What, Exactly, is Your Definition of Celebrity?

The writer's strike has put a serious dent into the level of entertainment that I'm enjoying from my favorite pasttime, so I've been anxious for anything new that has popped up. Tonight it was The Celebrity Apprentice. Not surprisingly, though, I was disappointed.

I was a big fan of The Apprentice back in the beginning, but the quality of the show has been declining for some time now. I didn't have much hope for a season filled with so-called "celebrities," but like I said, the writer's strike has forced me to lower my standards. In the first episode, these celebrities - many of whom I've never heard of - were given the task to sell hot dogs in good old NYC. Once again, teams were divided by gender, and they got to work.

The men, who are calling themselves Hydra, immediately figured out that they needed to use their celebrity to pull in the big bucks. This is was they did, charging money for fans to take pictures to take home along with their hot dogs. The result was that they raised some $52,000 in a few hours.

The women, however, made their first mistake in allowing Omaroosa to be their first Project Manager. Now, I could go on and on about my objection to placing Omaroosa on a show that is supposed to include only celebrities, but I'm sure I'll plenty of opportunities to point out how useless she is. In a brilliant move, she told the women that one of her executive decisions would be that they would depend only on their business acumen rather than their celebrity. She insisted that they should rise above their obvious appeal and rely on their talent as marketing executives. Big surprise - they lost, and badly.

When The Donald took the women to task in the boardroom, I saw quickly that the producers are determined to keep Omaroosa, their pseudo-celebrity on the show. Her decision against using their celebrity was glossed over (don't insult me by suggesting that was anything but editing) and instead of kicking her sanctimonious ass out on the street where it belongs, Trump fired Tiffany, a former playmate of the year. Basically, what did her in was that she didn't call Hugh Hefner and ask him to buy a hot dog. Seriously. Now, I know that I'll continue to watch, mostly because there isn't much else on, but for now I'm going to return to reruns of Seventh Heaven.