks up when the planted
bidder buys the cheap ring for $83,500.
Joan takes over the auction for the last
two items and gets lots of yucks.

Both teams take their seats at the Boardroom
and face Trump, Ivanka and Piers. Trump
compliments Annie and Joan on their skills
handling a crowd. Annie compliments Melissa
for her choice in jewelry. She says her team
did great and that the only weakness was Jesse
James, who raised the least amount of cash.
Piers needles Jesse on why he didn't get his
wife, Sandra Bullock, to help out and donate
money? Jesse answers that he never asked her.

Both Trump and Ivanka ask Joan why she did not
emcee the auction from the beginning? They
then chide Natalie for picking such small
pieces of jewelry that few could see from
the seats. Ivanka feels embarrassed by KOTU's
performance. Piers is critical of Joan's
plan to pool their cash for just one item.
Donald wants to know why Joan couldn't raise
more money? After all, they know the same
people. Melissa jumps in to defend her mom
and tells Trump that he would be shocked to
know who stiffed them.

Piers attacks Melissa for offering excuses for
the opposing team. Trump asks Annie what she
thinks about KOTU's inability to raise money.
Before she can answer, Joan interrupts and
unloads hostility upon Annie. Joan brings up
the whole story about how Annie told her that
Athena would throw Brande under the bus, but
then Annie shifted targets to Melissa instead.
Annie counters that she talked with Brande
who then stepped up and became more involved.

Joan calls Annie egotistical. Annie says she's
got confidence in abundance. Joan then compares
Annie to Adolph Hitler! Annie retorts that she
delivered the cash. The story of Natalie trying
to use Phil Hellmuth against Annie is raised. Melissa
says that Annie was furious and vicious. Piers
calls Melissa on her trashing her own team and
asks Jesse if there can be any peace while mother
and daughter are on different teams? Jesse says
the answer is obvious.

Trump asks his viceroys for the day's tally, since,
after all, it's all about the money, isn't it?
KOTU raised $92,000 in profit. Athena raised
$153,000 in profit. It's a record setting take
of $245,000! Trump praises Annie for her ability
to get people on jets at 6am to attend her event.
He adds that they are way ahead of last year's
earnings. Annie gets the whole pot for her charity,
Refugee International. As Athena retires to the
Champagne Room, Annie bickers with Melissa over
her mom's comments.

The Donald asks Clint what went wrong? Clint says
there are no weak players on their team. Trump
raises the poor choice of Natalie in selecting the
jewelry, he thinks Joan should have handled that
herself. Ivanka is also unhappy with their choices.
Trump asks Joan who he should fire? She starts
crying, she can't choose. Ivanka jokes about her
crying for Clint, whom Joan hated a couple weeks
ago.

Herschel turns out to be the big money man, raising
$55,000 himself. Trump says that Clint was a poor
choice for emcee, but he's not the reason they lost.
He then asks Natalie why she couldn't raise money
from her pro-golf pals? She answers they turned her
down. Trump has heard enough and fires her. Watching
from the Champagne Room, Athena is shocked that Trump
fired Natalie. They expected Clint to go. Melissa
intercepts her mom in the hallway and begs her not
to fight with Annie. But Annie is still steaming
from being compared to Hitler.

The next morning, the gang assembles in Trump's
gold-plated dining room. And I mean there's a
lot of gold! He may as well dine at Fort Knox!
LOL!!!

Trump introduces the gang to the CEO of Schwann,
Scott McNair. The task at hand is to create
meals and a marketing scheme for Schwann's new
"Live Smart" line of frozen food. Trump also
introduces Joe Kernan from CNBC's "Squawkbox",
who will be guest viceroy for the challenge.
Jesse FINALLY steps up as Project Manager for
Athena, with Herschel taking the reigns for
KOTU. The winner gets $20,000 for their charity.

The Schwann execs meet with both teams. What
they want is a frozen meal which is healthy and
tastes great. It must be low in calories and
sodium. Annie researches the Schwann product line
and learns that their Italian meatball and spaghetti
dinner is the #2 best seller. I, myself, have
ordered food from Schwann and can attest that their
meatball and spaghetti dinner is AWESOME!!!

