Long Gone Shawn: Celebrity Apprentice

In the first hour of Celebrity Apprentice on 1/19/15, the teams were tasked with creating a marketing event for a mobile boutique to promote Ivanka Trump’s new shoe line with Nordstrom, building on the “Power Up” campaign foundation. The late Joan Rivers served as a celebrity adviser in what they said was her last TV appearance.

In case you have forgotten who is on what team now, Kenya Moore stepped up to be the project manager for Team Infinity. The rest of her team: Leeza Gibbons, Ian Ziering, Johnny Damon and her nemesis, Brandi Glanville.

Nobody wanted to take the project manager role on Team Vortex, so Vivica Fox decided it was up to her. The other members of her team were Shawn Johnson, Kate Gosselin, Lorenzo Lamas, Sig Hansen and Geraldo Rivera.

Shawn thought it would be great to turn the space into a Nordstrom dressing room and that ruffled some Vivica feathers because underneath it all, she thought Shawn should have taken on the project manager responsibilities. Geraldo suggested a coffee bar to draw people in and Vivica was down with that. Besides Vivica’s resentment toward Shawn, both Kate and Sig had concerns about the concept. Sig thought the coffee bar took focus away from the product. Judges, Ivanka and Joan, stopped by and were impressed with Lorenzo’s pink tie. Geraldo had one on too and was quick to point out that he got them. The judges appeared to like what they saw, including the Ivanka posters showing all the things she embodies, but later, in the boardroom Ivanka claimed there were too many choices and that took away from its power.

On Team Infinity, Kenya came up with slogans that played on the word “sole” — “Power up your sole” and “Cleanse your sole” that she considered the triumph of the century. (Turned out it was by comparison to Vortex). She also wanted a piano outside their space to give it that Nordstrom feel. They gave out green shots and had free foot massages. There was a lot of grousing, mostly by Glanville, about confusion and the concept, but Leeza Gibbons had a triumph of her own with digital displays of the products — the shoes. When the judges swung by, the ladies bent over backwards to impress Ivanka.

In the boardroom, Vortex lost because of that coffee bar, just as Sig thought. It took away from emphasizing the product and ultimately, Infinity just took the crown for creativity with their slogans and the displays.

In the boardroom, Vivica didn’t want to be a “mean girl” and turn on Shawn but had to admit that she was the weakest link in the project, and she got pissed at Kate for bringing up the fresh vs. artificial flowers. So she brought Kate and Shawn back in with her, and then turned around and said that going forward, Shawn would be more of an asset than Kate! Vivica did not feel that she should be fired because she had stepped up to manage the task when no one else would and Donald Trump agreed. He acknowledged that Kate had also managed and a winning task. When Shawn tried to defend herself with her contributions, Trump was unimpressed because he claimed that Vortex would have won if Shawn had taken the leadership reins.

Seriously, we thought that since they mainly lost over the coffee bar thing, it should have come down to either Vivica or Geraldo. One thing is for sure though, Vivica has it in for Kate.

They were fired first:

• Terrell Owens
• Jamie Anderson
• Gilbert Gottfried
• Kevin Jonas
• Keshia Knight Pulliam