Tiffany Fallon first 'The Celebrity Apprentice' candidate fired by Trump

Tiffany Fallon never attempted to sell Hugh Hefner a $10,000 hot dog, causing the 2005 Playboy Playmate of the Year to become the first candidate fired by Donald Trump during The Celebrity Apprentice's premiere broadcast last night on NBC.


"It's incredibly disappointing and frustrating to be the first one fired out of the boardroom," said Tiffany after she received her pink slip.  "I did what was asked me of me, I did it thoroughly.  The bottom line is, we brought in a lot of money but we just didn't bring in enough.  I'm heading home.  I enjoyed it.  It was an honor... Onward."

The Celebrity Apprentice's premiere episode began with The Donald assembling "14 of the world's most successful celebrities" at the New York Mercantile Exchange and explaining that instead of competing for a position in his Trump Organization, they'd be playing for their favorite charitable causes.  Trump then divided the teams by sex and sent the groups to Trump Tower to come up with a team name and project manager. 

Of course before the teams even left, The Apprentice first-season contestant and reality show retread Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth nominated herself as the female team's project manager.  Trump advised her to take the matter up with her team.

The female team -- consisting of Omarosa; Tiffany; supermodel Carol Alt; former Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci; Olympic softball player Jennie Finch; The Swan creator and producer Nely Galan; and actress Marilu Henner -- began bantering around ideas when Nely brought out a prop bag she had taken with her.  Omarosa wasn't impressed since The Apprentice is "not some dress-up party," however all the girls liked Nely's name suggestion -- Team Empresario -- which she said was based on a spanish word for "mogul."


The male team -- consisting of country artist Trace Adkins; actor and frequent celebrity reality show participant Stephen Baldwin;  professional boxer Lennox Lewis; America's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan; mixed martial arts fighter Tito Ortiz; former The Sopranos actor Vincent Pastore; and former KISS frontman and Gene Simmons Family Jewels star Gene Simmons -- also discussed their name.

Gene came up with Team Hydra -- a seven-headed mythological monster -- as the team name, and the guys agreed.  They then started to discuss a possible project manager while Empresario already made their decision: Omarosa.

"I stepped up to be the project manager because I wanted Mr. Trump to know I'm here to win this game," she said.  "I also wanted him to know that the things that happened in the past are in the past.  I'm a new person."

The two teams then met Trump -- who was flanked by Ivanka and Donald Jr. --  in the boardroom, and Hydra revealed they had selected Stephen as their project manager.  The Donald explained the first task would have each team selling hot dogs on the streets of New York, with the team that made the most money winning while the losing team would lose a member at the upcoming boardroom.

Before he sent the two teams to concoct a plan, Trump offered a few tips, suggesting they use their celebrity status to sell hot dogs to their celebrity friends and also reminding them that location is key.


Since Carol hails from New York, Omarosa immediately looked to her for a location.  Carol chose a location near Penn Station since the area is frequented by businessmen.  While her teammates didn't necessarily agree, Omarosa suggested Empresario not use their celebrity status to sell hot dogs and instead rely on "solid business concepts."

"The average person that's going up to get this hot dog, the thing that's going to attract them to our cart is the beautiful women selling it," said Tiffany, who was quickly quieted by Omarosa.

Hydra decided on Rockefeller Center as its location, and Piers had no qualms with his team using their celebrity to win the challenge.  As the rest of the team discussed pricing strategy that would include charging a higher price for hot dogs that included a personal photo with one of the candidates, Gene got on the horn with some of his high-rolling friends and told them about the next day's sale, asking if they could contribute and looking to "get out of the $1 hot dog business."

The next day both teams arrived at their locations and set-up shop.  Somewhat surprisingly, Empresario arrived embracing the "all-American theme," which apparently included wearing unflattering outfits complete with baseball caps.  They started selling their dogs for $5 before they began to ask their customers for more money, and the plan worked.  Trump eventually arrived with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, and while Bloomberg couldn't say Empresario's hot dogs tasted better, he guaranteed the girls would look better than the guys.

Hydra had a rough time at the onset of the task, with Piers turning away customers who didn't want to meet the team's asking prices for hot dogs or personal photos with one of the celebrities and also annoyingly shouting into a megaphone.  He was mostly concerned Gene's friends wouldn't come through, which he said would be a "great disaster."  But business eventually picked up just as Trump and Bloomberg arrived.  Always the politician, Bloomberg wouldn't say who had the best dog.


Later, as business began to slow down for Empresario, Omarosa set her sights on Tiffany.

"For somebody who's selling ads in magazines, she sure couldn't sell a hot dog to save her life," said Omarosa.  "I couldn't get her to go out there and sell and sell and sell."

Marilu decided to go against Omarosa's strategy and take Trump's advice, as she called a few of her celebrity friends.  The plan worked, as she sold two $5,000 bottles of water.

"I love you Marilu!" exclaimed Omarosa.

After Tito's girlfriend -- porn star and entrepreneur Jenna Jameson -- stopped by and paid $200 for a dog, Gene's plan started to kick-in as he was selling $5,000 and $10,000 hot dogs like that was the going rate across the city.  With 10 minutes left in the challenge, Jennie made her final pitch for Empresario, as New York Mets third-baseman David Wright paid for the rest of the team's hot dogs and gave them out for free.


