We've got a TV post here with a Bravo Top Chef Winner and some insight into Trump's 09 Celebrity Apprentice, the contenders and thoughts on the celebrity culture and who the hell cares.

All with video and pics you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

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Celebrity Apprentice 2009-The Worship of Celebrities- Begins

On 3/1/09, Donald Trump, AKA “The Donald”, began his series “Celebrity Apprentice”. The Donald once had an extremely popular series known simply as “The Apprentice”. This series kind of fizzled out so The Donald revamped his idea, stealing the notion of having celebrities looking for exposure as do contenders from “Dancing With the Stars”.

Like “Dancing With the Stars”, “Celebrity Apprentice” will generally choose a couple of over-the-hill or retired sports stars, a few singers with a small following, some sort of beauty queen/model type, and a former Olympic medal-holder. Throw in a few celebrities in need of more exposure and boom, you’ve got either the roster for “Dancing With the Stars” or “Celebrity Apprentice”.

The list of contenders for this year’s “Celebrity Apprentice” below:
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-Jesse James-founder of West Coast Choppers
-Dennis Rodman-5 time NBA champion
-Andrew "Dice" Clay-once dirty mouthed comedian-sent home 3/1/09
-Joan Rivers-talk show host
-Herschel Walker-Retired NFL player
-Khloe Kardashian-the Kardashian without the nice behine
-Tionne "T-Box" Watkins-R&B singer
-Natalie Gulbis-Professional golfer
-Tom Green-Actor, comedian
-Claudia Jordan-Actress, model
-Clint black-country music star
-Brande Roderick-Actress and Playboy model
-Brian McKnight mutli platinum R&B singer
-Melissa Rivers-daughter of Joan Rivers
-Scott Hamilton-gold medal olympic figure skater
-Annie Duke-professional poker player, motivational speaker

I am not going to follow this show week by week on this Blog but will post a report every three weeks or so.

“Celebrity Apprentice” is a reality show, my fave TV genre, and a proper and believable amount of scripting is necessary. The Donald does a pretty good job with the premise. But I sure would like to see the original Apprentice come back with the favor it once had.

The Donald, as I understand, is part and parcel and sunk in deep in the celebrity culture. He loves to hobnob with those of fame. He loves the camera, he loves the attention, he thinks it makes him special. “Celebrity Apprentice” reflects that love. For almost each and every challenge has a segment that will reflect on the contenders’ place in the “in-crowd” and who they each may contact for money.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this, but make no mistake it happens and is part of the scripting.

The premiere show had Joan Rivers and Herschel Walker as the Project Managers. The female team’s name is “Athena” and the men call themselves “KOTU”, abbreviation for “Kings of the Universe”. Their assignment was to bake cupcakes then sell them on the streets of New York. Whichever team brought in the most money won the challenge.



Let it not be overlooked that The Donald does not miss an opportunity to insert lots of advertising in this series. In this challenge, we had the cooking school getting some commercial exposure as their cooks helped the contenders prepare the cupcakes. Later in the challenge, another bakery got some airtime by judging each team’s finished cupcakes and giving a big contribution for the one they judged best. The bakery name was Crumbs and they paid a price for this real time commercial, I am sure.

The scripting involves some conflict, a mess-up and, of course, drama in the boardroom. The ladies had some real problems with Annie Duke, the famous female poker player. I’d heard of her before in that daughter and son-in-law are poker players of a sort. Anyway, Duke was very bossy and a few scenes and the vignettes of the other female contenders played up Duke’s somewhat hostile takeover of project manager duties from Joan Rivers.



Joan’s daughter, Melissa, who would, I’ll insert here, be pretty much a nobody were it not for her mother, is also a contender. This fact begs for scripting of conflicts or other drama between mother and daughter. This year it seems that Joan tends to favor her daughter even over her own choices. For example, Joan designs the flyer for the female’s cupcake sale. Soon after Melissa practically re-designs the entire thing and Joan says not a word. Vignettes of the other players have them shocked that Joan Rivers allows her daughter to run roughshod over her.

Meanwhile, over on the men’s team we have Dennis Rodman and right there you’ve got some kind of storyline that will keep the viewers coming back for more. On this premiere show, Rodman remained in the guys’ cupcake truck instead of going out on the street and mingling, thus attracting, cupcake buyers.

Dennis Rodman is kind of a bad guy, full of himself and not one to take orders easily. He said, during a camera vignette, that he felt that if he went out on the street that the public would be coming to see him and NOT buying cupcakes. Further, Rodman argued, it’s best to bring in cupcakes buyers AFTER they’ve made a purchase, into the truck for a pic with him. Other members of Rodman’s team disagreed with this notion, of course. If nothing else, look for Dennis Rodman to create much dramatic conflict during this series and I suspect he won’t be going home soon.

Another obviously scripted event was a major disaster with each team’s cupcakes. Folks, how damn likely is this what with all baking being overseen by professional cooks in a cooking school? The disasters added to the drama of the show and it was effective, if not totally believable. The females evidently used baking soda instead of baking powder, or visa-versa, or maybe left out any sort of leavening ingredient. All of their cupcakes collapsed into themselves. The ladies solved the problem by topping the collapsed cupcakes, which tasted fine or so the storyline went, with a chocolate ganache, producing cupcakes that would appear for all the world to have been planned this way.



