BB FANS

Tim chats about latest eviction

BOSSES DISAGREE OVER APPRENTICE HOPEFUL'S TACTICS




Business leaders are divided in their assessment of Devon's The Apprentice hopeful Katie Hopkins after watching the hit TV show.Katie, a Met Office worker from Rockbeare, near Exeter, was on the losing team yet again and was hauled into the boardroom to explain herself to Sir Alan Sugar along with fellow contestants Adam Hosker and Ghazal Asif. But she avoided hearing the immortal words "You're Fired!" - leaving that to her northern nemesis, Adam.

After kissing Adam goodbye, Katie told viewers: "The only thing that would have made me happier was if it was a double firing with Kristina."

The Echo panel, who have been asked to watch the BBC1 show every week and judge Katie's performance, said they were pleased that the Exeter University graduate had avoided the boot, but many had concerns that her cutting comments could lead to a backlash.

Derek Phillips, chairman of Exeter's Chamber of Commerce, said: "Katie's obsession with Adam might have cost her dear. She should be concerned that Sir Alan did not seem pleased with her and said he thought she could be hard work."

He said Katie's constant backbiting put her at risk of being isolated from the rest of the team - a dangerous tactic that could see her being picked off. "I don't think her comments about fellow contestants will impress Sir Alan," he said.

"And her comments about northerners make her seem like a bigot."

Mr Phillips added that all was not lost for the single mum, but it would be an uphill task to make it into the final.

Terry Matthews, co-director of Marlin Sports Cars in Crediton, said this week's episode proved that Katie was professional enough to move on from her relationship with fired contestant Paul Callaghan and to work with one of her enemies, Kristina Grimes.

"By putting aside her feelings about Kristina and doing a good job on her task, Katie showed she is business-like enough to get on with things," she said.

But she said her quips about other contestants were beginning to grate on her team-mates, and on viewers.

"If she's not careful, her behaviour will backfire on her. This week's episode showed the others are beginning to realise what she's about," she said.

"At first the house and the public were quite taken in by her charm, but her desperation to win is starting to bring out her true colours.

"She thinks she is one above everybody else and that she can win with her tactics of getting the weakest person to support her and gang up on someone, but that's not a very professional way of doing things.

"It makes you wonder what she would be like if she did become the apprentice. Would she be like that in a real working environment?"

Mrs Matthews said Katie's remarks about northern people were inappropriate.

"She completely showed herself up and made herself look quite ugly in the way she behaved," she said.

She added the reaction of the audience in the appraisal show afterwards showed Katie had fallen from grace: "If it was down to the viewers, she would be out."

But Sara Randall-Johnson, general manager for public affairs at Exeter-based airline Flybe, was full of praise for Katie. "I was absolutely delighted that Katie managed to get through," she said.

"She is very forthright in her views, but very clear in her objectives and she gets the job done. She is a tremendous draw to the show and I find her the most interesting of characters. It's obvious her fellow contestants are very fond of her." thisisexeter

Sacked Adam rounds on rival Katie


Fired Adam has questioned his rivals motives for going on the show

Adam Hosker has launched a stinging attack on Apprentice rival Katie Hopkins after being fired by Sir Alan Sugar.

The former car sales manager from Blackburn in Lancashire, said his 31-year-old rival dismissed multi-millionaire Sir Alan as thick.

And Adam said many of the candidates, including Katie, didn't actually want the prized job with the Amstrad tycoon but were simply using the BBC One show to get publicity for their own businesses.

The 28-year-old was booted out of The Apprentice on his record fourth consecutive appearance in the boardroom after his team failed their latest task.

He said: "Katie is a complete and utter snob. She was offended at my northernness and my working class background.

"She didn't think I had any right to be there. She sees me and Kristina (Grimes) as a threat. Kristina because she's Irish and me because I'm northern.

"Katie thinks Sir Alan is thick. She told me that in the car on the way back from a task. She doesn't rate Sir Alan, she's there to publicise herself.

"It's bizarre that she's still there. She doesn't want the job. She just wants to use The Apprentice to enhance her business as a global brand consultant."

He added: "I think I'm the only person that actually went into the show to get the job.

