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It's Donald Donald
Donald all over
Trump cranks up the buzz for 'Apprentice' finale
By Diego Vasquez
Going into tomorrow night’s
finale of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” it's so easy to forget that Donald
Trump, author of so many books on success in business, is in yet another
dance with the bankruptcy courts over his Trump Hotels & Casino
Resorts, which are in hock for $1.8 billion in debt Trump struggles
to make payments on.
The bankruptcy headlines simply merge in with all press,
mostly positive, about the “The Apprentice” finale and the man whose
every moment these days seemed an orchestrated media event.
If public relations is an art, Trump has turned it into a
science, and that science has been most hard at work in the days before
the finale.
Much of the press is around Trump talking about Trump the man
and the phenomenon. Never mind that today he travels to Camden,
N.J., where a bankruptcy judge will review his latest plan for emerging
from bankruptcy.
In a Q&A session with Business Week, the king of
wing ponders whether Trump as a brand is bigger than Pepsi and Coke.
"The brand has become the best brand.... I think it's a bigger brand
now than Pepsi Cola or Coca-Cola," he tells Business Week's Diane
Brady.
Trump talks about his imitators.
“Mark Cuban tried a show and it failed. Richard
Branson tried a show and it failed quickly and miserably," Trump
tells the magazine, speaking of the success of his NBC reality show.
"Yet 'The Apprentice' is beating virtually everything.
Somehow, there’s been a chord hit. Something that I do -- undefined --
seems to get people to want to watch.”
Fast Company has a review of Trump: The Doll, quoting
the great Trumpisms that emerge from the toy when you press a button. The
doll sells for $19.95 and stands tall at 12 inches, with hair yet.
The magazine takes delight in such phrases as “Have an ego.
There's nothing wrong with ego,” and, “I should fire myself just for
having you around.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, Trump was reported to be planning
to have his upcoming wedding broadcast on network television. He's now in
talks.
“Two networks want to televise it live,” Trump
tells a reporter. But he won't say which ones, quipping: “The last live
wedding I saw televised was Lady Di and Prince Charles, and that didn’t
work out all that well.”
Trump and longtime main squeeze Melania Knauss are getting
married on Jan. 22 in Palm Beach, Fla.
In yet other Trump news, he and NBC announced that
Regis Philbin would co-host tomorrow night's finale, when America learns
whether Jennifer Massey or Kelly Perdew becomes the next Donald
apprentice.
In making the announcement, Trump revealed that he and
Philbin go back some years.
“Regis Philbin has been one of my closest friends for more
than 20 years,” Trump said in a statement. "It will be great to
incorporate his expertise at hosting live events and I know we are also
going to have fun together."
For Trump, speaking to Business Week about his special
way, there's some concern about not coming off as arrogant with all the
public attention he's been generating. He doesn't want to come off as
arrogant, or as a terrible human being. "I’m not a terrible human
being.”
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Dec. 15, 2004
©
2004
Media Life
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