I haven't seen anyone post about this one, but you all know what a reality junkie I am, so it's no surprise that I'm hooked on this one too. For anyone who does watch...in the 'scenes from the next episode' (which will be the finale, next week)...they said Donald will reveal this great big surprise. I sat there and wondered what it could be, and my husband said, "He's going to hire BOTH of them!" I think (and hope) he's right! I was rooting for Randall from day one, and Rebecca stole my heart mid-season.

Kristin, believe it or not, this is one reality show that I don't watch! I just might watch the finale to see what his big surprise will be!

PS
Tonights Survivor was excellent! Goodbye Judd!!

Kristen,

My husband said exactly the same thing!

I hope he's right :)

Peggy

Okay Kristen, here's another Apprentice junky. Believe it or not, its the only reality show I watch. I just got hooked at the end of Season 1, and continued with Season 2, and here I am again. Yes, I am with you! I think Randall has been the star from Day 1, and I am rooting for him! He seems to be such a nice, gracious person, and so smart and accomplished! Even though he had a couple of misteps lately, that does not take away from his obvious skills and intelligence. I think Donald would be lucky to get a man like him.

I like the tasks, and the tie-ins with various businesses. I just marvel at the way Trump does this, and manages to be #1 cheerleader for NY as well.......of course I don't like his taste or ostentatiousness, but still - the program grabs me in a way the others don't. I haven't yet watched Martha because I just don't particularly care for her, so the program doesn't interest me.

I have to say I also liked Richard Branson's show as well. In fact, I thought his view of what was important was much more well rounded than The Donald - indicating the importance that Branson places on compassion and human values. I was sorry that show was not picked up for another run. I guess the fact that these two shows deal with business, and I spent so much time in the corporate world before opening my own consulting practice, makes me relate more to these situations, and the important of learning to deal with, and motivate people........

I'm here in LA, and tonight's episode is just coming on so I have to go see what happens this week!

Fun to discuss it with you......

Glenda

Hi Glenda,

Glad to see you come out of lurk mode. Nice to hear from you!

Lurk mode! Well yes, thats true. I do enjoy reading what people have had to say about various matters, including their cruises, but just haven't felt I've had anything to add. I don't know when we are going to take another cruise, and so I didn't want to sort of "masque under false pretenses". Now you make me feel guilty! Plus, you all have your various relationships established now, and have become quite a "family", so I just didn't feel I wanted to intrude.

Now, back to the Apprentice! Boy, that was a surprise! But, Donald's done it before - remember Black Thursday a few weeks ago!

Maybe he's trying to speed it up cause the shows gotta end......in any event, now we have the two that seem the most capable and have survived. I think someone said they thought both could be hired? Well, that's possible - tune in to next week!

Gosh Glenda, we are always glad to see you post!! So what if you don't have any cruises booked, maybe if you hang around a bit more you might get the cruise itch ;)

I'm hoping for both of them to be hired too. I noticed the Donald's smile when Rebecca entered the room in one scene last night and Randall is extremely qualified. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it must have been for Rebecca to manage all this time on crutches. They would both be terrific - my two favorites from the beginning.
Maggie

Karen, I do have the cruise itch, believe me. However - as both hubby and I are retired now, we are suffering from the transition of having money (and "there's more where that came from!"), to a much more limited budget, especially for splurges like cruises.

I've been spoiled by taking 3 SilverSea cruises, and that is the standard I now have (sigh.) I've been talking forever about taking one ofthe New England cruises in October, NY/Montreal, but at this point its still a dream.

Actually, what I have been looking into - but not seriously considering yet - is a river cruise in Europe on the Peter Dielmann line on the Danube River, next Fall. Its a Music theme, with concerts and an opera - sounds heavenly to me. We'll see if my Social Security can stretch that far..........ha ha.........

Thanks for encouraging me, Karen!

g

Yay! I'm not the only Apprentice junkie! I haven't watched the Martha version, either - no interest in that. Glenda, good to "see" you here again! I agree with all you said about Donald. And I agree that Randall has been the star from Day One. He is awesome! Rebecca really resurrected herself after that Toral (is that her name?) ordeal all those weeks ago. And yes, Maggie, it is amazing that she's been doing this whole thing on crutches. She never complains or asks for any special favors because of her handicap.

