'Celebrity Apprentice': Marilu Leaves No Alt-ernative

After being sent to their separate corners, Piers and Omarosa were pretty much a non-issue this week. Which should be a huge relief, given how grotesque their non-relationship became.

But then it just got boring. So boring that Lennox Lewis basically slept through half the episode, which put him closer to the chopping block for the first time -- or maybe not. Anyone else think that Trump is in the bag for Lennox, and that he's going to have to spit on a client to get axed anytime soon?

The task was to pick a QVC product, promote it in an on-air spot and see who made the most money. Both teams wanted this combo stepstool/dolly contraption, Marilu so much so that she just about salivated over how she was going to buy one for herself. Hydra -- Marilu's team now (she was PM) -- won the coin toss and got the thing. The other team took a vacuum cleaner that could be pre-charged and was strong enough to sweep up nails.

Hydra, idiotically, did not use Carol Alt -- Ms. five-year queen of QVC -- to hawk the product, instead giving in to Marilu's desire to go on camera, where she babbled on as if she were pounding Red Bull all morning. Empresario, meanwhile, made the no-brainer decision and put Trace on air: all that big manly-man, gravelly voice stuff going on behind a vacuum? Sold!

The key, though, was Stephen's business sense. (Yes, I just typed that sentence.) Baldwin got clued in to the fact that QVC consumers are not exactly swimming in disposable income and confirmed with company execs that they could offer their product on a payment plan. Bingo, they win!

Omarosa did a decent job of not gloating while watching Piers in the boardroom. Marilu, not wanting to "out" any of her teammates for failure at first, finally settled on "Sleepy Boy" (Piers's moniker for Lennox, which Trump definitely didn't like). Big mistake. Trump clearly saw Carol Alt as the weak link -- how could she NOT know about QVC's pricing plans if she'd worked for them so long? -- but he couldn't fire her because she was the one person Marilu decided to protect.

So . . . bye-bye, Marilu. And let us note: With seven contestants remaining, only two are women, and one is Omarosa. Yep, she can be evil, but she knows how to hang on by those claws.

-- JENNIFER FREY

Michael Cavna  |  February 22, 2008; 10:56 AM ET Celebrity Apprentice
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Posted by: Jean | February 22, 2008 11:18 AM

Posted by: e4y5 | March 12, 2008 10:05 AM

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