The POZ Staff

By Lauren Tuck (Editorial Assistant, POZ)

Following the cliffhanger from last week's Celebrity Apprentice, Donald Trump started off the penultimate episode answering the question we were all dying to know: Which of the celebrity contestants--Aubrey O'Day, Arsenio Hall and Clay Aiken--would be fired and not make it to the final round?

Thankfully, Trump cut right to the chase, and Aubrey O'Day was cast off. Finally! On her dismissal she said, "I'm somebody that stands in your face and is so bright and shines so big that you're either intimidated, you're annoyed, or you're in love." I stand firmly in the annoyed category. But my happiness regarding her dismissal was only short lived.

The finalists were summoned to Lincoln Center, the New York City arts center where this season of fierce competition all began. Clay Aiken and Arsenio Hall were tasked with putting together a 30-second advertisement, a fund-raising party and a talent show for their own charity (Arsenio's for the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation; Aiken's for The National Inclusion Project, an organization he founded to promote the inclusion of children with disabilities in activities with their non-disabled peers). But, lest this task seem too daunting to take on alone, Trump calls on ousted B-listers Aubrey O'Day, Debbie Gibson, Lisa Lampanelli, Teresa Giudice, Penn Jillette, Dee Snider, Adam Carolla, and Paul Teutul--but not sixth-place finisher Dayana Mendoza--to assist.

When this hodgepodge group of amateurs takes on party and event planning, only one outcome is certain: lots of drama. Although the viewers won't get to bask in it until next week's season finale, I have a feeling Arsenio will win. His advertisement concept is clever. He had his team (Lampanelli, Giudice, Carolla and Teutul) dressed in '80s garb delivering the message, "These clothes, these styles are gone, but you know what's still here? AIDS! HIV!" If they manage to get Magic Johnson on video facing the right direction, if the party goes off without a hitch and the comedy/talent show induces roars of laughter, then Arsenio can definitely win this one for the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation.

Watch the clip below of Magic talking to the side:



Compared with his competitor Clay Aiken, Arsenio seems cooler, calmer, more flush with celebrity friends with deep pockets, and more determined to win Celebrity Apprentice. "I can't even put into words how important it is to be able to earn things for the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation and to continue the opportunity to earn even more," Arsenio said. "You come here to help people, and I've done it--and I'm not finished." Watch next week to see if Hall reigns victorious and wins $250,000.

By Lauren Tuck (Editorial Assistant, POZ)

Jamar Rogers may not have gotten enough votes from America on The Voice semifinals to move onto the show's finale this week, but that doesn't mean that he has left America's hearts--or televisions for that matter.

After he sang his heart out with a rousing rendition of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now" on the penultimate elimination round--and was beat out by raspy rocker Juliet Simms singing "It's a Man's Man's Man's World"--he was kept around in Los Angeles for another week. Jamar, joined by his fellow discharged Voice participants, got to once again prove his vocal prowess on the national stage by singing a boy band-inspired take on Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and later a Team Cee Lo reunion of sorts to take on "With a Little Help From My Friends." Just saying: Rogers was the only one that got roars from the crowd when he started crooning.

Earlier in the week, Jamar made his rounds on the talk show circuit spreading his message of hope, determination and the ability to overcome adversity.

On The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he sat down with the Special Envoy for Global AIDS Awareness to perform, reflect and discuss what's coming up next. He said, "I'm a firm believer in everything happening for a reason...so I'm looking forward to all of the things in activism I get to do and the work in the community that I want to do.... Your past doesn't dictate your future--we have a tomorrow that's waiting for us."

Watch Jamar talk with Ellen and perform Bon Jovi's "It's My Life":



One thing on Jamar's HIV activism agenda will be serving as a general in the POZ Army. As a commander in the field, he will fight to find a cure for AIDS--and treatment for all until a cure is found. Look out for his Twitter and Facebook updates. And enlist in the POZ Army today!

To read the POZ interview with Jamar, click here.

