Episode 14: What about Dan?
Episode 14 opens with Sean and Lee summoned to the boardroom where they learn that they're the final two candidates. Their new assignment is to each choose three fired candidates to join their team. As Lee exits the boardroom, Trump yells out, "Freaking politician, Lee!!!"Back in the suite, the former candidates greet the finalists and they each lobby to be chosen for the new teams. Former Orthodox Apprentice candidate Daniel Brody takes an opportunity to sell himself to Sean. Mr. Yazbeck, however, quickly chooses Tammy and Andrea and then agrees on Tarek to complete his team.
Lee Bienstock outsources the team selection to his close friend, Lenny Veltman. In the words of Lenny, "Nobody better than me." Lenny chooses Pepi ("who the hell is he?") Diaz. It's likely that Lee and Pepi had never even met before, but Lenny had spent time with Pepi on Trump's "Exile Island". Lee asks for Lenny's thoughts on each possible candidate. "What about Dan?" he inquires. Lenny responds, "I don't trust Dan. [He and others are] not your friends." Lenny selects Roxanne for the final spot.
Lee explains to Trump that his picks are based on who likes him the most. (With two selections who never worked with Lee previously, it speaks volumes of Lee's relationships with the former Gold Rushers.)
Each candidate expresses a preference to work with bare naked ladies, but Lee agrees to take on the celebrity ice hockey event, sponsored by Pontiac, to benefit The Denis Leary Firefighters Foundation. Since Sean is from the UK, it might have been wise for Lee to hand him the hockey task. Sean's concert, also sponsored by Pontiac (with an additional sponsorship from SLS Audio), is to raise funds for the World Wildlife Fund.
Lee appears to have a very weak team. In meetings with the executives, they show no creativity, few ideas, minimal teamwork and no leadership. Pepi adds no value. Lenny doesn't say a word, not even a joke. Roxanne contributes the most, but not enough to make up for the others. Lee suggests a date auction (page 4), but the executive from Leary's organization is not impressed.
Sean's team is more energetic and everyone contributes to the project, but Sean spends too much time with Tammy poring over the catering menu. Eventually each team decides to auction off the Pontiac vehicles.
This episode appears to be edited with a preference towards Sean. Lee and his team were repeatedly shown in a negative way. The only strike against Sean's team is that Andrea left with a medical emergency.
It's now time to vote for your choice as the next Apprentice.
[Orthodox Apprentice has actual video footage from Sean's Barenaked Ladies concert at Trump Taj Mahal. If you have a website and are willing to store and serve the file, we will e-mail it to you and then link to your site. Please contact us by e-mail.]
posted Monday, May 29, 2006
32 comments
32 Comments:
Let's not give up hope because they gave lee a bad edit. Lee's event probably went well. We'll have to see. Lee i know your bro from elementary i'm rooting for you all the way!!!!
Why would you knock Lee on orthodox appentice?
voteforlee.com
cuz lee screwed up big time! he picked a miserable team that he let Lenny of all people pick. oh and the exec is really not liking him.
Do we have to fill out that short application everytime we want to vote?
Again the webmaster has resorted to taking shots at Lee because he didn't choose Dan, the webmaster's college friend/roommate. At a time when Lee can use all of our support, the webmaster should give his, and not be a freaking moron and post "vote for your choice" but rather "vote for Lee." To be safe we have to assume that the voting will have some effect on Trump's final decision, so I implore everyone to go to NBC.com and VOTE FOR LEE!!!
http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/
That's the link, VOTE FOR LEE as many times as possible now because Shavuot will prevent us from voting later this week.
After much anticipation I watched the show tonight with much sadness, and even horror. In his moment of triumph, in his moment of opportunity, like a deer caught in the headlights, Lee crumbled as he in effect ceded the project managership to Lenny, who openly said he is concerned about loyalty, without regard to intelligence,in the selection of the other two team members. Lee seemed preoccupied with selecting those people who he was assured would "work" for him, and who would tell Mr. Trump that he should be hired. He showed he was afraid of hiring a strong personality capable of independent thinking. Lee lived with these people for fourteen tasks in the suite. Yet he did not exercise one ounce of decision-making in the selection of his team. I wish he would have been forced to have select the team by himself, even on the spur of the moment, without having the opportunity to ask anyone for advice, like had been does during the four previous seasons. He couldn't have done any worse. Lenny, in effect, did not pick a team based on talent or capability, but a team in which he could in effect be de facto project manager without challenge.
