Sunday, April 03, 2005

Apprentice Show contestant duing just fine.

Since Donald Trump fired the Peters native from "The Apprentice" TV show, Erin Elmore has realized the benefits of TV celebrity with job offers, including ongoing negotiations with the company whose project led to her firing.
Of 18 contestants, Elmore had become a favorite of Trump's. He commented during the NBC reality show on how poised, intelligent and articulate she was, especially on camera.
Trump even spent considerable time on one episode trying to teach a clueless Elmore how to hit a golf ball. When the new season began in January, Trump praised Elmore as "really attractive and successful and great."
But she was called on the carpet during the March 24 episode after her team failed in a Home Depot demonstration. She told Trump she lacked knowledge about home improvement, and she might have survived the setback. But when she suggested with a wink that Trump didn't need to heed his advisers' advice to fire her, Trump reacted to her wise-guy remark by saying: "Erin, you're fired."
She "may have heard the fateful 'F-word' from Donald Trump on 'Apprentice 3,' " she said in a news release, "but this 26-year-old reformed Philadelphia attorney is fired and fabulous."
She's now using her celebrated television firing as a career boost.
Since the fateful episode, she's done as many as 20 interviews on network and cable stations, including Fox, NBC, MSNBC, "The Dennis Miller Show," and "Entertainment Tonight," bolstering her desire for a television career. She said she was in "serious negotiations" with Home Depot to serve as a spokeswoman for the company whose home-improvement task led to her reality-show demise.
Meanwhile, she's resumed a modeling career, appearing on billboards in the Philadelphia area as spokes-model for Metro newspapers. She's completed a second pilot episode as host of "Inside Philadelphia," a guide to the city's hot spots. And she recently was unveiled as the new face for Denim Lounge's multimedia campaign.
Other possibilities include an audition for a co-anchor job at Fox TV.
Although she's decided against resuming her law practice, she said, she remains interested in creating an "all women for women" law firm. It will take money to accomplish that goal, she said, but her experience on "The Apprentice" could make it a reality in due time.
Elmore, the daughter of Peggy and Dr. James S. Elmore, an oral surgeon based in Peters, was a varsity cheerleader, professional model and lifeguard. After graduating from Peters Township High School, she majored in political science and broadcasting at the University of Miami.
She got a law degree from Villanova School of Law, but grew bored with her job as a corporate lawyer in Center City Philadelphia and decided to resume modeling with the goal of going into show business.
And why not? She has been described as "a perfect combination of beauty and intelligence" with published measurements of 34-24-35, and American Indian ethnicity that explains her dark brown eyes and straight black hair. Her Web site, www.erinelmore.com, provides updates about her career.
In three seasons of "The Apprentice," she said, as many as 5 million people, and as many as 2 million this year, have applied to become candidates on the show. Her success in being selected for the show was a privilege and an honor, she said.
In the third season of "The Apprentice," 18 candidates were divided into two teams, college graduates vs. financially successful high school graduates. The teams competed in various marketing, sales and business tasks.
Each week, a candidate is fired by Trump. One of the eight remaining candidates will receive a job that pays six figures with one of Trump's corporations.
"It changes you in a fundamental way," Elmore said of her experience. "You are given arduous tasks under tight schedules, and I'd been involved in nothing like that. They set you up to fail. But, in fact, you are succeeding under the craziest circumstances. It totally translates into real-life situations. It makes you a better person in real-life situations."
She said Trump was fair in firing her. Each team had to put on a home-improvement demonstration at Home Depot, and Elmore, from the start, said she lacked knowledge of the topic. Her teammates said her lack of effort and ideas led to their defeat.
"If it had not been for the Home Depot task, I would be the third Apprentice," she said, referring to the fact it's the show's third season. Even though she was fired, she said, she "didn't sit around eating bonbons and taking naps."
As for Trump, she holds no hard feelings.
"I think he's wonderful," she said. "He's a great mentor. He knows what he's doing, and he's brilliant."
But since her firing, she's been "busy, busy, busy."
Her experience with "The Apprentice" was "the greatest," she said, and changed her life in dramatic fashion.
"This doesn't hurt to propel my career forward," she said, noting her new celebrity status. "I can't even go to Starbucks anymore without wearing makeup."

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