The guys forgot to put sugar in a huge batch of their cupcakes. Of course there was not enough time to make a completely new batch so the fellows dissolved some sugar in liquid and poured a little of this liquid into each cupcake. Obviously this did not do the trick as Crumbs Bakery pronounced their cupcakes as inedible.

There were celebrities in this premiere episode but no Hugh Hefner even though one contender was a Playboy bunny of the year or some such. I suspect Hef will make an appearance sometime this season and, in fact, I think The Donald will tease the audience with such an implicit promise. The celebrities who did show up to pay outrageous prices for cupcakes were third, even fourth, string. The Donald, however, will insert this celebrity adulation into every episode no doubt although Hugh Hefner, what’s he…70..80 years old? Can there be anything less appealing than an over-the-hill Playboy covered with wrinkled skin and shot up full of Viagara?

Andrew Dice Clay was once a foul-mouthed comedian, although he still may be but he’s no longer on network television using public airways, and he shouldn’t be. This guy used to make me ill with his dirty jokes and denigration of women but hey, my husband loved him. Clay buckled under to the public onslaught to shut him up although I’d have been okay with him taking it to cable, free speech and all that.

He turned out to be a big blubbering new castrati, as Limbaugh would call him, and, indeed, Clay offered to quit the show in the Trump boardroom, all contrite and noble in offering his body that others might continue on.

What hooey.

I give The Donald credit in that, when all was said and done, he fired Clay anyway because his use to the show was done. One can only take so much Andrew Dice Clay.

Below a video montage of the show’s highlights with my own fine commentary spliced in.



NBC’s Home Site for “Celebrity Apprentice”.

Top Chef Winner and Fan Favorite

Bravo’s cooking reality series, “Top Chef” ran the course this year and the winner is Hosea with fan favorite Fabio.

I watch each Top Chef episode religiously but consider it not for everyone. Food Network’s “Next Food Network Star” is a way better cooking contest for an average everyday cook such as myself. I can’t imagine I’d ever make anything like the top notch chef contenders do on Top Chef but a)I like reality shows and b)I like cooking shows and c)well, hell, I like to expand my horizons as much as the next guy.

Anyway, couple of comments on this year’s contenders and the regulars on this series. For what it’s worth.

Padma is the hostess for this show and here’s a woman so full of herself she needs to be seriously slapped. She wears short dresses, poses provocatively, tilts her head just so her pouty lips and wind-blown hair overwhelm us with their beauty.

Remember folks, this is a damn cooking show. Padma annoys me. Samantha Harris co-hosts “Dancing With the Stars” and wears beautiful gowns every week and Samantha is not near in love with that camera as Padma.

Tom Colicchio is a professional chef judge as well as a co-host. Tom knows his stuff and is tough as required but fair as one could hope. I have respect for Tom but wonder how the hell he can stand Padma.

Hosea, the winner of this year’s Top Chef, has an extensive cooking resume behind him. He’s worked with Wolfgang Puck and is executive chef at a Boulder restaurant. He’s a man who loves cooking and it shows.

Fabio is an Italian contender and he was voted fan favorite. I’d have picked lovable and quirky Carla in a second but Fabio was funny, personable and hey, good with the sauce pan.

Which brings me to Carla, who is my favorite Top Chef contender of all time. I’d love to meet Carla someday, maybe have her cook for me.

Bravo to Bravo TV for a great series and we await next year’s contest eagerly.
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Whew.

Everyone loved Bachelor 09 Single Dad Jason Mesnick. He was affable, truthful, cute, a fine father…what's not to love?

Except last week he became public enemy #1 for how he handled his choice of a wife.

Scripted, scripted, scripted…and I'll tell you why.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

I've got a rant that will blister conservative eyeballs, liberals best stay away.

Enemy of the Week and totally unforgiven, Michael Steele.

Plus Good Guy of Week", a runner-up for Enemy of the Week, some nostalgia on old phones and much more in this Thoughts of the Week.
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American Idol 09 fills the top slots and soon this contest will capture the public's fancy.

Yes some think this a bad thing but hey a)it's a fair, square contest won by the voting public b)American Idol contributes to the economy by filling stadiums and selling TV commercial time and c)it's good ole American talent and ingenius success at its finest.

We've got pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

So the Grammys for 2009 have been handed out and now's the time for my own fine and unique fashion awards for same.

Plus a cooking show overlooked but amongst the best…TOP CHEF.

Dancing With the Stars 09 Dancers Announced.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

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Grammys 2009 Annual Fish Fashion Awards/Review

Just for giggles and memory, here’s a link to last year’s Grammy fashion awards as compiled by The Wise I.

My DVR did something weird while taping this show. Thus I lost about half the program but no fear, I found some pics and had enough of my own to present my fantastic fashion awards as is my wont.