None of this is a bad edit. Lee brought it on himself by selecting Pepi and Roxanne, two young lawyers, without any business experience or background in event planning. It was bad enough to see each of the stronger personalities line up one after another to make their case for being selected by Sean: Tarek, Dan, Andrea. By picking a team of Tarek, articulate with a creative mind, and Andrea, with clear organizational ability, Sean picked a dream team. You didn't see Sean asking Tammy who he should select, especially when choosing Andrea whom Tammy had helped get fired previously. On the other hand, no one came rushing up to Lee to offer to be on his side.
Lenny called Allie a "fake." In fourteen tasks, there hasn't been an inauthentic word out of her mouth. She is a graduatee of Harvard Business School, with a take charge style. Until her last task with the clothing design, she also grew in stature every week. She also had a grudge against Sean, hatred against Andrea, and she also is Jewish. I can't believe she wouldn't have come up with some other creative ideas besides auctioning Pontiacs on how to raise money.
Theresa showed energy, perseverence and intelligence previously and she pledged fidelity to Lee during her interview with him. Her run-in with Lenny on the Rosh Hashonoh task led him to reject her even after she asked Lee, "Is it going to be OK with Lenny?" Lenny wanted no strong independent personalities to be on the team.
It's interesting. Lee seemed to blossom a lot more after Lenny was fired. Now he is the son in the father-son relatioinship between the two. Lee cannot control and will not have a major disagreement with him. And Lenny is turning out be Lee's Rasputin.
So we have Pepi, who we didn't hear one word from on the show besides being unable to find out if Lenny Clarke is dead or alive. Some contributor. He is a total stiff. I think Carolyn Kepcher's laughter over Pepi's selection speaks volumes. Roxanne is doing the best she can, but she has demonstrated as project manager limited creative and organizational abiliities, but at least her heart is in it and she appears to be giving 100% to Lee.
Lenny also nixed any possibiliity of Charmaine or Leslie being selected, and they showed at least some type of creative ability or business energy in the past, right or wrong, and they had demonstrated some friendship with Lee while on the same team. On his website, Lenny wrote of how he liked Summer, the first candidate fired. Who here would have Lenny as his personnel manager?
For a smart guy, and for someone with the ability of being a "politician" according to Mr. Trump, Lee did not rely at all on his own judgment in selecting a team. In his meeting with the firemen's fund representative, the only additional idea he came up with was a "date" auction, and later failed to expand upon the matching funds idea with the Pontiac representatives.
The "date" idea really showed that he still is twenty-two years old and just out of college. It was like a repeat of the money machine idea on the Outback Steak House task at the Rutgers football game all over again.
In three of the previous four seasons, Mr. Trump seemed not to hire the loser based on some fault in dealing with his team and not with the performance of the task itself; Kwami relying on and unable to control Omarosa, Jen distancing herself from her teammates as an emotionless Stepford Wife type of character, and Tana on being condescending and unappreciatve with her team and insulting them as they left after the task. Rebecca had no such problem, but in his selection of Randall, Mr. Trump noted how Randall led with kindness. Then he wanted to hire Rebecca as well. In contrast, Lee selected his team out of Lenny's paranoia. Mr. Trump surely will ask as a question, "How can I expect you to perform and make personnel decisions as my apprentice when Lenny is not around?
So how can Lee win? First, he has to pull a rabbit out of the hat and pull off a spectacular fund-raiser of an event which runs seamlessly and makes the firemen's fund content as to the event and the amount raised. If he does, he can claim total credit as the his team would have contributed little in this regard. Second, he needs some major organizational gaffe in putting on the musical concert with Synergy now being a man down, and particuarly in organizational strength. Tarek always has the possibility of making a major blunder or a disloyal criticism, as he did with criticizing Sean for not being at the meeting with the Pontiac representative, and Tammy and Sean have not shown much on the "creative," side as well. Lee has to turn his "creative" ability into overdrive next week to shine. Sean, Tammy and Tarek do have the ability to have a major omission which will have the capability effect how the the event is perceived by its sponsors and participants. Tammy also can make some major mistake and Sean will wrongfully follow her down that path out of his love for her which could blind him at this point.
