The women’s team was short two players, as Sharon Osborne, who’s been fighting some kind of bug for a few tasks now, was out sick, while Cyndi Lauper was off to The White House as President Obama announced some new legislation regarding hate crimes – a campaign she has been working on for years with her True Colors Fund.
As a result of the no-shows, the men’s team finally had an opportunity to be on equal footing with the women, with each side working with four apiece.
This week’s task involved creating two commercial videos for a deodorant company: one was a traditional thirty-second tv commercial, and the other was a ten-second video aimed at the internet audience – with the goal of the video going viral and being spread everywhere.
The deodorant company is tied in with the NBA, so each time had a former NBA pro to participate in the campaign: the men had Portland Trail Blazer and Houston Rockets great Clyde “The Glide” Drexler and the women’s team worked with former Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen.
Led by chef Curtis Stone, the men’s side appeared to have everything in place, with much of the creative concept for the videos (once again) handled by Bret Michaels. Things got sidetracked a bit after Bret received word from home that his daughter, Raine, was showing signs of diabetes and was going to the doctor’s for some testing. A lifelong diabetic himself (diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 6), Michaels is on the show to raise funds for the American Diabetes Association, and the news that his young daughter may have to endure daily insulin shots, like he does, really shook Bret up, as it would any parent. To his credit, Bret dealt with his family issues while maintaining focus and bringing positive energy to the team and the task – something he admitted was a healthy distraction while his family awaited news of his daughter’s test results.
With former tv actress Holly Robinson Peete as Project Manager, the women’s side looked like they’d be highly productive out of the gate, as Peete took control from the start. In general, the team seemed relieved that they didn’t have to “manage” Lauper and set out to get the job done. While in Washington, Lauper phoned the team to offer some creative input, but was basically ignored, as the project was well underway at that point; the women (specifically Peete) simply didn’t have the courage or courtesy to tell Cyndi where things stood. Cyndi did return for day two of the task, and offered to help with the jingle Peete had created for the ads, but even that didn’t go smoothly as Peete really seemed uninterested in any of Lauper’s help.
When the task was completed, but before the teams went to the boardroom, runner Michael Johnson pulled a shocker and met with Donald Trump to advise him that he had to head home to San Francisco immediately to deal with a personal family issue himself. The way the show was edited, it was easy to think that Bret was leaving because of his situation, but it turned out to be something too private for Johnson to reveal and he left on his own.
In the boardroom, it was the men who prevailed, winning $20,000 for Curtis’ charity of choice, Feeding America; the women were left to sort out which players were the strongest, who did what, and who didn’t do what, as usual. There was a really interesting moment when Lauper challenged Peete’s management style, but she cut herself off before saying anything that could be used against her in future boardroom sessions; it’s a shame Lauper didn’t just let her true colors fly, cause she sure looked like she wanted to get something off her chest. In the end, model Selita Ebanks was sent packing….no big loss to the team or the show.
Bret Michaels - Rock My World - Raine Bret Michaels – Raine (2008)
Cyndi Lauper - True Colors - True Colors Cyndi Lauper – True Colors (1986)
