'Celebrity Apprentice' recap: Star Jones is a shark, and she keeps on swimming

La Toya Jackson finally comes into her own on "Celebrity Apprentice," only to be shut down.

Timid and seemingly disconnected for most of the season, she sat to the side, following orders and offering excuses when things didn't work out. Up until this point, it seemed the key to her survival was Donald Trump standing up for her in the boardroom.

But then she teamed up with NeNe Leakes. 

Star Jones, in an interesting move open to a lot of discussion (Show Trackers, please discuss!), paired Jackson and Leakes, who had been bickering with each other, to work together on the project. Leakes has been Jackson's sharpest critic inside the boardroom and out. I suspect Jones thought that by making them work together, she would build in a little protection for herself. Ultimately, it did work, but not without showing a hole in her armor. 

This week was all Trump: Both teams had to create an ad campaign for Trump's hotels. Ivanka Trump was one of the executives consulting on the project. Donald's sons, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, sat with him in the boardroom. 

Both teams failed miserably. When it was revealed to them that the Trump hotel executives thought it was a decision of the lesser of two evils, they were stunned. You could see in their reactions that both sides thought that they really had pulled this off, when in reality they had both created quite amateurish campaigns that looked like they had been done by middle-schoolers with a desktop computer and clip art. (John Rich was the project manager for men; Jones led the women.)

Out of that, the women were the lamest of the lame. And Jones, in an instant, flipped into self-preservation mode. If there's one thing this woman can do -- aside from fretting over printed materials -- she can manipulate to protect herself. By keeping Leakes and Jackson behind to face Trump, she did just that. 

It was risky in that Leakes could be a wild card. Leakes had buddied up to Jackson, surprisingly. It was quite nice to see the two of them warm up like that, actually, and it added a new dimension to the portrayal of both of them on the show. But Leakes had also conceded that she still believed Jackson to be the weakest player on the team. Jones bet that Leakes -- who never fails to keep it real -- would speak up against Jackson as the weakest player. And on that bet, Jones was correct.

That's not to say that Jackson, even with her voice weak from laryngitis, didn't do a good job standing up for herself. The lamb-in-waiting all season came out swiftly and strongly in her own defense, and probably offered a take-down of Jones that many other contestants have tried and failed to accomplish (i.e., poor Lisa Rinna). 

I initially questioned Leakes' judgment on this, though. If she wants to win this show, or at least pave a path toward that, seizing this moment to push Jones out the door could have been the best thing for her to do. Leakes and Marlee Matlin -- who, surprisingly, Leakes accused of kissing up to Jones -- work together like magic and could easily carry the team. They could have dropped Jones, an untrustworthy bully, and managed just fine. 

But I remembered what this game is about -- especially for someone like Leakes. Winning, for some of them, isn't about a prize for charity and bragging rights at the end of the season. It's about getting their name out there and stirring up some buzz. 

Now I see Leakes' strategy: Feuding with Jackson isn't going to get her anywhere. Jackson, I have to admit, is smart enough to know how to portray herself as vulnerable. Feuding with her would make Leakes out to be the beast. And there's no sense in fighting with Matlin, a class act who probably has the greatest cache of goodwill of anyone on the show. And Hope Dworaczyk, despite her contributions, basically serves as a piece of furniture at this point. 

With Jones, she can turn up the volume, go after her like she's Kim Zolciak on a tour bus and won't look like the monster attacking Bambi. She might look like a hero. Heck, she might even land a talk show. (And I would watch it, every day.)

What do you think? Did Star Jones manipulate her way into not going home? Should she have gone home instead? And what do you think of La Toya Jackson finally coming into her own? And are you bracing yourself for the Star vs. NeNe war we've been promised all season?

-- Rick Rojas

Photo: With La Toya Jackson, Marlee Matlin, NeNe Leakes and Hope Dworaczyk in the boardroom, Star Jones defends her turn as project manager after her team fails at making an ad campaign for Donald Trump's hotels. Credit: Douglas Gorenstein / NBC 

Comments

[Brad]

Star jones should of went home as the hole concept was her idea, and she such a controlling nutbag, that team will never get together with star there. I think meat Load will be the next to go on the guys team, if they lose the next round.

