Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth went toe-to-toe with her arch nemesis Piers Morgan, and suffered the worst defeat in The Apprentice history.
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"I'd like to leave a few words for all the amazing celebrities I had a chance to meet... and Piers ," said Omarosa after her ouster. "No man is your friend, no man is your foe. But every man is your teacher. Peace!"
The Celebrity Apprentice's tenth episode began with the six remaining candidates meeting Trump, his wife Melania, their 18-month-old son Barron, Ivanka, and Donald Jr. at Trump's posh Trump Towers apartment.
The Donald explained for their next task, the two teams would be working at Moti Hasson's New York City art gallery. Each team would select one of five artists, whose work they would sell over the course of an evening at the gallery. The team that made the most profit from the art sale would win the challenge, and the winning project manager would be able to donate all of the money raised beyond the art's cost.
Team Empresario chose Omarosa as its project manager while Team Hydra went with Piers.
"Remember, this was the task that I got fired on [during The Apprentice's first season]," said Omarosa.
"That's true, that's true. Very risky," responded The Donald.
"As soon as I knew Omarosa was going to be [project manager], I decided that this was time to go toe-to-toe, head-to-head, and fight to the finish," commented Piers.
Omarosa met with Moti to discuss the best technique to sell the art and flipped through a book containing the artists they could choose from. Hydra also met with Moti and -- since Piers, supermodel Carol Alt and professional boxer Lennox Lewis have no previous art gallery experience -- they had a lot of questions.
Hydra learned that new media artist Shirley Shor was the best option in terms of volume because once one of her pieces is sold it could be replaced by another piece. In addition, Shirley's art also had a higher cost than that of the other artists. Empresario chose David Kramer as their artist, with Omarosa explaining part of the decision was due to its low price point.
Empresario member Stephen Baldwin immediately got on the horn and tried to entice some of his New York City contacts to stop by the gallery and purchase some art. While he seemed to be struggling, the same couldn't be said for Piers, who phoned Hell's Kitchen star Gordon Ramsay.
"Gordon how are you?" asked Piers.
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"I'm f**king great," answered Gordon. "How are you?"
"Try not to swear too much in this brief conversation," said Piers. "I know it's almost a disease with you."
Piers realized the key to winning the task was "great contacts" who pay big bucks.
"I have no problem ringing up famous friends and asking for money," he said. "I've been doing it all my life and I'm very good at it. Now as the time where I don't just want to beat Omarosa, I want to pulverize her so badly that she's not only fired but will never work on television again. This wasn't business -- this was personal."
Omarosa then instructed Stephen to stop working his contacts so he could instead do some background research on David. When he questioned the decision, she implored him to look-up background on the artist AND make phone calls to contacts at the same time.
"At this level of the game, you've got to multitask," she told him.
Both teams arrived at the gallery and were upset to learn that their spaces were right next to each other, with patrons having to pass through Empresario's gallery just to get to Hydra's. Moti explained the spaces were determined based on which artists were chosen.
Stephen didn't really seem to be doing much of anything except snooping around, which didn't go unnoticed by Piers. He accused Stephen of "cheating" and "spying" and threatened physical violence unless he stopped. Stephen claimed he was just passing through Hydra's gallery on the way to the bathroom, but Piers wasn't buying it.
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"You're going to hit me?" asked Stephen. "For going to the restroom?"
Piers suggested Stephen go outside the building and through the back door if he needs to use the bathroom.
"Man, he's really nuts!" said Stephen about Piers.
As both teams put the finishing touches on their gallery space, Omarosa and Stephen argued about putting labels on the paintings -- with Omarosa being against it and Stephen for it.
"I would prefer that you did it," said Moti, settling the conflict.
The gallery doors then opened and the task began.
"It's my neck on the line," said Omarosa. "This is a team effort, but I don't want to go down for this one."
