As the winner of the second "Apprentice,"
Kelly Perdew should be in line for a top job in the Trump organization. But
you'd never know that from his office, reports Associate Editor Ramin Setoodeh
in the May 23 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, May 16). Perdew's desk
is in a small, windowless space next to the assistant to Donald Trump's wife,
Melania (Perdew has no assistant). The walls are bare, except for a dry-erase
board and a U.S. map, stuck with pins marking the distributors he's signed to
buy his boss's new line of bottled water, Trump Ice.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050515/NYSU010 )
Spend some time with winners of the first two seasons of "Apprentice," and the
reality of this reality show becomes clear: the apprentices' $250,000-a-year
gigs are less about climbing the corporate ladder, and more about using their
"Apprentice" celebrity to promote Trump, reports Setoodeh. "It's a little bit
too much to ask someone to be the president of an $800 million building when
they haven't had that kind of experience," says Trump.
Perdew's calendar is filled with many distractions -- speeches to entrepreneurs
about Trump and "The Apprentice," deadlines for writing a book about how the
military teaches business skills, and acting in an ad for the Department of
Defense. Bill Rancic, the first season's winner who was ostensibly put in
charge of the $800 million "Chicago: Trump Tower" project, seems to spend as
much of his time reliving his TV star turn, too, reports Setoodeh. He'll warm
up a crowd of real-estate brokers or potential buyers by talking about "The
Apprentice," then the marketing team takes over to talk specifics.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7856555/site/newsweek/
(Read full article at http://www.newsweek.com/.)
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DATASOURCE: Newsweek
CONTACT: Abigail Lorge of Newsweek, +1-212-445-4078
Web site: http://www.newsweek.msnbc.com/