Access Hollywood

• Former Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers
• Congressional Sex Scandal Bad Boys Larry Craig and Gary Condit
• Amy Winehouse
• Former Enron chief Jeff Skilling (Let him out of jail early and call it community service!)
• John Rocker (Former pitcher who managed to insult just about every minority in a 2000 Sports Illustrated interview)

Former Mrs. McCartney on Trump's Apprentice a no-go originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It seems like there are almost weekly opportunities to blast Donald Trump here on BloggingStocks, and the latest comes courtesy of Perez Hilton who reports (with a great illustration that is too vulgar for AOL) that "Last Thursday's Celebrity Apprentice came in at third place with a lousy 8.2 million viewers. That's down a sharp 26% from its previous week premiere. At its heyday, the show could get close to 20 million viewers per episode."

What went wrong, other than the fact that Trump has overexposed himself to the point where everyone wishes he and his comb-over would take a hike? Part of the problem is that the whole Celebrity Apprentice thing lacks the appeal of watching hungry up-and-comers duke it out for a shot at wealth. It's a little bit like watching Warren Buffett play Deal or No Deal -- Who cares? There's no drama, and watching Gene Simmons dial up his friends to buy a $5,000 hot dog so his team can beat Omarosa in a contest just isn't very interesting.

But then again, the whole Apprentice show has gotten stale -- and its applications to the real-life business world have always been highly overrated. It's a made-for-TV reality show full of over-produced melodrama.

But the flop of the celebrity edition probably spells the end of the series, and now Donald Trump can go back to focusing on his business ventures rather than his insatiably narcissistic appetite for publicity. And judging from the performance of Trump Entertainment Resorts (NASDAQ: TRMP), his real-life ventures could use some attention.

Donald Trump's 'Celebrity Apprentice' is a flop -- will he please go away now? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Donald Trump is self-made? What?! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Trump Entertainment Resorts (NASDAQ: TRMP) shares soared more than 20% on Friday after the company disclosed that "The Strategic Committee has recently received preliminary and conditional indications of interest from parties proposing to acquire the Company. There can be no assurance that any of these indications of interest will result in a sale of the Company or any other transactions."

Given that the company had already announced that it was for sale and already jumped on that news, the shares may have gotten ahead of themselves today. But the storyline that interests me is this: If the casinos are sold, is it possible that the Trump name will be removed?

With the ratings of The Apprentice continuing to show weakness in the latest season (even after a move to L.A. to spice things up), I would argue that the Trump name may be suffering from overexposure. His huge ego may have finally turned off the public, and his book with Robert Kiyosaki is probably the worst thing I've ever read.

I just wonder whether the Trump name has much value anymore. There's no question that everyone knows it, but what is the average person's impression of Trump?

Trump Resorts receives a buyout offer? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 18 May 2007 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.