Lee's best chance is to take Sean on in the boardroom as being a noncreative and just a perfunctory person, while is the candidate with the truly innovative and creative mind to undertake major business success in the Trump Organization. While not creating much of positive effect, Lee's team selection might have limited downside to counterbalance this.
It's sad. Lee is such a talented and smart guy, and around Lenny he becomes brain-dead. Would Lee really rather have Pepi and Roxanne speaking for him in the boardroom instead of Allie and Teresa? And seriously, does anyone think that a team of Lee, Lenny, Roxanne and Pepi is stronger than a team of Lee, Lenny, Allie and Teresa would have been? When Lee could have acted as a man, he chose to become a boy. After all of this time and emotion that all of us have put into him, when his magic moment came, he abdicated any judgment on potential quallity of his assistants. Did any of us expect this? Seriously.
Lee's strength is his creative ability and maybe this can help him pull this out of the hat yet. Maybe with a strong boardroom performance, Mr. Trump could decide to hire both Lee and Sean. After all, the real idea is to be hired by Mr. Trump, not just to be the last man standing.
After the show ended, I played all of the clips of the show, including those deleted from the televised version, on the apprentice site on yahoo. It was hard. Maybe there is a side to this tale that none of this know and remains to be played out next week on the finale. Now, however, after the penultimate episode, I only wish I were not so heartbroken.
What about an interview with Allie Jablon now that she has been fired and is not part of the last task? She's Jewish too.
Just looked up this SLS company that has been mentioned before here and is co-sponsor of the BNL concert on the Finale.
It looks interesting, I've never seen such a small company get a chance to get the exposure they are getting on such a big show. The company's TOTAL revenue last year was only $4 million.
I'm going to do a little more research and see if this may be an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something big.
the editing clearly makes lee look bad, but then again its usually like that, they show the worse, make you expect the worse and then things work out well. as to dan, who really cares that he wasnt picked, lee certainly should not have picked him and sean never knew him as they were on opposite teams all along, so he would certainly have been left out.
i thought tariq would have gone with lee, but then again.
also, wally, could you keep your posts brief, only a week to go with your rants.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENT
This could throw a monkeywrench into Walt's plans. Yesterday in Lenny's own forum, he attacked Wallyhorse!
"you f---ing nuts... Honestly Walt you have no idea what you talking about... Loosers will add your name on they list,as friend... Apologies for my grammar,at least i can write without being extraordinary"
http://lennyfromussr.com/forums/forums/374/ShowPost.aspx#374
Full link:
http://lennyfromussr.com/forums/forums/
374/ShowPost.aspx#374
Why anyone attack webmaster? This site bring all Lee fan together and give suport to Lee all time. What are you nuts? Critisize webmaster? We thank webmaster for hard work and time with website. Lee look bad monday. Next week much beter.
in lee's defense, you must realize that throughout the entire process he only survived because of his one major talent of being a player and in a big way due to trump's inherent fondness of him. No one of the teammembers ever came as close as lee did as many times as he did to being axed. He needed to take a position early on of take no prisoners becuased he realized he could trust no one (Except lenny)
Therefore when it came time to choose a team this paranoia over choosing peiople who would be loyal to him and want to sincerely help him win took presedence over thinknig about who has worked well and who has what talents etc. The mistake in this was letting lenny have so much input because lenny was obviously heavily biased due to his own personal scorn and made it more about choosing up sides in a playground based on who you like not on who can most effectively help you win.
Of course, relinquishing the concert to sean so easily could have been a major blunder too.
VOTE FOR LEE!
In all honesty, Lee's not looking good right now. He has a weak team and a tough challenge. After all he's been through on the show, if there's anyone who could pull this off, it's Lee. He'll work hard, take a big risk, push his team to the limits, go for a huge payoff and win!!! He needs our support though. Vote for Lee! Do it now. Do it later. Do it again. I'm wearing my Vote for Lee pin all week to remind everyone to vote. People who don't watch the show are asking me what the pin means. When I explain it to them, they're usually willing to go online and place a vote. GO LEE!
