Celebrity Apprentice Recap: Kawasaki Challenge

On the January 16th edition of “Celebrity Apprentice,” Arnold “Governor” Schwarzenegger met up with the teams to tell them about their new Kawasaki North America challenge. They had to created an innovative photo campaign for a Kawasaki motorcycles gallery exhibit. Chris and Susan from the company gave them some pointers on what they were looking for. By innovative, they meant they wanted them to push the envelope. Tech and finance expert Gemma Godfrey was introduced as the guest adviser. They would be judged on creativity, demographic appeal, and presentation.

The project managers were Kyle Richards was the ladies (Team Prima) and Carson Kressley for the men (Team Arete). Since the motorcycles are adaptable to short and tall people, so both women and men can operate them, the ladies focused on what they usually focus on: strong women. Carson came up with it being a bike for everybody and a bike for every body, which we thought was brilliant.

However, Carson carried it even further. He wanted to have a shot of a “tasteful nude” on the bike. He and Boy George also thought bringing in a drag queen, (Alaska ThunderBleep) a name you can’t even say on primetime TV), would just be the brainstorm of the century. Our great forward-thinker, Chael Sonnen, was already rehearsing what he would tell the Governor in the boardroom on what he had to do with these ideas– nothing. Carson posed for the nude shot himself. Boy George insisted that Carson had to lose his tighty-whiteys while Jon Lovitz hoped they had some Purell on hand to sanitize the bike.

On Team Prima, they hit the streets of L.A. to bring reality to their photos. They highlighted the bike’s versatility with a shot of 6’5″ Lisa and 5’2″ Kyle. The ladies were making good use of their celebrity power, with Laila Ali strutting around looking macho. Speaking of which, Brooke Burke-Charvet’s hottie hubby from Baywatch, David Charvet, was supposed to be in a shot with Brooke manning the bike. He refused to sit behind her on the bike on the grounds that he would look “wimpy” to the Governor. No amount of reason or pleading could turn him into a cooperative creature, so that one ending up with David at the helm.

Both presentations went over quite well, although the execs appeared to get a much bigger kick out of Team Arete’s. Boy George still had some reservations that they would win because “You can never trust the smiles of executives,” but Carson Kressley is nothing if not entertaining. His bubbly enthusiasm added a lot to the men’s presentation.

In the boardroom, the judges said the decision was really close. The judges loved both presentations, but felt Carson pushed the envelope a bit too far while the ladies didn’t push it enough. Brooke and David’s photo was particularly singled out for being too safe, and that is what tipped the scales in the men’s favor. Carson won $25,000 for the True Colors Fund. To show just how close the decision was, Kawasaki opted to award $25,000 to Kyle’s charity, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Kyle brought Brooke and Porsha back to the boardroom because they were the ones calling and taking the shots. She tried putting Brooke in the line of fire, but Brooke wasn’t having it, pointing out that they were judged on 3 criteria so there’s no way that they lost because of one photograph. This was very funny because the Governor practically told Kyle what to do with his little body-building contest tale of how they look for one weakness and when they find it, they have found the loser. But let’s face it, these ladies have not been that sharp on picking up on stuff like that. We think that Brooke would have been out the door if Kyle argued that point. The judges felt that Kyle just didn’t fight hard enough to stay. So it was off to the chopper for her, where she boo-hooed that she couldn’t throw anyone else under the bus because she had grown to care so much for her team members.

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