[dee gee]

la toya's too nice..... i can't stand star! as far as nene is concerned, ALL of those women are WAY OUT of her league! she doesn't belong, she's NO celebrity or anyone famous...i've never heard of her.

[NeNe fan]

If Nene was playing the game she should have backed up LaToya in the boardroom and got rid of their strongest player in Star. The idea that Trump had to fire the weakest link in order to keep the women's team strong was ridiculous. How can they stay strong when they keep losing? LaToya was right - all their losses have been as a result of Star's ideas. (And I really wish she'd lay off the graphic design as her work is atrocious.) He should have fired the person responsible for that mess of an ad campaign and that was Star. Incidentally, the weakest link is Hope. LaToya had some great presentation skills, Hope has a pretty pout.

[canaryyyellow]

I think Star played dirty and I don't care for her that much. BUT she is smart and she knows exactly what she's doing.She knows how to fight for herself and build a strong enough arguement against others, BRAVO for that! She's a good lawyer and in a situation like this, if you don't want to go home, then you have lay every single thing out there to make sure the other person does.

I think either way...even if NeNe and Latoya hadn't become friends. Star still would've brought them both in there. I hated that Latoya went...but she was one of the weakest. Hope should have went home before Latoya did. What I did like, was the NeNe kinda showed that she's not all talk and not game. She's talked about Latoya being a weak player and stuck to that in the board room. Suprising

[Wrong Decision]

I think TRUMP was an IDIOT to fire LATOYA. SHE did NOTHING wrong. It was STAR JONES who made the team LOSE...NOT LATOYA. TRUMP kept her ONLY to play against the MEN....NOT BECAUSE IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!!!! President?????????? NOT A CHANCE!!!! YOU SHOWED YOUR TRUE COLORS.... TRUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR A JOKE and a very BIAS MAN

[Lolita]

"I totally agree." He is the last person to cast stones. I remember on his show he lectured Lisa Rena about augmenting her lips. He stated "why would you do that to yourself." As he stated that they put the camera on NeNe Leaks from Real Housewives of Atlanta. I took that to mean in a negative way, why would you want to look like that a black woman exemplifying that we are not beautiful! It could have also meant look at her she also had plastic surgery and is not beautiful. He is a racist pig and I will not support anything he puts his name/hands on. His own children are not the sharpest knives and let me speak on Trump, I will not use Mr., because that's a point of respect, he is shrewd not smart. Being shrewd and a thief does not brilliance,wit or class make.
Signed one juicy,full, lipped sister.... Lolita Weems

[Ronnie]

You foolish people,please! Go Star! Star should not have gone home. Ya'll may not like her because of the often negative publicity surrounding her since her days at the View, and ya'll looking at her like she's a bitch. You people are very bias. Now, Latoya cannot lead a group. She was horrible in leading her group when she won. She only won because the guy's didn't do their job well. The women lost the second time because Lisa didn't know what the hell to do. They lost the second time because the model was scattered all over the place and didn't manage those people well. NeNe lost because her book idea wasn't creative enough. Marlee won because she had all the money needed. Star won because she had all the money needed. Hope won because she was greatly organized and creative. Star lost because their was not great creative power behind her presentation. To be honet, the men lost because of their presentation. The women should have spoken up and argued against Star if they didn't like something, yet they sat back again and blamed their failures on Star, much like the writer of this article is doing, blaming Star Jones for something she did not do. Also, NeNe and Latoya have never stepped forward to do the graphics or writing for anything. Their best choice is manual labor, what else would they or anyone else do if Star didn't do the graphics. THEY SHOULD HAVE SPOKEN UP IF THEY WANTED TO WIN! Stop the hateration. Latoya got kicked off because she deserved it. She didn't trick or maneuver anyone.

[Linda D.]