Both of those candidates are incredible - he really needs to hire them both!

I said the same thing at work today. I think that the big surprise is going to be that he hires both.

Well, I think he tried to hire both, but left it all up to Randall. I think Randall was the best of the two, but I still think both should have been hired. I was a little bummed, I admit.

My husband said he thinks that was Randall's first "test" (when Trump asked him if he thought Rebecca should be hired too). But I don't know, I think either decision he made, he would have passed the test.

I can't get over that Rebecca is only 23!!! My, what a bright future she has to look forward to.

I have to admit I was really disappointed that Randall basically torpedoed Rebecca's chance of being hired as well. I think it was pretty obvious that Trump was going to hire both of them, and I think it was bizarre that he gave it to Randall to call that shot -- on live TV, with no prep. I thought it made Randall look selfish and inconsiderate. It's not like I can't understand the reasons behind it -- I mean, if you are looking at it strictly from a what's-best-for-me perspective, then it's certainly better for Randall's future to be the sole apprentice, the winner, the one who garners all the attention. But I think he would have had that anyway -- Rebecca would always have been the first runner-up. But at least she would have gotten a huge career boost, and I personally don't think it would have taken anything away from Randall.

I liked Randall all along, I predicted he'd win from the beginning. But I grew more and more impressed with Rebecca. And in my opinion, she would have been the better "apprentice", given that she IS young, relatively inexperienced, and just at the start of her career. If you look at it from the spirit of what an apprentice actually is, then she fits the bill better, rather than an eminently educated and already well-experienced businessman, which is what Randall is. He doesn't need to be anyone's apprentice -- he's already a huge success in his own right.

Anyway, that's my perspective. I do hope that Rebecca gets some huge boost out of the show, because she really impressed the hell out of me, and I think she deserves something.

I don't watch this show at all, but this Randall was interviewed on Imus yesterday morning & asked why he didn't hire Rebecca. I thought he came off very cocky when answering. But remember, I don't watch the show.

LeeAnne, I completely agree with everything you said. And Betty, this bit you mention is interesting....I hope this whole thing doesn't go to his head. Actually, Rebecca might end up better off in the long run!

Okay ladies, my two cents. As an avid viewer, I was glued to the screen.....I kind of thought it was dirty pool for Trump to put that hiring question to Randall in the middle of all the congrats and hoopla. I'm sure his answer was just off the cuff. Even if it wasn't, why should he share the spotlight at this point! He earned his reward, and as hard as he has worked, he deserved to have the spotlight solely on him for a few moments.

Trump may hire her anyway. Personally, her work with non-profits notwithstanding, I think she is too young with not enough management experience to be hired at a top spot in the organization. But certainly at a young executive spot further down in one of his companies.

As others have said, he "shined" from the beginning. Not just for his task skills (we only see snippets of that anyway), but for his people skills and obvious sensitivity to others.

Ever notice how the aggressive, "I'm just out for me, me, me!" ones get the boot? Sooner rather than later........

So, yeay for Randall. Gosh, what a lot of publicity those people get!!! Why anyone would WANT to work for Trump with chew 'um up and spit 'um out philosophy is beyond me, but this publicity is invaluable. I'm sure at this point Randall could write his own ticket somewhere else! Well, the contract is only for a year so at 30 he has plennnnnnty of time........

glenda

Glenda, I appreciate your perspective. I agree that it was wrong to put the question to him, right then at that moment without giving him even a chance to consider all the angles. That's what I meant about "no prep" -- I can't help but wonder if his answer might have been different if he'd been given some opportunity to think about it in advance. I don't know how they would have done that, without clueing him in to the fact that he was gonna win...who knows. Perhaps they could have given him a commercial break to at least think it over! But I think it was a bizarre twist.

And I agree that he deserves all the accolades he got, as well as the spotlight. I just personally don't think that it would have cost him much, if anything, to allow Rebecca to be hired as the "runner-up" so to speak.