Since I missed quite a bit of the show, about half due to either strange sounds like aliens speaking or a voice repeating over and over that I’ve got the Spanish speaking broadcast of this show and to get English I should hit some button. I rebooted that hellacious cable box from Comcast (this is the THIRD one, folks…where do they make these things…Kenya?) and was able to get part of the show on DVR.

So I have a few comments gleaned from that which the cable box from hell plus the little kitchen TV allowed me to see of the award show.

First, Al Gore, sheesh will this guy ever go away? He won the best speaking album award for his alleged book “Earth in the Balance”, that book nonsense about global warming, the scam to end all scams. Gore won a Nobel prize too, yeah right, life is fair folks. I gotta complain now before the Fairness Doctrine shuts us all up who dare to critique these icons of intellectualism.

Also in my pitiful notes is a comment about Justin Timberlake and his poor excuse for a sense of humor. Something about a “general” store that was not funny. I also note that the band Coldplay seemed void of talent to this admittedly older woman. Hey, they won lots of awards so what do I know? Except that one part where some guy sat and tapped out some godawful song on a tinny piano was boring as all get out.

Finally, one of my favorite songs, “Stay”, by Sugarland, won a major award so all was not lost.

Beyond that, below my tongue-in-cheek fashion awards and below that, a short video obtained from Comcast’s pathetic excuse for a DVR cable box of the few highlights of this year’s show.











Dancers on “Dancing With the Stars” 2009 Announced

This hit ABC series is scheduled to premier on 3/9/09. I do have a separate Blog set up for critiquing this reality series that I quite enjoy, HERE.

This year there are some unique changes. First, we have two couples competing on the series, Ty Murray and Jewel AND Chuck Wicks and Julianna Hough. Hough was a professional dancer on this series so I guess she will be the same while her husband, Chuck Wicks will be a contender.

Also, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff, who are newly engaged, will be working together as professional dancers for this year’s contest.

There’s something for us boobs out here in la-la land, something called “Design a Dance”. I imagine we’ll hear more about this as the contest unfolds.

Finally, this year we will have something called a “dance-off”. This is featured on another dancing show, Bruno and Carrie Ann’s show I believe. This rule requires that the two bottom dancers as voted by the audience will have to “dance off” and the judges will pick one to be eliminated. Although I reserve the right to be wrong about this and will catch up on the new rules in due course.

With no further ado, the 2009 “Dancing With the Stars” contenders:

-Ty Murray
-Jewel
-Belinda Carlisle-lead singer Go-Go's
-David Alan Grier-Actor
-Shawn Johnson-17 years old...olympic gold medal winner
-Lil Kim-rapper, singer and actress
-Gilles Marini-Actor
-Steve-o-MTV Star
-Nancy O'Dell-TV hostess..."Access America"
-Denise Richards-Actress-married to a Sheen
-Lawrence Taylor-NY Giants football Hall of Famer
-Chuck Wicks-singer and songwriter
-Steve Wozniak-Apple computer wiz

Top Chef 2009

Bravo’s Top Chef cooking competition is not quite as homey as Food Network’s “Next Food Network Star”. For one thing, the contenders are generally well-trained and experienced chefs or graduates of fancy cooking schools. The Food Network Star is more apt to be a master of macaroni and cheese than Fois Gras.

Still I find this contest moves quickly along and I enjoy watching the new show each week. The show begins with something called a “quickfire” challenge. Usually some famous chef I never heard of is the judge of this short contest. This past week the quickfire challenge was to make something new and unique with eggs.



The winner of this challenge is, in the early stages of the contest, immune from elimination after the major challenge later in the show. Later in the contest, the winner of the quickfire challenge gets some special advantage in the major challenge, like being able to pick a key ingredient over the others or first choice at choosing a partner if the challenge so requires.

Carla won the quickfire challenge with the eggs. While the other contenders made everything from soup to nuts with the simple egg, Carla made green eggs and ham (think Dr. Seuss) and won praises from the famous chef I never heard of.

The contest is now down to four finalists and the entire contest will be moving to Puerto Rico. My favorite is Carla. Carla is someone I’d quite enjoy spending an afternoon with and hey, I’d eat her cooking. She used to be a model than went to cooking school. She’s quirky, smart and pleasant as all get out. Rather strange looking too, but in a pleasant way. Her smile lights the evening sky.

Stephan, it would seem, is likely destined to win but I will always love Carla.

The semi-finals of this contest from Puerto Rico begins this coming Weds. Night at 10 pm-2/18/09. First run episodes of each contest airs on Weds. Nights at 10 pm.

Tune in for the semi-finals and finals and tell me if Carla isn’t a sweetie.
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The Bachelor 09-Jason, continues on his quest for true love.

The favorite bachelorette as I see it has parents who refuse to participate in this bastardization of true love.

No surprise as to who was sent home.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE

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Hollywood rounds continue on for American Idol 2009 and some real surprises sent packing and some real drubs remain.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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Amidst talks of stimulus bills that are robberies of the treasury, we go to signs of spring, odes to missing socks, the prettiest handwriting in the world and much more.

HERE

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