"It surprises me that people come out and already have a business set up, like the wine bar (being opened by Natalie Wood), and the Zeppelin flights (Robert Laing)." metro

Fired Apprentice hopeful Adam Hosker says he was hounded off the TV show - and treated worse than beauty Shilpa Shetty. NOTW

SIR ALAN'S BOG TIRED


ALAN Sugar has revealed he needs a bodyguard to take him to the toilet in restaurants because he gets followed by fans.

The Apprentice star, 60, said: "I'm standing there trying to do my stuff and this bloke is next to me going 'Cor, that geezer was horrible in that last series'.

"Now what they don't realise is I'm trying to get a bit of pressure up - because of my age it's a bit tricky. Anyway - it wasn't working so I zipped up."


Business tycoon Sir Alan, who was speaking on the Friday Night with Jonathan Ross show, added: "I then told my sonin-law we're going to the loo again and you're going to come and protect me."Mirror

Simon fired up on dancefloor Sun

SIR Alan Sugar has a dig at 'advertising t***ers' on The Apprentice — after getting his wannabes to create a brand of trainers. He puts them to work with an ad agency but tells them to make an ad that 'sells kit' — not one to win awards. Sun

Apprentice loser hits out at rivals

SPOILER!!

breakingnews

If you do not want to know who gets fired tonight, then DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!!

This week it's the advertising task. For fans, this is always a special joy, as we get to see the candidates rise to the challenge of pretending with all their might to be creative. Usually, the boys make the biggest fools of themselves, desperately trying to look like ad-land whizzkids - given half a chance, it's clear they'd love to grow ponytails, jump into Porsches and start chirping about "brandfeel" and "touchpoints". Preview DVDs for tonight's programme were unavailable, so all we know is that the teams have to dream up an advertising campaign for a new brand of training shoe. The bad news is, it's Sir Alan Sugar himself who will decide who's done the best job, and anyone who saw the glimpse of his living room in the last series will know that when it comes to taste, Sir Alan's in a world of his own. radiotimes

Fired Asif: 'I'll be rich'
timesonline

SHELLEY-OMETER
THE APPRENTICE EXCLUSIVE Jim Shelley's VERDICT


Tre

"I HAVE led from the shadows," Tre declared. Made all the big calls and "reclaimed the streets." Gloriously started talking about himself in the third person. "If everyone listens to Tre, we should be fine." Aiii.

Jadine

LET TING Simon rap and breakdance was high-risk. David Brent factor 9: "Not just people from 'the street' live on a street. We all live on a street. We're all going down the street." For real.

Naomi

HOW did she get her hair so lovely 30 minutes after Sir Alan's call? Didn't get Jam. "I like Jam but I'm worried it sounds like a preserve." Later moaned, "Ghazal, you closed the arena." Fact!

Kristina

HAVING very cleverly come up with the brand Jam for the trainers, she equally cleverly - and ruthlessly - let Ghazal and Katie go about hanging themselves. A serious contender.

Simon

"THE Hampstead hoodie." Good at handstands, ye s, but excruciating "rapper". "Street is not about country walks. Or village fetes. Street is not about buying clothes in the supermarket." How true... and yet, how mad.

Lohit

LOW-KEY week for The Quiet Man. Became the main cheerleader for Simon's one-man show telling him his rap sounded: "Amazing. You sounded so black!"

Katie

SEES herself as the Oscar Wilde of the show. But this revolting horse-faced toff shows herself up in the boardroom, not least with her plea to Sir Alan to "think like Jay." Horrible about the street.

Ghazal FIRED

"ALL 'talk' and no 'do'," said Sir Alan. All "pout" and no "do" more like. She finally got found out, fired not just by Sir Alan but her own - bewildering - "street" character, Jay.

Mirror

YOU'VE AD IT
THE APPRENTICE EXCLUSIVE 'GHAZAL WAS ALL HUFF AND PUFF BUT DID NOTHING' - By Sir Alan Sugar


GHAZAL was close to the door last week but I gave her another chance as she came across as young, bubbly and vivacious.

So I took up her offer and made her a team leader, but I should have trusted my instincts to give her a wild card and tell her to come back in four years.

The other team leader Jadine came into the house like a bull in a china shop but has been taking a back seat over the past few weeks.

She'd sussed out the hiding tricks of people like Lohit. He must have advised her to take a step back and stop the arguing.

