TV Program Entertainment News: The Apprentice.

Trump tells Carolyn: "You're fired!"

Kepcher, blonde assistant of 'The Apprentice,' loses job after Trump tires of her.
August 31 2006: 12:37 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Carolyn Kepcher, the blonde co-star of Donald Trump's 'The Apprentice,' has been fired.

The 36-year old sidekick, who in addition to her role on the show ran the Trump National Golf Club in posh Westchester County north of New York City, was fired earlier this week.
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Donald Trump and Carolyn Kepcher

Rhona Graff of the Trump Organization confirmed to CNNMoney.com that Kepcher no longer works at the company.

Trump's daughter Ivanka has replaced Kepcher in the role, while Trump's son Don Jr. is the successor to the 78-year old real estate lawyer George Ross on the show.

The show's Web site states Ivanka and Don Jr. will "fill in for" Kepcher and Ross "during multiple episodes of 'The Apprentice'" in the fifth season.

Ross is still "very much a part of the company," Graff said, but because the show's next season is being taped in Los Angeles instead of New York, his appearances on it will be limited.

Graff said Trump wishes Kepcher well but had no other comment on the matter.

An article citing unnamed sources in Thursday's New York Post, which first reported the story, indicated Kepcher's lack of focus as a reason for the firing.

Trump had had trouble reaching her recently as she had been away on a trip to give a speech, the sources told the newspaper.

Kepcher had hired agents at ICM to handle book and TV offers, and Westport Entertainment to manage her speaking engagements and product endorsements, the newspaper reported.

"The Apprentice" has been in decline for a while and it's possible Kepcher's departure is a business move as much as anything else said Jennifer Armstrong, a staff writer for Entertainment Weekly, who has covered the show. She noted that the show's production is moving to Los Angeles next season, too.

"In some ways maybe it's good to shake things up a little bit," Armstrong said.

But it's a risk, too, according to Armstrong who says Kepcher was "a really key component to the show."

"She was there from the beginning," said Armstrong. "The three judges had the same kind of magical chemistry. She was great at being a henchman to Donald but she brought a female element to table, too."

Entertainment Weekly is owned by Time Warner, CNNMoney.com's parent company.

Marketing Evaluations, which conducts surveys of the public's familiarity with and opinion of various celebrities, found that while 80 percent of general U.S. population knows who Trump is, only about 25 percent know Kepcher and Ross.

And among those who know those three personalities, the view of Trump is far more negative than the view of Kepcher and Ross.

"That [Trump's high negatives] is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just the way he enlists an emotional response," Henry Schafer, vice president for Marketing Evaluation, which uses the survey to compile "Q Scores" used by networks and advertisers to judge personalities' appeal, told CNNMoney.com. "He's someone people love to hate."
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NEW YORK TIMES. August 31, 2006 -- CAROLYN KEPCHER, Donald Trump's co-star on "The Apprentice," has heard him say "You're fired!" for the last time - because this time he said it to her, sources told The Post.

The icy, 36-year-old blonde - who was running the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff in Westchester and helping supervise the Trump National in Bedminster, N.J. - was let go earlier this week.

"She became a prima donna," said one insider. "Being on 'The Apprentice' went to her head. She was no longer focused on business. She was giving speeches for $25,000 and doing endorsements."

Kepcher - who is married and has a son, Connor, 6, and a daughter Cassidy, 4 - had agents at ICM handling book and TV offers, and Westport Entertainment weighing speaking engagements and endorsements. She came out two years ago with a book, "Carolyn 101: Business Lessons from 'The Apprentice's' Straight Shooter."

Insiders say that when Trump tried to reach her recently, she was off on a trip to make a speech. Another time, while giving a tour of the pro shop at the Briarcliff club, she didn't seem to know the prices on any of the merchandise.

Trump has been in Los Angeles for five weeks filming the next season of "The Apprentice." His daughter, Ivanka, has replaced Carolyn as one of Trump's two on-air sidekicks, while son Don Jr. is the successor to gruff real-estate lawyer George Ross, 78.

"George has been around a long time. He's seen everything. He didn't get excited even when women on the street started screaming when they saw him on his way to work," said one source. "But Carolyn took it very seriously. She thought she was a freaking movie star."

It's quite a turnabout from when "The Apprentice" launched in January 2004, and Trump said Kepcher was "very firm, very tough, very smart, very shrewd and has good judgment."

Trump had no comment, and Kepcher, who had worked for him for 10 years, couldn't be reached. Messages were left at her office and with her agents.

Kepcher was replaced at Briarcliff by Dan Scavino, her No. 2 at the course, which boasts a 102-foot-tall waterfall at the par-3 13th hole.

"Trump told her what she had to do was take some time off and spend it with her family, and then get another job," said an insider. "They have a great relationship."

In Kepcher's effort to become a superstar, she seems to have failed to practice what she preaches in her own book.

"Carolyn 101" claims to teach readers how to "spot and seize potential business opportunities, be a team leader and deal with a difficult boss," among other lessons. Her Web site states that Trump considers her a "killer" businesswoman, "best exemplified by his promoting her to the top ranks of the Trump Organization almost immediately."