Oh, speaking of Rebecca and her work with non-profits -- in that last task I kept saying to my husband "She's making a huge mistake!" by not giving the people there an opportunity to donate right then, on the spot. With ANY fundraising situation, the moment you are out of their eyesight, you drop out of their thoughts. It's being caught up in the hoopla, hearing the speakers, seeing the cause, that causes people to give. Sending them home with an envelope was a huge gaffe. I, like George, thought that Rebecca was just allowing herself to be pushed around by the Yahoo folks by not insisting that there be at least SOME opportunity to donate at the event. Hell, it was a charity event after all -- I can't imagine any of their "VIP" clients would have been offended to be asked to give.

So if it came down to the final task, Randall won for that reason alone.

But I do agree that he was a star from the beginning. I just don't think it would have hurt him to allow Rebecca to be hired, and in fact I think it would have made him appear magnanimous, and real gentleman.

He basically said that since he won all the challenges he was entitled to be the winner. And he knew Rebecca would have a great future without working for Trump. It was the entitled part that got me.

LeeAnne, I totally agree with you. Betty, I agree he came off cocky. I think he hurt his image...I know he did with me.

I can't believe that Rebecca is only 23...she is mature and business savvy beyond her age. I can't imagine what she will be like 20 years from now - a force to be reckoned with, I suppose. Her parents must be very proud.

I was so mad that night thst I had trouble going to sleep. I think that Trump really liked her. Maybe he will hire her anyway. If he doesn't I am sure that she will have lotd of other offers.

Coming from business, I have learned that business is as much connections than just being smart.You need friends. Randall could have had a business friend for life...now Rebecca is probably an enemy for life. She probably won't take his calls!

I understand that Rebecca has other offers and YAHOO has offered her a job. She may have lost the job with Trump, but her tactics earned her a job with the sponsors.

1. SYS-CON Media (www.sys-con.com) announced today that it plans to offer the top job at SYS-CON Events, Inc., the company's fully owned subsidiary that produces leading i-technology conferences and trade shows, to Ms. Rebecca Jarvis. SYS-CON's offer to Ms. Jarvis will be to run the events division of the company as president and CEO with an annual salary of $150,000. Part of the job responsibilities of the president and CEO position, which is currently open, will include the launch of three international conferences in 2006: iTVcon – Internet TV Conference & Expo (www.itvcon.com), SOA Web Services Edge Conference & Expo, and Enterprise Open Source Conference & Expo.

"SYS-CON Media has become the world's leading media company in i-technology markets in the past 10 years," said Fuat Kircaali, founder and CEO of the company. "We believe Rebecca can be a strong leader in our organization to grow this division and we would love to discuss this opportunity and the job details with her. In terms of her qualifications for the job: which employment agency could have ever done a better job than Donald? We believe Ms. Jarvis is fully qualified for this position."

2. Moments after Randall Pinkett was selected by Donald Trump to be the "Apprentice," he made it clear he didn't want any company.
During the live broadcast, Trump, after hiring Pinkett, asked if he should hire Rebecca Jarvis, too.

"It's not 'The Apprenti,' it's 'The Apprentice,'" Pinkett said, shooting down Jarvis' shot at a gig with Trump.

Trump said yesterday he came up with the idea of hiring both during the telecast, which emanated from Lincoln Center and was watched by 14 million viewers.

"I felt Randall should at least have a say," Trump told the Daily News yesterday.

But then Pinkett shot off the "Apprenti" line.

"I was surprised, because I think most people would have said hire Rebecca, too," Trump said. "It shows he's certainly an independent thinker."

Anyone watching the telecast Thursday night could see Trump was leaning toward Pinkett, who has multiple degrees and a stint at Oxford. During the run of "The Apprentice," viewers also saw his teams win repeatedly. He was also well-liked by his teammates. Still, the shot at Jarvis in the last final moments of the show was surprising.

"I'm not against what Randall did," Trump said. "He did a brave thing. His line was unbelievable."