To learn more about the POZ Army, click here.

By Lauren Tuck (Editorial Assistant, POZ)

This week, the remaining five contestants on The Celebrity Apprentice were brought to the Hearst Tower and told that they would be designing a four page print advertising campaign for Farouk Systems' new CHI touch screen hair dryer, and that the ad would (maybe) appear in Elle magazine. I'm not really sure why a hair dryer needs a touch screen because there are only three settings--High, Low or Cool--but, regardless, it is always entertaining watching the celebrities at work.

Lisa Lampanelli couldn't have been happier after Dayana Mendoza's departure last week, and she jumped right into the task as project manager with the only person left on her team (she slowly terrorized and eliminated the rest of them): Clay Aiken. Their concept for the campaign was to depict that all girls, whether a tomboy, beauty queen or librarian, use hair-care products. Isn't it ironic that Lisa actually could have used Miss Universe's fashion and beauty expertise for this challenge? During L.L.'s critique (Lisa Lampanelli's new self-anointed nickname--Doesn't she know that LL Cool J already has the rights to that one), the thing that Trump criticized her for was her lack of style, something that Dayana has in spades.
 Meanwhile, across the hall at Team Unanimous, Aubrey O'Day once again asserted that she is the driving force and creative mind behind every smart decision made on her team, even when she isn't in charge. Their theme drew on zen, yoga and Aubrey (because it's All About Aubrey). Arsenio Hall needs to step up and play just as dirty as the has-been pop princess or else he doesn't stand a chance of winning in the finale.
 
I thought Team Forte would lose this one because Mr. Farouk Shami, the owner of the company the ads were being created for, was totally taken by O'Day and her bright red hair (which, despite her claims otherwise, is definitely not natural). But Donald Trump surprised me by declaring Lisa and Clay the winners of this wacky challenge. Therefore, Lisa as project manager was awarded $100,000 for her charity: Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). In total, L.L. has secured $120,000 for the New York City-based HIV/AIDS organization. Back in the boardroom, The Real Housewife of New Jersey Teresa Giudice didn't stand a chance going up against O'Day and was fired.
 
For the second surprise of the night, Trump called in last cycle's winner and the runner-up--country music singer-songwriter John Rich and actress Marlee Matlin--to interview the final four and then eliminate two of them.

As soon as Aubrey said, "I'm involved with a lot of charities. I have worked with battered women's shelters, I've worked with refugee camps, I've worked with children with AIDS in Africa, I've worked with Nelson Mandela, I've worked with the Dalai Lama, I've worked with Fidel Castro..." I thought she was a goner. I mean Fidel Castro! Seriously? But, Lisa's uncontrollable emotions and loud mouth eventually got the best of her, and she was sent packing. Lisa is so loud in fact that Marlee Matlin remarked, "Even being death I could hear her." Well, you win some, you lose some. Then the show faded to black before the third castoff of the night was announced.

Unfortunately, only one member of Team HIV/AIDS is left. Tune in next week to see if Arsenio can beat out Aubrey O'Day and Clay Aiken to win $250,000 for the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation. 

By Jennifer Morton (Managing Editor, POZ)

Pop artist and activist Keith Haring would have turned 54 years old today. In his honor, Google has created a doodle.

Watch the video here:



Keith is one of the many artists the world lost too soon because of AIDS. I have a Haring poster of "Ignorance=Fear" hanging in my POZ office, and it inspires me every day.

He was born to a cartoonist father in Reading, Pennsylvania, and moved to New York City when he was 19. He was captivated by the graffiti scene and soon began decorating the NYC subways with his signature imagery.

Keith became a darling of the '80s art scene, but it was a dark time in New York. He wrote in his journal: "My friends are dropping like flies. Work is all I have, and art is more important than life."

After being diagnosed with HIV in 1988, Haring established the Keith Haring Foundation. He used his art to generate activism and raise AIDS awareness. Keith died in 1990 at the age of 31.