Maybe it is just me , but could Star Jones be any mor condasending? Why doesn't she just put a kerchief on her head and call Trump "massa" ?She is totally subservient to him, to the point of humiliation. Yes, I know , you have to play the game , but is winning so important? It was embarrassing to watch, and I will never watch it again.

[AnAmericanAbroad]

Elegance is simplicity.....with exquisite materials, modesty and abiding courtesy. No losers in this episode except the obnoxious and arrogant hoteliers who insulted the honest effort of two demographic groups who had something valuable to say.

The campaigns were a feast of information on personal desires for the privilege of respite in a Trump hotel. And if the executives couldn't listen past their own egos, how can they model respectful behavior and active listening for their staff, one wonders. But there was a lot of clutter in the presentations and how does one distill that information into one single luscious image- difficult for ad pros and the teams put forth an earnest effort smacked down by those two boors in suits who could use some Stephen Covey perspective.

There's affluence which is centered and knowing and then there's effluence which is gaudy, wasteful and needy. Odd as it sounds, the wealthiest people in positions of tremendous influence I've known would never humiliate another human being by having them trim their toenails, clean their floors or muck out their horses' stalls. They tote hay bales, refuse to wear diamonds for ethical reasons, care about the environment and consumption and will unabashedly embrace your hand with both of theirs in a sincere handshake.

Somehow, Star doesn't seem so manipulative, rather steamrolling to get the job done and standing by her decisions, don't know why she isn't practicing law with that mind and focus. Sad to see Trump's pet La Toya go but the right choice and she was generous to show the world what a (faith based?) protected and privileged bubble the Jackson family's life must be. Petty on her exit interview though tsk tsk, still a darling, true heart NeNe too.

[mel]

it was not right to treat mrs jackson the way tht mr trump did it was tht old hag star jones tht made the team lose not mrs jackson so star jones should hve been fired star jones always runs her mouth about everything she acts like a 2 yr old every time she dnt get her way so lets hope mr trump does the right thing nxt tyme the women lose fire star jones

[Nate]

I thought that LaToya's firing was inconsistent. The guys essentially made the same case about Busey the week Mark McGrath(sp?) was fired, but trump said he wasn't the reason they lost that task. However, he did monopolize the time of the executives and pitched himself as a spokeperson. For consistency, Busey should have been fired that week, or LaToya should have continued on this week. I understand, however, that Busey = ratings, but Lotoya does not.

[Linda]

Star Jones has been a professional and competent player throughout the show. I've heard her name before, but I didn't know who she was until I watched these episodes. I was impressed with her intelligence until she was team manager during that one episode where she shocked me with her lack of insight or creativeness. Up until that time, Star was amazing, but I had to agree with Latoya on this one episode. I guess no one is perfect all of the time. They complained about Star's shrewdness, bossiness, and her drive to win, but aren't those important traits for a leader to have, and isn't winning the goal here? I would have wanted Star on my team for sure. Without her, I'm not sure they would have ever won anything. Now, although Latoya was not their strongest team member, I agreed with Trump that she was very good especially in the area of presentation of products. What a loss she was for the women's team. I don't know why Latoya thought Star was her worse enemy. Star did criticize her a bit, but she did not do it in an evil way. Nene was clearly everyone's worse enemy. She wore the horns right from the first episodes where I noticed how she back stabbed everyone. Nene has grown consistently worse each week becoming more bold and brazen. She is guilty of the very things that she accuses others of doing. She stabs them all front and back with a big bad mouth and no class. She is a strong personality, but not a strong team member who fights to keep the team strong and together as Star tried to do the week before when she mended the rift between Nene and Latoya. Nene then turned on Star and created a rift, not team togetherness. Nene was not content with healing. She decided to rip things open again. This team with both strong and weak members would run a lot better without Nene stirring things up and running her teammates down. I can't believe that Mr. Trump can't see a troublemaker when he hears one. Firing Latoya, Hope and all those before them was not the answer, and losing Star will end it for the women's team.

[sharona]

THANK GOODNESS HE FINALLY FIRED HER !!!! SHE SHOULD OF BEEN GONE WAY BEFORE............