Trump said he told Jarvis afterward he was surprised Pinkett didn't vote to hire her. However, Jarvis won't be out of work long. The folks at Yahoo offered her a job yesterday. Yahoo executives even offered her a job Friday morning during her "Today Show" interview with Katie Couric.

Someone said something wonderful:
In response to why Donald didn't just hire both. I think Donald actually thought that Randall would say yes since he talked so positively about Rebeccas abilities and they seemed to be two adults respectful of each others abilities until Randall turned into an insecure baby. Rebecca said it brilliantly when Katie Couric asked her if the tables were turned what would she do. She said of course I would say yes, why would I try to keep someone with such intelligence and competence who could be such an asset to the corporation from being a part of that. No offense but do we think Randalls grandmother was proud of him then? Also to whomever said Randall has started five companies and Rebecca has started none. He is 34 she is 23. He has eleven years on her. She will far surpass Randall at 34. Rebecca for 23 was incredibly intelligent, loyal and had more integrity then Randall will ever have and she dealt with everything with such class. You can't teach that at MIT. Somethings just can't be learned in a class room and Randall proved with his degree he still has alot to learn.

Wow, Sedona, thanks for posting that. I hadn't kept up with what happened in the aftermath. I have no doubt Rebecca will do wonderfully, no matter what path she chooses. I bet the job offers just keep rolling in for her!

IMO, this was the best "Apprentice" yet - both of the finalists were amazing! I thought last season's winner (I can't even think of her name now) was terrible! :(

I am so glad that you posted this.I can't stop thinking about the show. I haven't seen anything in our newspapers about it. I have a houseful of guests however and they are keeping me busy.We will be on PARTY so the family has moved in early to celebrate a combined Chanukah and Christmas

Wow, what great info for us Apprentice junkies! I hadn't seen anything else in the news either. I LOVE what she said to Katie! And I'm kinda glad to read that others saw Randall's denial to Rebecca as a rather nasty turn. I couldn't help feeling that way at the time. I wonder if he's regretting it now?

Anyway, I'm thrilled for Rebecca! She's gonna be a star whatever she does. I'll tell ya, I sure wish I could be as cool under pressure as that young woman.

I guess is was 4 weeks into the program and I told the hubby, Trump is going to pick Randall. I was shocked when Randall said no to hiring Rebecca too. You could almost hear the gasps in the audience when he said no. I also agree with what she said if she had been the first one chosen. I'm so glad Yahoo and others offered her a job. She is definitely first class and she certainly proved her ability over and over again. She has amazing cool under pressure for someone that young. I wish there was some way we could follow what happens with her over time.

This season was the best yet. I hope Trump is going to do more but it had the feel of this is the last one. It's been a fantastic show. It sounds like a lot of corporations are watching too and learning from all this. What a great way for other corporations to find high quality people that Trump doesn't hire.

By the way, Kendra was the gal hired last season.

KarenM

Has anyone heard anything about Kendra?

You might find this interesting. Kendra is also doing a number of public appearances and is soon to have a book published.

Trump's ambition hits Palm Beach

19.11.05
By Andrew Gumbel


You have to hand it to Donald Trump. While the rest of the world frets about torture chambers, global warming and the erosion of the United States' moral authority, he has kept his eye unwaveringly on the only prize he cares about, which is making a killing in the overheated American property market.

His latest ambition: to become the lucky beneficiary of the most expensive private home sale in the history of American luxury real estate - and, while he's about it, to promote the hell out of himself and his ambition to be the undisputed guru of shameless wealth.

We already have Trump office towers and Trump casinos, Trump get-rich books and Trump University, at which online students can learn to emulate the master. There are Trump mobile phone ring tones, Trump bottled water and Trump suits and ties.

The Donald is lending his face and tortured hairdo to promote everything from pizza to credit cards.

Most prominently, he has pioneered the television show The Apprentice, in which would-be Trump acolytes are subjected to multiple business-world tests and humiliations in a knockout contest for supremacy.

It's a cunning exercise in cross-marketing. The winner of last season's The Apprentice, Florida property agent Kendra Todd, has spent the past few months reworking and remodelling a luxury villa on Palm Beach, two hours north of Miami.