I haven't seen the Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum yet (it runs through July 8), but I did get the chance to see the mural that he created in the second-floor bathroom at the LGBT Community Center in Greenwich Village. The room is no longer a bathroom, but the mural remains.

For more on his extraordinary work and life, visit haring.com.

Visit the POZ Pinterest page to see some of Haring's art.

By Lauren Tuck (Editorial Assistant, POZ)

On week 11 of Celebrity Apprentice, the contestants were tasked with writing a jingle for the Good Sam Club (I Googled it: Good Sam Club is a "one-stop resource for all things RV"). They also had to put together a musical number that added choreography and costumes galore to the jingle--and then perform it in front of a live audience. You would think that the two professional singers on Team Forte and Team Unanimous--Clay Aiken and Aubrey O'Day respectively--would have stepped up as project managers. Instead we were treated to an AIDS showdown between Arsenio Hall for the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation and Dayana Mendoza for the Latino Commission on AIDS. In other words, either way AIDS wins.

Early on in the episode it was made very clear that neither Arsenio nor Dayana has any clue as to how to write, compose, sing, dance or choreograph...essentially every skill necessary to succeed in this particular assignment. Lucky for Arsenio, his team-member Aubrey has no problem stealing the spotlight and she created a presentation based on "Hollaback Girl" (Gwen Stefani's pop anthem in which she spells out B-A-N-A-N-A-S dressed as a cheerleader). Across the hall, Team Unanimous tried to work as a team, but the combination of Lisa Lampanelli's hard-headedness, Aiken's arrogance and Mendoza's language barrier proved to be disastrous.

For the second time this scintillating season, Arsenio Hall won a charitable donation for the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation. Trump offered $20,000, and Good Sam contributed $25,000 in addition to 100 percent of the proceeds from the sales of Good Sam mascot merchandise. Unfortunately Hall's win is bittersweet because Dayana Mendoza--a third of Team HIV/AIDS (the third is Lampanelli, who is playing for Gay Men's Health Crisis)--was fired this week. We'll miss Dayana.

Arsenio may have been able to fly under the radar and let Aubrey take the reigns in this challenge, but as the number of contestants left standing shrinks, the celebrities will have to start putting their best interests before their teams'. And, as much as I love all charities (because giving is good), I'm hoping that Arsenio steps up and Lisa backs down so they both have better chances moving forward.  

On a side note: With all of the attention that bullying among adolescents has received in the national media these past few years, it's interesting that no one has called out Lisa Lampanelli for her perpetual picking on Dayana. So allow me: Lisa, just because being mean is part of your comic persona, and just because all the competitors are mature adults (as opposed to adolescents) and just because you're providing entertainment on television, that doesn't mean that it's acceptable to actually be, well, mean.

As much good as Lisa does for the LGBT community, her poor behavior reflects negatively on her character, and it overshadows her achievements. It may be true that Dayana isn't the brightest bulb (for example she thought the word jingle referred to a Christmas song--as in "Jingle All the Way"), but can't we please cut the bombshell beauty some slack! English is not her first language. I've been learning Spanish for 10 years and still get tripped up on the verb "to be." Also, props to Dayana for always keeping her composure whenever Lisa is spewing insults in her direction, a true queen for sure.

Next week, be sure to watch as Arsenio delivers his winnings to the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation. Last time Arenio won, he spoke with the sports legend via video chat, but maybe we'll get to see Johnson make an live appearance this time. Keep rooting for Team HIV/AIDS! The odds are definitely in our favor!

By Dennis Daniel (Comptroller, Smart + Strong)

Rachel Maddow, former ACT UP member and current MSNBC TV host, spotlighted the 25th anniversary of ACT UP on her show.

Watch the segment:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In the segment, she not only covers the history of ACT UP, but also its current demands for a tax to end AIDS.

Watch our video coverage of the ACT UP 25 protest:
 


Before her media career, Maddow was an AIDS activist. Her 2009 POZ interview details that part of her life. Kudos to Maddow for dedicating air time to HIV.