That night the two teams gathered in the boardroom.  Omarosa said Empresario had a "great plan" and "executed it in a very effective way," while Stephen said Hydra worked "beyond my expectations" and he credited his teammates.  Donald Jr. then revealed Empresario had raised $17,038.79 while Ivanka revealed Hydra had raised $52,286.

"Wow, that's a drubbing," stated Trump, complimenting Hydra for choosing a better location and using their celebrity status to their advantage.

When questoined by Trump, Piers immediately characterized Omarosa as Empresario's "weak link" and bashed her celebrity status, causing Omarosa to defend herself by telling Piers he's known in the States as "that British a**hole," apparently confusing him with Simon Cowell.  Piers reminded Omarosa that he judges the "No. 1 show in America in the summer," and said he's "happy with that."

Donald Jr. expressed his surprise that Omarosa didn't use sex appeal to sell hot dogs -- noting that had been the strategy her all-female team had used during a first-season The Apprentice lemonade-selling challenge that they'd easily won.

"You'll remember from the first season that we were heavily criticized for using our sex and not using our brains," answered Omarosa.  "So I learned that lesson, and I balanced that with what my marketing team wanted to implement in this particular task."


"But they killed you Omarosa," replied Trump.

Both teams raised a combined $69,324, which Trump revealed would all go to Stephen's charity since he was the winning team's project manager -- a format that will determine how all of the money raised throughout the season will be awarded.  Stephen revealed the money would go to the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, which is named after his mother.  Hydra was then sent to the War Room, where they'd be able to watch the rest of the boardroom session play out until Trump made his decision.

With only Empresario left in the boardroom, Omarosa said the "implementation wasn't as strong" as she liked.  She credited Marilu and Nely for having "stepped up" during the challenge before thoroughly bashing Tiffany.

"Tiffany, who I think is a great commodity, was not a great salesperson," said Omarosa.  "She's a former Playmate of the Year... in that magazine, you're presenting sex and you're selling the obvious, you're selling yourself."

Donald Jr. called out Omarosa, throwing her previous words about not wanting to sell sex back in her face.  The two bickered, and Omarosa tried to point out that the difference was that selling sex was Tiffany's "brand" so it should have come naturally to her.  From the War Room, the guys seemed annoyed but impressed with Omarosa's toughness. 

Tiffany tried to defend herself, but Omarosa was too much, saying she was disappointed Tiffany didn't "reach out to her personal network."  Trump asked if Tiffany tried calling Hefner, and she replied no, explaining she was saving him for a later task at a later date.


"But there's no guarantee for tomorrow Tiffany," said Omarosa.  "You could be fired tonight, and you're saving the biggest contact you have."

Trump noticed Tiffany wasn't very overstated and sat their quietly for most of the boardroom before Ivanka bashed Empresario's choice of clothing for the task, characterizing it as a "terrible mistake" because it advertised the product instead of their celebrity status.  Jennie jumped in and bashed Omarosa's sales approach for not using their celebrity, and Omarosa had a hard time defending herself when Trump went on the assault.

Somewhat surprisingly, Nely defended Omarosa for displaying "incredible leadership" and criticized Tiffany for not being a leader.  Omarosa also singled out Carol for picking the poor location, and Donald Jr. agreed it was "very poor."

Omarosa then decided Tiffany and Carol would flank her for the final boardroom session, with Trump ultimately firing one of the three before the night was over.  Hydra lost the feed in the War Room and tried to figure out who would get the boot.

Omarosa and Carol both tried to defend themselves as Tiffany sat their quietly and almost seemed disinterested in what was happening around her.  Trump said he was impressed with Carol's toughness and willingness to stand-up to Omarosa, while Tiffany dug a deeper hole for herself when she said she was "mentally and physically exhausted" since it was such a long day.  Needless to say, the comment didn't sit too well with Trump.

"You have one of greatest contacts," Trump reminded her.  "Hugh Hefner -- he's a friend of mine -- you could call him up and say, 'Could you do me a favor? Could you buy a hot dog for $10,000?  It's for charity.'  Right?  And you never did that.  I think he would have been first -- he would have said, 'No! I'll give you $100,000.'"


Instead of selling Omarosa out and telling Trump that she had outright challenged Omarosa's initial decision that Empresario would not focus on using their celebrity status during the task, Tiffany once again said she was saving Hefner as a contact for a "bigger task."  Even more surprising, Tiffany credited Omarosa for teaching her how to "up sell" the hot dogs and even admitted she respected her.

Clearly sensing Carol was a bigger threat to her than Tiffany, Omarosa told Trump she'd fire Carol.  Trump said he was "disappointed" Omarosa didn't do a better "as the captain" and was also "disappointed" Carol didn't do a better job picking the location.

"I can't say I'm disappointed in Tiffany, because she's young and she's against these two killers -- and they're killers," he said.  "I am disappointed that you didn't call a very good friend of mine -- Hugh Hefner... Forget about saving it for later.  There is no later.  This is the time.  So I say Tiffany, you're fired."

The Celebrity Apprentice's next episode will air Thursday, January 10 at 9PM ET/PT on NBC.






About The Author: Christopher Rocchio