The idea is to turn a US$40 million ($58.4 million) property - which is what Trump paid for it in a bankruptcy auction - into a US$125 million ($182 million) property.

Not so long ago, that would have seemed a preposterous sum even for a special-effects-laden Hollywood blockbuster. But for the super-rich things have continued to go from very good to even better.

Last year, cosmetics billionaire Ronald Perelman sold his Palm Beach mansion for US$70 million ($102 million). And Trump has been right on top of the bandwagon. He is the headline speaker for something called the Real Estate Wealth Expo Tour, which will earn him US$1.5 million ($2.2 million) for every hour-long speech he makes.

Palm Beach has been something of a pet project of his for many years. In 1985 he snapped up a 5000sq m mansion that had belonged to the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and converted it to an exclusive beach club called the Mar-a-Lago, with 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms, a cinema and three bomb shelters.

In January, he and his third wife, Slovenian supermodel Melania Knauss, tied the knot at the Mar-a-Lago before a celebrity-studded crowd. This month his son, Donald Trump jnr, followed suit with supermodel Vanessa Hayden.

The other Palm Beach property, just a few hundred metres further north at 513 North County Road, covers about 2.5ha and includes 144m of Atlantic Ocean frontage.

The French Regency-style house, built in 1989, had belonged to healthcare tycoon Abraham Gosman, who was forced to declare bankruptcy a few years ago.

The property was first put on the market at Sotheby's but fetched only US$32 million ($46.5 million). The bankruptcy court trustee thought he could do better, re-auctioning it in open court - which was when Trump swooped in and outbid, among others, a Wall Street financier and a home-building magnate.

The home isn't quite ready to be put on the market but is open to a handful of advance viewers.

Kendra Todd gave a tour to a reporter from the South Florida Business Journal. Trump, Todd explained, wanted to go for an "understated" look, which is to say leaving the rooms relatively uncluttered and the walls neutral.

"As Mr Trump puts it, it has great bones," Todd said of the house. "What it needed was a cosmetic makeover. Mr Trump wanted to make the home more livable."

That has meant increasing the number of bedrooms in the main house from three to seven, and adding a guest cottage and tennis house, for a total of 15 bedrooms.

Todd also ditched the replicas of famous paintings, preferring to leave the wood-trimmed walls largely bare.

Clearly, part of the appeal of the house is the association with Trump and The Apprentice.

The fact that Trump is asking for such an outlandish amount of money may also be a selling point.

"You never know, there might be somebody who really might want to say he bought the most expensive house," said Palm Beach estate agent Shirley Wyner.

"Palm Beach and the people here have a lot of money. So, $6 million or $125 million - it is the same to them."

Such is the world that Trump lives in - or at least promotes himself as living in. A biographer, New York Times reporter Timothy O'Brien, has irritated Trump no end by suggesting he is not worth anything close to the US$2.7 billion ($3.9 billion) touted by Forbes magazine, or the US$5 billion ($7.3 billion) in other quarters, and that the reason he has worked so hard to put his face in the public eye is because he needs the money.

Certainly, it may be argued that there is something a little vulgar about the way Trump has been putting himself about lately. The super-rich tend to like to work quietly out of the public eye, but Trump has taken the opposite approach.

He has doused the US with self-promotion, almost to the point of saturation. A Chicago Tribune columnist asked the other day if we hadn't all overdosed on Trumpery by now, and she had a point.

Like a pornographer with sex, Trump is inordinately good at making his wealth as visible as possible and dangling it tantalisingly in front of his audiences without ever quite delivering.

His presentations to the Real Estate Wealth Expo Tour have been full of macho-sounding, go-ahead, no-nonsense catchphrases: "Always stay focused ... Go against the tide ... Never, never, ever quit".

But on close analysis, they don't add up to a lot.

And when it comes to the pornography of wealth, Kendra Todd is quite a match for her mentor.

Since winning the third season of The Apprentice in May - not without shoving her competitors out of the way in ruthless fashion - the 26-year-old has maintained her own business, gone to work for the Trump organisation, and hired the services of A-list PR agents with a view to getting into the best parties and squeezing her 15 minutes of fame for every limo ride and red-carpet appearance she can manage.