Omarosa did her best to funnel patrons to Empresario's gallery as soon as they walked in the door, and the plan initially worked as Lennox was slow to his post by the door, where he was supposed to direct people to Hydra's gallery. Country star Trace Adkins -- Empresario's third member -- quickly made two sales to help his team get off on the right foot.
However Carol was able to snag one of Stephen's invitees, who subsequently purchased a piece of Hydra's art and not Empresario's.
"All's fair in love and war," explained Piers.
Piers' contacts seemed to be arriving on schedule and purchasing paintings, while Omarosa was struggling to make even one sale. Ivanka and Donald Jr. arrived and Omarosa immediately began to single out Stephen.
"Stephen was not focused and detached himself from the process," she said. "At least I had folks who turned out who wanted to support me. I can't really say the same for Stephen."
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Piers was feeling extremely confident and said he felt Hydra "destroyed" Empresario. Lennox and Carol agreed with Piers' assessment of the task -- and so did Omarosa, not a good sign of things to come.
"Omarosa, this was your weakness on The Apprentice previously wasn't it," Trump reminded her. "How do you think you did?"
"It was a repeat," she answered. "We only sold -- I believe -- four paintings... Stephen didn't make a sale."
Ivanka revealed Hydra sold 14 of 20 pieces for a total of $164,000 while Empresario sold only three of 16 for $7,000.
"Wow. That's a big difference," said Trump.
Omarosa explained her patrons weren't wealthy enough to purchase the paintings, but Donald Jr. reminded her that a high price point was the reason she lost The Apprentice's first-season art gallery task. Even at a lower price point, she still failed.
"This is the first time I came here knowing that we had taken a pretty good scalding," said Trace.
"This is the biggest slaughter in the history of The Apprentice," said The Donald. "We've never had anything like this. I've never seen a slaughter this bad."
Piers described the task as "personal" and wanted to seek some revenge on Omarosa, who previously attacked his family members. In addition, Piers attacked Omarosa's celebrity status again, which she didn't take very well but did very little to defend herself. Piers also suggested Trump fire both Omarosa and Stephen in one felt swoop since Empresario performed so poorly.
Omarosa initially blamed her sales team -- Stephen and Trace -- for losing the challenge, then backed off and said they should "collectively take responsibility" for the loss.
Hydra left the boardroom and went into the War Room, with Trump telling Piers he raised $51,300 for his charity -- The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
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Omarosa admitted she lacked the ammunition to combat Piers. Ivanka asked if Omarosa regretted engaging in conflict with Piers.
"I know some things about him," Omarosa said of Piers. "I think he's in the closet."
"I don't think you know him very well," said Trump. "And you're calling him a homosexual."
Omarosa used the rational that Piers had previously asked Trace and Lennox to remove their shirts during tasks, which was a pretty flimsy reason to base someone's sexuality on.
"Does Piers want to come back here and defend himself?" said Trump. "Ask Piers if he wants to come back to defend himself."
Piers left the War Room for the boardroom, walked straight up to the table and planted a kiss on Trace's cheek. Everybody got a good laugh out of it, except for Trace, who looked incredibly uncomfortable. Omarosa thought Piers was going to hit her.
"Well that was a pretty good defense," said The Donald. "Actually I fully understand what he's done."
"I don't!" answered Trace.
"Everyone knows he was kidding. He was kidding," assured Trump.
Stephen said he felt the responsibility for the loss rested with Omarosa as project manager, and Trace agreed since the patrons Omarosa brought in "didn't have any intention of buying anything."
"Some of them didn't even bring money with them!" said Trace -- who despite selling two of Empresario's paintings -- was still "disappointed."
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"This is the first time I've seen you walk into a room where you felt and looked defeated," said The Donald. "Omarosa you were the project manager -- and you not only lost -- you got creamed. You know I've always been a big Omarosa fan, but Omarosa, you're fired. This was not even close."
"Thank you for bringing me back," said Omarosa upon her exit.
The Celebrity Apprentice's next episode will air Thursday, March 13 at 9PM ET/PT on NBC.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio
