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Apprentice Tzedaka

For anyone who hasn't watched earlier seasons of The Apprentice, the final tasks are two major fundraising events, each with a corporate sponsor and a designated charity.

As you know, the two final tasks for this season are a concert by the Barenaked Ladies and a celebrity hockey event.


This just in....

Orthodox Apprentice has just learned that Sean Yazbeck's BNL concert is a fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund. Steve Page, the band's lead vocalist, sits on the Board of Directors at WWF. Page and his band have been involved in other fundraising efforts for the organization.

Lee Bienstock's event is a celebrity hockey game to benefit The Leary Firefighters Foundation. Starting May 30, hockey memorabilia from the final episodes will be auctioned off at CharityFolks.com.

Lee and Sean will plan and prepare for the events on next week's episode (May 29). The concert and hockey game will be shown during the June 5 finale, followed by the final boardroom, when someone will hear, "You're hired!"


5/25 UPDATE - NBC has just confirmed what we reported last night:

"Donald Trump will issue the final two tasks, which will unfold over the next two episodes beginning this week and resulting in the ultimate boardroom hiring of the fifth "Apprentice" on June 5, live from The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles (9:30-11pm ET). "

"This week, Sean and Lee are reunited with their former team members and have the tough assignment of re-hiring four candidates each to help them with their final task. One finalist faces off with a tough executive while putting on a Pontiac celebrity hockey event benefiting the 'Dennis Leary Fire Fighter Foundation,' while the other tries to please a crowd while staging a Barenaked Ladies Concert in Atlantic City benefiting the 'World Wildlife Foundation.' "

Episode 13 - Vote for Lee!

Mazal Tov to Lee Bienstock! He's one of two finalists (with Sean Yazbeck) who can become the next Apprentice.

Tonight's episode was Gold Rush all the way. Lee demonstrated his business and marketing savvy and Sean provided his metrosexual skills. Their skills complemented each other well and took both candidates to the finals.

Lee put himself in the shoes of the judges. He pointed out that it didn't matter what the executives wanted. Since the hotel employees were judging the task, Sean and Lee needed to learn what the employees wanted in their uniforms. Lee listened to the Embassy Suites team members and learned that they only wanted tweaks to the current design; not a complete redesign. Most importantly, the clothing had to be functional.

Synergy, on the other hand, felt that they knew what the employees should want. Allie Jablon had trouble listening to the employees. Roxanne took a low profile, hoping that only Allie would take the fall if they'd lose. Instead of asking the workers for suggestions, Allie recommended culottes to the housekeepers. She received blank stares but moved forward with her design idea. Allie emphasized style over function. That wasn't what the employees had in mind.

Sean's reaction to the Synergy designs: "It was horrendous!" The hotel employees agreed, with 69% of them choosing Gold Rush's uniforms.

One employee commented, "Gold Rush rocks!"

As a reward, Sean and Lee dined with the Trump children at Aquavit, a Scandinavian restaurant in Manhattan. Lee enjoyed a green vegetable salad. [Not that it's relevant, but the pastry chef at Solo, an upscale kosher restaurant, previously worked at Aquavit.]

We told you a week ago that two candidates would be fired this week. Allie and Roxanne were the victims of the latest double-firing.

Next week Sean and Lee will start planning and preparing for the final tasks (read about them in the previous post). On June 5 we'll see how the final events turned out and Mr. Trump will choose the next Apprentice.

Now it's time to vote for your choice on Yahoo's The Apprentice site. Show your preference for Lee by wearing a Vote for Lee button or tee shirt. You could also get a teddy bear, beer stein, even boxer shorts or a thong.

OA EXCLUSIVE: The Final Tasks

We've been gathering more information on the final tasks. We've told you about guest appearances by Michael J. Fox, Jaime Pressly, Denis Leary, Jason Priestley, Stephen Baldwin and the Barenaked Ladies. We've also told you about the celebrity hockey event and the rock concert.

Now we're ready to provide further details and to share some photos and videos.


Celebrity Hockey Task

One finalist was challenged to put on a celebrity hockey event. Michael J. Fox and Denis Leary are huge hockey fans from Canada so we suspect they were involved with this task. Along with NHL hall of famer Cam Neely, they're heavily involved in charity work, supporting The Leary Firefighters Foundation, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and The Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care. The three of them (pictured together in uniform, but not from The Apprentice) appear together annually at the Betting On A Cause & A Cure event that supports all three organizations.

We reported earlier that the rock concert task took place on Tuesday, November 8, 2005. We don't have the exact date for the hockey event, but we know that Leary and Fox were together in Toronto Monday night, November 7th, for Cam Neely's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Will this interfere with the celebrity hockey event? Final tasks on The Apprentice have a history of celebrity no-shows, including Chris Webber and Joe Piscopo. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Stephen Baldwin played hockey in Slap Shot 2, so we suspect he's also involved in the sporting event.

It's more difficult to figure out Jason Priestley's role in the show. He's also a hockey fanatic from Canada. On the other hand, he's close friends with the Barenaked Ladies (pictured here with the band, not from The Apprentice). They performed at his wedding and he directed their documentary. They even use the same webmaster. He could be involved with either the hockey event or the concert.


Barenaked Ladies Concert

For the other candidate's final task, BNL played a private concert at Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. As Jessica Simpson did for her Apprentice event, the band members appeared at a "meet & greet" event prior to their performance.

Then they went on stage to play at least 15 songs, including fan favorites such as It's All Been Done, One Week and If I had a Million Dollars. Their encore performance was Brian Wilson (video here). We don't know if they played any of their three chanukah songs.

Thanks to this blogger, we have pictures from the event. Unfortunately, none of the candidates are visible.


SLS International investors are speculating that the company stock may jump after an appearance on the season finale. They're wondering how much airtime their company's product will get. Much to their dismay, the SLS audio system is not the focus of the show. As seen in the picture below, though, their speakers were visible to the Taj Mahal audience. As you can see, Pontiac is the corporate sponsor. Earlier rumors of Best Buy's involvement in the finale appear to be false.