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| Gary Busey, Lisa Rinna and Penn Jillette on All-Star Celebrity Apprentice |
For season 6, episode 9 of NBC’s All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, titled “Ahab's in Charge, and He's Gone Mad,” each team must create a video for LG's Smart Home and Home Entertainment Systems. Team Power Project Manager Lil Jon goes up against Plan B’s Gary Busey, and 2009 Celebrity Apprentice winner Joan Rivers returns as one of Donald Trump’s advisors. This all seems like fun, especially since Busey is at his barking-goofball best, but the actor sours proceedings by mistreating crew members and his teammates. In the end, Busey is fired for producing a lousy video.
Donald Trump arrives with this week’s advisors, daughter Ivanka and former winner Joan Rivers, along with LG's Smart Home and Home Entertainment Systems executive. The task involves producing a 90 second video for LG’s interactive home product line in which a 3D television screen has tablet capabilities, and cellphones run the dishwasher and refrigerator. LG will donate $40,000 to the winner’s charity, with an additional $1 (up to an additional $35,000) for every share on Facebook their video receives.
Plan B’s Penn Jillette, an admitted tech geek, perks up when he sees LG’s offerings. That’s why it’s odd that Gary Busey – admittedly the least tech savvy member of Plan B – becomes the task’s Project Manager as well as the star of its video.
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| Marilu Henner and Lil Jon |
After Busey confusedly glares at the LG phone and compares the technology with “going to another planet without instructions,” Jillette sighs. “There’s no chance Gary can understand this,” says Jillette. Making matters worse, Busey walks away from the LG representative’s presentation. This is where tension sets in. Plan B becomes a disgruntled crew with a wacky captain. “We are hunting Moby Dick, Busey is Ahab, Ahab’s in charge and he is going mad,” says Jillette. He isn’t smiling.
While everything goes smoothly with Team Power, the same can’t be said of Plan B. After leaving LG’s demonstration, Busey returns to a brainstorming session to knock down Jillette’s ideas and tell Lisa Rinna to shut up before she talks. Gary already has his idea: his actresses will discuss the merits of LG and ponder the future of the product line, and he will offer that LG’s next invention will be a mechanical dog. Busey says he will then start barking and humping the coffee machine. Thankfully, he sticks with the barking and leaves the coffee maker alone.
Jillette calls Busey “barking mad,” then he and Rinna discuss their strategy for dealing with their PM’s level of disrespect. Per Busey’s wishes, the pair works without criticizing him, even down to not commenting when Busey hires two actresses of similar ages to play mother and daughter. “It’s like a weird Mormon sister wife thing going on,” deadpans Jillette.
Rinna can’t help but criticize Busey when he pushes a camera person who is in his way. Busey bullies her and gets angry that Rinna did this in front of other people, namely project advisor Ivanka Trump who, like everyone else, is confused by Busey’s dog imitation. “Is he vomiting?” asks the Trump daughter, after witnessing the chaos.
Jillette hangs his head and says “we’re going down, down, down, down, down.”
Down is where Plan B went when they got to the boardroom. Neither Trump’s team nor the LG executive got Busey’s mechanical dog routine, and Team Power won the money for Lil Jon’s charity, the American Diabetes Association. As for Busey, he angrily feels as if his teammates abandoned to die in open waters with no participation, save for yelling at him. Trump fires Busey, and instead of Busey’s usual fireworks, it was uneventful. The actor gives the thumbs-up to the camera while in the elevator, and his parting words in the limo were, “I’m going home”. We’re going to miss his “Buseyisms”.
Next week on All-Star Celebrity Apprentice 2011 winner John Rich appears as an advisor, and the teams create themed suites for the Foxwoods Resort Casino and host a party at Brooklyn's Barclay Center.
To see all of our All Star Celebrity Apprentice coverage click here.
All-Star Celebrity Apprentice airs on Sundays 9/8c on NBC
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| LG Exec, Donald Trump, Joan Rivers, Ivanka Trump |
Posted on Monday, April 29, 2013