Some of you are missing the point of Lee's selection of teamates. He choose the team based on loyalty and trust. That is so key in business. Smart saavy people are sometimes very unloyal. Trump ulitmately respects that more than anything. He showed that on the show. He wants good people that he could trust. Good thing he didn't pick Dan cause he wanted to be on Sean's team. Anyway Lee will figure this out and win. He's been in the boardroom so many times and ofcourse came out alive.
As you can he was always picked on but noone had a case against him hence he's still standing unlike others. Sean made it thru as a likeable guy but Lee is all around book smart(Cornel 4.0 GPA and street smart).
How Orthodox is Lee? I see him hugging girls, talking loshon hora and eating without a kipah.
Stop smoothing it over. You sound like a fraud.
Loyalty & trust?
How does Lee know that about Pepi? The guy didn't last even one week in the suite.
Roxanne? Together with Allie and others, she conspired to get rid of Brent, then Andrea and eventually Tammy. She didn't prove to be loyal to anyone. Trump even told Lee and Sean that he fired Roxanne and Allie for being DISloyal to each other.
No one here said Lee should choose Dan. (Did you see anyone say that?) But PEPI? Come on! Trump didn't even remember firing the guy. Why not Charmaine or Leslie?
It takes much more than loyalty to come up with good ideas and run a successful event.
steve interviews lee's dad
http://www.canonist.com/?p=860#more-860
he had some old articles on the blog and in the media back when the season started. he has also kept up some good coverage in general check it out
how do we email mitch to get the BNL link? i'd like to put it on my site.
The blogmaster said that Lee should have given Sean the hocky match since being from the UK would put Sean at a disadvantage for that task. For what it's worth, you guys should know that Sean has been living in South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida for some time now.
Canonist interviews Lenny about Lee
http://www.canonist.com/?p=861
Anyone else feel so embarrassed for Pepi? I mean nebbach. I must be dying today. Lee should have done more micromanaging. Letting Lenny pick the team is going to be his downfall. You just know they are going to bring up Pepi in the boardroom no matter how well his event goes.
As for auction ideas I thought of a bunch off the bat. Like what about a guest appearence on Denis Leary's show, or auction off a day in the life of a firefighter (rich people love to live dangerously), or a hockey stick with all the celebs autographs, or the game puck, etc etc etc. I mean come one guys. Its not rocket science. That chick from the charity just schooled you!
As for Lee's frumness, besides wearing a yarmalke in his audition tape and going to shul on the show, I've also see him in kosher restaurants in the city. Most recently in Circa Meat on 33rd St. He was totally pimping his celeb status, flirting with all the little Stern girls. It was hysterical.
Mitch posted the Lenny interview about a month ago
http://orthodoxapprentice.blogspot.
com/2006/05/barukh-hashem-from-
lenny.html
susqhb... I've sent e-mails to mitch using the address at the top of the blog.
Can't wait to see the video on your site :-)
they are brand new interviews just conducted by steven
http://www.canonist.com/?p=862
his father says he is moving from murray hill to the uws. i can't wait to see all the uberdesperate stern girls salivating over him. itll be great. they would just love to get an Mrs degree from him. ha. his dad mentions lee getting his car from the garage. what 23 yr old has a garage spot int he city? guess hes a spoiled one.
Anonymous said...
How Orthodox is Lee? I see him hugging girls, talking loshon hora and eating without a kipah.
we have been through this... its none of your buisness.
GO LEE!!!!!!!!
oh please getover this "oh my gosh he was hugging girls hes a heretic blah blah". hes a normal modern ortho jew. hugging a girl means nothing and one truly needs some self control if they get off on that.
There is ultra-orthodox and orthodox. You don't see Lee wearing peyes, right? He doesn't wear a fur hat, right? Where is the coat? Where's the talit undershirt?
So he's obviously not ultra-orthodox or hassidic or anything like that.
In fact, why would a really religious jew participate in such a goyishe contest?
What's next? Ultra-Orthodox Jews on The Real World? I don't think so.
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