by David McAlpine

Last week on Celebrity Apprentice, Rod finally stepped up to try and lead the men's team to victory. In a showdown of who could create the best advertorial for a new online anti-identity theft program, the women prevailed, putting our favorite ex-governor's neck on the line. Despite his best efforts, Trump decided he was the root of the failure and gave Rod Blagojevich the ax.

Last night, well, we were down quite a few celebrities. Sharon Osbourne is sick again (how many weeks have there been where we haven't heard that one?) and Cyndi Lauper had a meeting with the President about a new law. So you're leaving us with eight of the less interesting contestants on the show (though I have to profess my love for Summer Sanders)? Really? Damn.

Curtis and Holly step up to be the project leaders this week, and everything is all of a sudden even, since the women were 2 up on the men. This week's task is to make a commercial, one for TV and one for the internet, for Right Guard's new deodorant, Defense 5. Each team would get a celebrity, either Scottie Pippen or Clyde Dexler, to help out with the acting.

Since this was all about former NBA players, Trump sweetens the deal on the spot: the first team to make a basketball shot wins $10,000 for their charity. Maria makes the shot in huge heels, netting Holly's charity the money.

On Tenacity, they're working with Scottie. Holly wants to make it about a smelly boy and have Scottie be his "funky godfather" to show him the way about fixing body odor. However, she can't seem to do it without taking shots at Cyndi the entire time. Selita finds it funny, but the rest of the team is not amused in the slightest.

Rock Solid, who has Clyde, has no idea (again). Instead, we cut to Bret, who finds out that his daughter is having a medical emergency related to her diabetes, so he breaks down in tears. Sure, I felt bad for the guy, but I also thought about what it would do if he left the show. Could he narrow the field even more?

The teams don't have their hands on the NBA champs for long, though. Holly and Selita have things working like clockwork at the studio, even though Scottie only has four hours to shoot. Meanwhile, Curtis completely revamps Rock Solid's idea to something a little more simple that doesn't call for all the props they didn't have the time to find.

The women are put in a lot of elbow grease for this shoot because of all the props it required. Well, everyone except for Selita, who's stands by and watches as everyone else does the dirty work. On the other team, Curtis gets scared by Ivanka showing up and tells her everything is fine…although it's not.

Speaking of fine, Cyndi dials in from Washington to let everyone know she's fine and to get an update on what's going on. Too bad no one cares about her, because the no one engages and leaves her hanging on the other line.

Not only did they have limited time to shoot, but they had limited time to edit, too. Bret starts crying about his daughter again, while Cyndi comes back from DC and offers to sing their commercial (she is a singer, you know), which Holly doesn't think is a good idea, so Holly sings it instead. She finally caves in, though, and lets Cyndi sing the final cut.

Everyone is rushing to get things done, though it's mostly Michael and Bill for Rock Solid and Maria and Holly for Tenacity. Holly and Maria square off in a tiff over Maria's work, but they don't have too much time to fight about it, because they have to present.

The executives don't seem to be too pleased with the men's commercials, but they seem to enjoy the women's commercials. Could the women have pulled it out again?

Well, contrary to their facial expressions, the executives said both commercials were phenomenal. Let's be honest here. It's a deodorant commercial and you have several B- or C-list celebrities who are willing to embarrass themselves by going on this show in the first place and two of the NBA's most recognizable players. Of course they'll be good.

But stop everything, because Michael announces he has to leave because of a "personal matter." Bret's still here, just crying a lot, but yes, Michael Johnson quit the competition. So another one falls, leaving Rock Solid with just three members.

In the boardroom, Trump watches both commercials. Like the executives said, the guys' commercial is more demographically targeted (they are guys, after all), while the women's ad is more entertaining. However, Tenacity has no separate web ad, while Rock Solid does, so Rock Solid wins the challenge and Curtis gets $20,000 for his charity.

Immediately, Selita is singled out by the women. They always go after the pretty ones, don't they? Everyone claims she wasn't doing anything. Selita's excuse is that she was "organizing." Summer cuts in and wants to fire Cyndi and Sharon for not being there. Holly sees her opportunity and goes for Cyndi's jugular, but Trump won't have it. So, Holly brings back Selita and Maria. From there, it's all downhill for Selita, who gets steamrolled by the other two and, ultimately, fired.

Watch the Celebrity Apprentice next week at 9/8c on NBC to see which celebrity is the next Trump casualty!

(Photo courtesy of NBC)

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