CO-STARRING DONALD'S HAIRPIECE: I'm only somewhat ashamed to admit that I continue to watch The Celebrity Apprentice. This week, we had the shocking(!) twist that both teams lost, and two people would be going home. It seemed exceedingly clear that Clint Black, the project manager for one team, would be fired, as he charged into a concept for a video (which he wrote, directed, and starred in) that was clearly inappropriate for the target audience. However, Trump decides not to eliminate Clint for his endlessly bad video, but instead launches into a tirade against Khloe Kardashian for having a DUI (a fact of which he was apparently unaware prior to this episode, despite having Perez Hilton as a special guest judge). The sense I got was that the producers told Trump that Black (along with Joan Rivers) is one of the very few recognizable "celebrities" left (could you pick Natalie Gulbis, Annie Duke, Brian McKnight, or Brande Roderick out of a lineup?) and told Trump he needed to find someone else to fire.

I BELIEVE WE ALL KNOW HER LAST NAME: If there were any doubt that, occasionally, American Idol does create The Next Pop Musical Superstars, last night Carrie Underwood was awarded the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year Award, breaking Kenny Chesney's four-year win streak and becoming the seventh female artist to be so honored, her predecessors being Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, Reba McEntire, Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks.

What's becoming increasingly troubling to me about Hokey Danny Gokey (a/k/a DWG, RDJJ, etc.), along these lines, is that why he may be very good in a competition of "best singer within the confines of weekly American Idol performances," I just don't see the future in which he becomes the Next Pop Superstar. In that vein, he reminds me a lot of Taylor Hicks with his un-contemporary sound and kitschy performance style, and perhaps even more accurately someone like Melrose on America's Next Top Model -- someone who could shine within the artificial constructs of a televised competition, but with no hopes of major stardom outside that contrived realm. There are people within this year's competition who have legitimate aspirations to future stardom, but I just don't think he's one of them.

SINCE WE DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO BILLY PACKER, EVERYONE WINS: Our annual tournament pool concludes tonight. If UNC wins, Finch J. Bowman wins; if the Spartans triumph it's the "cg" entry by "B. Hurley".

Toss-up question: best men's college basketball team you've seen in the last twenty years? Without looking at any numbers at all, I'm just going to say the Larry Johnson-Stacey Augmon UNLV Runnin' Rebels of the early 1990s, whose athleticism and swarming defense were stunning; the runner-up would probably be Pitino's 1996 Kentucky championship team, which was just ridiculously deep -- Antoine Walker, Tony Delk, Walter McCarty, Derek Anderson and Ron Mercer (and others) all moving on to the NBA. As much as I like this UNC team, they're nowhere near as dominating as what we grew up seeing.

DR MAX REGRETS TO INFORM YOU: Early CNN fixture Tom Braden has died. While I liked Crossfire back in the early days, it never occurred to me that Tom Braden was the fellow who wrote Eight Is Enough, on which the Bradford family was based. Now, I think it would have been more interesting if Abby/Betty Buckley was having an affair with Robert McNamara, such opportunities were written out of the show by setting it in Sacramento.

I don't recall our ever having an Eight is Enough thread and given that it launched the careers of Scott Baio Ralph Macchio and Willie Aames, I trust our commentariat has something to say of the fine folks from Macarthur Park.

NO FLIPPING: ALOTT5MA presents the Adam Lambert Roundtable: A Discussion of Arts, Politics, and Culture.

"I THINK THE PROFESSOR HAS A BOYFRIEND": Well, no, NYT Styles Section, I haven't "CONSIDER[ed] the erotic potential between blogger and commenters" as your lede implores (and nor should you until we run our Win A Date With Matt sweepstakes), but that doesn't prevent me from being happy that our longtime online friend Ann Althouse is engaged to be wed.

GOD HELP THEM IF THEY SCREW UP ON PLINKO:This week's NYT magazine contains a correction concerning the crossword puzzle of two weeks ago, which apparently was not closely edited by a fan of The Price Is Right, who could explain the difference between the "Showcase Showdown" and the "Showcase." I was also reminded of the bit in the West Wing pilot (seemingly not available on YouTube) where Leo berates the Times for a bad spelling in the puzzle.