Episode Report Card Miss Alli: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Flair, Care, And The Dirty Chair
By Miss Alli | Season 2 | Episode 15 | Aired on 12.15.2004
At Riverbank, Jen goes out on the court and meets up with David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA and thus, these days, the National Ambassador For Making A Pantload Of Money And Being Periodically Arrested. In fact, as Jen explains in an interview, Stern was the guy who got the job of serving as emcee after Chris Webber bailed. Wow. That change of plans certainly "blew the entire event." Not. And then, as Jen is preparing for the beginning of the game, we look up into the sky and see the majestic blades of the Trumpicopter approaching the basketball game. And as Trump's landing, Chris interviews that, as the PM, Jennifer should have snapped to attention and greeted Trump right out of the gate. But she doesn't. Instead, all by his lonesome, Trump makes his way through the crowd, being cheered by knots of adoring fans and actually chased by a mob of angry children at some point. Wow, who is protecting Trump from the hooligans? That is my question. Because children can be very cruel regarding people who are "different." Meanwhile, Jen runs into George and asks him whether Trump has arrived. "The chopper just came down," George says. "Okay, we'll be on the lookout for him," Jen chirps. In a cautioning tone, George tells her, "I would do that," and it goes directly over Jen's head and she pays no attention. Instead, she just blandly thanks him and flits off. Meanwhile, Trump arrives at courtside and runs into Jen. They shake hands. As Jen escorts him in, he passes Stacy, whom he obviously fails to notice (snerk), so she calls out, "Hi, Mr. Trump!" Even then, he doesn't notice her. "Good to see you," she says loudly. He turns. "Well, how are you?" he asks her. "Good! How are you?" she responds, relieved that he still recognizes her, not that he says her name or likely remembers anything about her except that he fired her just for being obnoxious. Jen then introduces Trump to Bob Lanier, whom Trump already knows, and takes Trump to his seat, where he meets up with George. And then Jen wanders off and Trump chats with George.
Dwyane Wade (of the Miami Heat, I believe, at the moment) is introduced as Jen stands off to the side, voicing over that she wanted to ensure that things got off to a good start. But then, figuring that being -- as she described it -- the CEO of a game doesn't mean you actually have to be there, she leaves for the "VIP reception." This leaves Pamela to walk out on the court and hand the microphone off to David Stern. Pamela points out that this was a big moment in the unfolding of the game and it was a big part of the presentation, and that if she had been Jen, she would have done it herself -- handled things at center court in front of Trump and everyone. To me, this, and the thing with being slow to greet Trump are essentially parts of the same thing -- because Jen lacks experience running an operation on her own, she doesn't get the etiquette, and doesn't know that while it's not exactly about sucking up, there are moments when people expect to see the person in charge of something because it makes them feel like the person in charge is...well, is in charge, you know? They expect to see you, and they expect you to hand off details to other people so that you can be there for the opening of the game, so that you personally can hand off the microphone to the emcee. It makes the event look competently run when the person who's in charge of it is available and looks calm.
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20Next