Gary Susman catches us up on the latest gossip about The Apprentice from Entertainment Weekly’s EW.com.
”The Apprentice” may have ended its season a week ago, but the contestants’ 15 minutes of fame aren’t over yet. Most notably, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth continues to stir controversy. This week, she continued to do what she seems to do best: get fired. After it was announced that she’d filmed a cameo in a Clairol Herbal Essences ”streaking party” ad, the hair color manufacturer was deluged with angry e-mails and boycott threats, MSNBC reports. On Wednesday, the company announced it was washing its hair of her and dropping her from the ad, issuing a statement that saPOSTID: ”After reviewing the film of all the possible endings a decision has been made not to use the Omarosa take.” Still, her streak isn’t over; she’ll still appear in an episode of NBC’s soap ”Passions” in May, and she says she’s in talks for a role in a sitcom pilot.
”Apprentice” winner Bill Rancic is on his way to a $250,000-a-year position managing Donald Trump’s skyscraper construction project in Chicago (a project that may be tracked in a spinoff series), but the résumé that helped land Rancic the job may have been inflated. Rancic may have claimed that he grew his company, Cigars Around the World, into a ”multimillion dollar” business, but a Securites and Exchange Commission filing issued after Rancic sold the company last year and posted at The Smoking Gun shows the firm’s sale price was just $425,000, with an additional ”consideration” of up to $450,000 coming Rancic’s way through 2006. Close, but no cigar.
Trump held a mini-reunion with some of the contestants on CNN’s ”Larry King Live” on Wednesday, where The Donald announced a mini-scholarship program. The first beneficiary: Troy McClain, the only contestant who didn’t have a degree. ”I read somewhere where Troy wanted to go back to college. And the problem is, he’s got a family. You know, it’s hard to afford college. College is expensive,” said Trump, who made McClain an offer contingent upon the approval of the other contenders. ”The offer is that I will pay for his college education if he wants to go back.” The other contestants voted unanimously that McClain should accept the offer. Said Trump: ”Congratulations. You better pick a nice, good, expensive college.”
Thanks to Jill for the help on this one.