An email leaked to the New York Post suggested her handlers reeled off one demand after another when she hosted a "success party" in San Francisco - including a limo, a barricaded red carpet and "four attractive people" to work the door.

Todd told the Post she was "a very low-maintenance, down-to-earth person" but nevertheless felt flattered if her PR agency, which has since dropped her, made such demands on her behalf.

If anybody knows this kind of flirtation with fame and wealth doesn't always last, it is Trump himself, who has built and burned his way through two fortunes since coming to prominence in the archetypical decade of greed, the 1980s.

At one point he was almost US$1 billion ($1.4 billion) in debt, and famously told a beggar outside one of his New York buildings to get lost because he was poorer than the beggar.

To his credit, Trump never stops hustling, and his Palm Beach real estate stunt is one more instance of his refusal to settle for anything less than the utterly outrageous.

One columnist recently described his approach to capitalism as Trumponomics - the theory that anything is worth trying in the name of self-promotion.

"Be a little bit paranoid," Trump told a lecture-circuit audience. "Get the best people and don't trust them. Watch them.

I've held myself back from looking at this thread, because I had to watch the last Apprentice, that was taped. I finally got to view it last night.

This final show was the best finale so far. I really didn't have a clue as to which candidate would be chosen. It was a dead-heat match to the end, as far as I was concerned. What I really admired was the professionalism between Randal and Rebecca throughout the competition. No evil back-biting. The people they chose to help in their final task worked so hard in their behalf. Very commendable.

What irked me was Randal denying Rebecca the opportunity to become the Apprentice. I totally agree that he was very cocky, which I felt was a total departure from his previous demeanor. I do believe that this is the real Randal. He's a very successful business man, and the final moments showed us why. The look on Rebecca's face told the tale. She looked shocked and had a controlled anger expression on her face.

If Trump really wanted Rebecca to also become the Apprentice, I think he would have told Randal that, while he valued his opinion, Trump runs the Trump organization and, therefore, Rebecca was also chosen.

It was a really suprising conclusion. I don't think Rebecca has a thing to worry about, professionally, from now on. She's a sharp and tremendously capable woman who has a great business future ahead of her.

I have heard that Yahoo has offered her a major job.

I would have, too.

Randall showed a total lack of class.

As I said to Andi: If he let her get hired, he would have shown class AND made a business friend for life. What do you think will happpen if these two ever have to deal together in business? She'll toast him like a 2 cent marshmellow.

Smart guy did a dumb thing. Goes to show you that the number of degrees matters less than how you use the learnin'.

Doug

Smart guy did a dumb thing. Goes to show you that the number of degrees matters less than how you use the learnin'.

So very true Doug!!!!!!

I agree, Doug.

I think that move showed Randal's true colors and nature. It was not a shining hour for him at all. Had he have said yes to her hiring, he would have been the ultimate champion.

As outspoken as "The Donald" is, I'm very surprised that he didn't tell Randal that his decision was a bad move and go ahead and hire Rebecca despite Randal's objection.

Just to give you my minority view (often happens to me), I don't think there was anything wrong with Randall's refusal of Trump's question about hiring Rebecca. It wasn't just hiring her. Randall apparently took it as sharing the apprentice prize, hence his remark about "no apprenti" (which I thought was pretty clever for an off the cuff remark!) The prize really isn't his to give - its Trump's, which is why I thought it was so unfair to put Randall on the spot like that.

Why should he share the spotlight when it was something he had worked for? Trump may hire her anyway.

Over the weeks I think Randall's fine character and sensitivity as well as his fine mind has come through even in the edited footage we see, and to my mind he is the best qualified apprentice ever.

Nothing wrong with having a minority viewpoint! Hey, I have one in my own city. My letters to the editor always inspire lots of sideways glances. <g>

I agree that Randal is the best qualified apprentice ever. Some people actually felt he was a ringer. I read this on some website somewhere, can't remember.

I don't think that apprenti is not the plural of apprentice