But I wasn't having that so I appointed her team leader last night in another of my favourite tasks, advertising.

I must have spent hundreds of millions on advertising. Believe me, I know what a waste of time it is to let some artistic twit loose trying to win awards at one of the advertising bashes.

I told the apprentices that my style of advert was an in-your-face number that actually sold stuff.

I chose trainers, one of the hardest things to sell. They had their work cut out to make a TV advert, a poster, think up a logo and compose a jingle.

Jadine was a lucky girl. You could see her letting Tre and Simon take over but cleverly piping up at the right times to stamp her mark as team leader.

She has a lot to thank the dynamic duo for. Simon excelled writing and singing the jingle, if you can call it singing - 50 Cent has no worries, trust me. Then he put himself forward for the dancing. Again, it wasn't a case of Travolta eat your heart out, but he did show his versatility.

I detected Tre was a bit jealous, he couldn't bring himself to compliment Simon on a great job.

But Tre's idea of giving some money back to the community was good. More importantly, he was spot-on that it should come from profits and not sales. A bad mistake by Jadine not to listen.

I was ready to put my finger down my throat, again, when Katie started off her presentation.

"Sir Alan, I want you to think like Jay. Jay is a 14-year-old streetwise hoodie."

Blimey, how is a 60-year-old fart like me supposed to think like Jay? I wanted to shout "Get on with it, girl, you have just two minutes to impress."

Ghazal was belligerent. She had two people in her team who spend their lives with brands and advertising yet she took no notice of them.

She immaturely thought that as team leader she had to force her ideas on the others.

After spending the first day working on a concept she woke up the next day, trashed the lot and would not back down.

Katie, who is a brand expert and who we all know is clever, took a risk standing by watching a disaster about to happen.

I wonder if she deliberately stood back as part of a plan to allow her colleagues to fall on their swords?

Naomi, the other advertising expert, nailed it in one, saying the words of the advert were rubbish - it said nothing and it wasn't clear what the offer was.

She did a good job on the photography and her filming was so professional she won praise from the ad guys.

But Ghazal's storyline was dreadful. How many times have you sat at home with your partner, seen an advert then turned to each other and said "What was that all about?"

Well, that's exactly what Jay thought. "Do me a favour, love, lay it on me a bit clearer, like babe," or whatever words a 14-year-old might say.

That's when I changed my mind about Ghazal's wild card. She's all huff and puff and when you look closely she talked a lot but did nothing - she was a goner.

They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, well Katie has the bit between her teeth and she's on the war path for Kristina.

The disclosure of her love affair a couple of weeks ago has made her wild. She still thinks the fall of Adam was her doing and is now gunning for Kristina. But she'd better watch out, I've got her card marked.

She got very angry when I told her she seems to be a serial loser. I thought she was about to explode as her face went as red as a tomato in anger.

Watch this space as I rub it in more next week when the teams tackle sales of imported products.

THE Apprentice, 9pm, Wednesdays on BBC1, followed by The Apprentice: You're Fired on BBC 2 at 10pm. News, video interviews, teasers and highlights at http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice

THE KNOWLEDGE

SIR Alan's Tip Of The Week: Remember to make good use of the expertise of colleagues. Ignore them at your peril.

Speaking of mad googly eyes, I'm now obsessed with Katie Hopkins from The Apprentice (Wed, 9pm, BBC1) - the bitchiest, most venomous contestant in the show's history. Apparently played by the old Spitting Image puppet of the Queen, wearing a blonde wig and glowing pale-blue contact lenses, Katie enjoys sticking the knife into her fellow contestants so much, she can't help smiling as she slags them off to camera. I can't help imagining if one of the others accidentally fell down the stairs, and lay at the bottom in a broken-necked comatose heap, she'd stand at the top grinning like a carnival mask and frantically rubbing her mimsy till the ambulance arrived. There's something unholy about her, like a possessed Ermintrude. Lord help Sir Alan if he finally decides to fire her. Her head'll start revolving and spewing green vomit. Here's hoping Nick Hewer carries a crucifix in his pocket. guardian

The youngest ever candidate on TV's Apprentice has branded Sir Alan Sugar's business techniques old-fashioned - and said she would NEVER work for him. NOTW