So, Annie pushes for turkey meatballs with glutten-
free pasta. Brande suggests meatloaf with mashed
sweet potatoes. Jesse is thinking chili. He
decides that the team will make all three and they'll
taste-test a winner. Annie and Brande will do the
cooking while Jesse and Melissa work on the marketing
plan. Over at KOTU, Herschel is thinking skinless
chicken breast. Clint thinks there's already too
many chicken entrees, but Herschel rejects dissent.
Clint offers up his wife's ginger-soy chicken recipe.
Herschel adds a dessert of frozen yogurt. Ivanka
visits and has doubts when she hears their plan.

Joe visits Athena and hears what they're doing.
He's concerned that none of the dishes may fly.
At the kitchen, Annie impresses the pros with
her knife skills. She brags about being the
"Total Woman", raises kids, cooks, and gives
great b*** jobs. LOL!!! Brande shakes her
head in disbelief. Maybe she's thinking that
Joan might be right?

KOTU meets their pro chefs and Herschel puzzles
them about his plan to use yogurt with berries
and granola. Clint wonders how they can use
non-frozen yogurt for the sample dish to represent
frozen yogurt? Everybody else wonders about that,
too, except for Herschel.

Clint shuts up and they start cooking. Mayhem
follows as his recipe has way too much soy for
most humans to handle. Joan suggests adding
orange juice to the sauce, which helps. They
call their dish, Asian Orange Chicken. It probably
tastes closer to Agent Orange Chicken. LOL!

Back at Athena's kitchen, Jesse and Melissa arrive
for the taste testing. They sample all three meals.
Jesse thinks the chili is the way to go. Melissa
and Brande side with Annie about the turkey meatballs.
Both teams focus on marketing. Clint offers a TV
commercial where a Schwann customer service rep
delivers meals to his bus while on tour. Herschel
is lukewarm about the idea. Over at Athena, Jesse
seems to be out to lunch as little is done. Annie
suggests Triple-Play-Turkey Meatballs as their
meal's name. Jesse agrees and decides to complete
the marketing plan himself, which puzzles the rest
of the team.

KOTU serves the Schwann execs first. Joan makes
the presentation of the food and Clint pitches
his idea for a TV commercial. The execs are
concerned about the dessert. They realize that
it would require three separate packages. Athena
is up next and Jesse handles the whole presentation.
He emphasizes the glutten-free pasta element as
well as Annie's trick of using spinach and other
veggies instead of bread crumbs to bind the meatballs.
The execs like the food but wonder what the marketing
plan is?

Board Room time again. Both teams think they did
well. Trump joke's about Joan's cooking talents.
Her line is, "When Melissa was born, her first
words were, "Room Service"." Ha-Ha-Ha. Trump
asks Herschel how his team did? He tells The
Donald that Joan did more than Clint. Clint tries
to defend himself and explained his whole lengthly
position about thinking chicken wouldn't be very
original or unique. He adds that Herschel was a
strong PM, but his choice of the dessert was bad,
too. Herschel argues that Clint argues too much.

Attention turns towards Athena. Jesse thinks he
did a good job as PM. Annie casts doubts, citing
his lack of accepting suggestions. Melissa fans
the flames, saying both Jesse and Annie are very
stubborn. Trump wonders how he succeeded in wooing
Sandra Bullock. LOL!

Trump wants to know what the Schwann execs thought?
Joe reports that they liked Athena's dish, especially
the glutten-free pasta, but the team lacked a good
marketing plan. Ivanka says that the execs liked
KOTU's chicken entree, but thought the dessert would
be too complicated for packaging. Trump announces
that the execs choose Athena as the victors. Jesse
wins $20,000 for his charity, the Long Beach Education
Foundation, which promotes industrial arts in schools.
Annie starts to brag but Trump tells her to leave as
she's just making Joan angry.

As Athena settles down in the Champagne Room, again,
Trump asks Clint who should get fired? Clint does
not say Herschel, just repeats his position on the
food choices. Trump asks Joan who should get fired?
Joan starts to defend both Clint and Herschel, but
then turns it into more anti-Annie trash-talk. LOL!
Trump presses for an answer and Joan starts weeping.
Trump tells Clint he argues too much. The Donald
then turns to Herschel and fires him for his poor
choices.

SPOILERS: The Joan VS Annie battle heats
up as Joan says that the cash Annie raises
is blood money! Joan also calls Brande a
dumb blonde. The Donald calls in more help
with Guest Viceroy, Jim "Mad Money" Cramer.

Monday April 20, 2009 - 08:27pm (EDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments

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