April 19, 2005 |
Music Pros Size Up Idol's Final Seven
Carrie Underwood
Roger Love: "Though not original, her lovely sound nicely fits the pop-country genre, and this sweet face could be the next Faith Hill. But I'd suggest dance classes. Her stance is awkward and her overall vibe unsexy."
Brett Manning: "She may only be generically good by Nashville standards."
Renee Grant-Williams: "She has a good chance to win. She has consistent pitch; she kicked butt on the Heart song ["Alone"]." Anthony Fedorov
Manning: "The new Clay Aiken. This nerdy kid you can't help but like has a gorgeous voice with musical-theater vibrato, kind of like Josh Groban."
Love: "One of the best male singers, but mediocre stage presence. Has a big career ahead of him singing at weddings and bar mitzvahs."
Grant-Williams: "His fairly clear strong voice is dramatic, but most weeks he's less than memorable." Scott Savol
Love: "Pretty voice. He looks like he's having fun, [so] you forget the extra pounds. But he's just another white guy wishing he was Marvin Gaye."
Manning: "I say move to Nashville and do demo and jingle work. He'll make $100,000 a year, and it won't matter what he looks like." Constantine Maroulis
Love: "[Seems] affected and silly when he makes moves he thinks rock stars make, but he has a good voice, makes great musical choices and girls find him attractive."
Manning: "His voice, which isn't as good as Bo's, is more suited to Broadway. He'd be perfect for Rent." Vonzell Solomon
Grant-Williams: "Puts a lot of energy into performances and has a great natural voice, but she still is out of tune, pushes to sing louder than [she] can handle and her tone borders on piercing."
Manning: "She needs a lot more experience, more refinement and a little more control to experiment with the notes." Anwar Robinson
Love: "For a music teacher, he's sure out of tune a lot. His high notes are fantastic, but everything below them comes across as less interesting."
Grant-Williams: "'Moon River' was fresh and fun, but for the last few weeks his voice sounded tired and thinned out, like a stretched rubber band." Bo Bice
Grant-Williams: "He's a rocker who isn't scary. He expertly works the crowd and cameras. He keeps his pitch right on. But he needs to show a little more crossover appeal to win this contest."
Love: "A combo of Bob Seger and Eddie Vedder. He sings circles around Constantine." |
Apprentice Winner: Where's Bill Now?
TV Guide: We hear you have big news for us.
Bill Rancic: After weeks of negotiations, I've signed on for one more year with Trump. TV Guide: What will you be doing?
Rancic: I'll continue to work on the Trump International Hotel & Tower project in Chicago and I'll also be working on other projects, like Donald's new golf club development in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. TV Guide: So you'll spend one more year as a sponge.
Rancic: Without a doubt. For me, it's about learning. Watching Donald work has been great. TV Guide: So how did you talk your way into a second year with The Donald?
Rancic: It was tough. I mean I had to go in and negotiate with Mr. Trump. He's written books on negotiating. TV Guide: So how did you prepare?
Rancic: Well, I tried. I mean, obviously, I've got experience in negotiating. But clearly, it's no match for a guy like that. TV Guide: Don't give us general rah-rah talk. We want specifics.
Rancic: Our first round, he kept asking me for a [salary] number and I kept asking him to give me a number. The first rule of negotiation is, you always want them to throw the first number out, just to see where to go. And he refused to lay the first number on the table. So after the third go-round, I finally knew that I was going to have to come up with a number first, which you never want to do in negotiating. But [I had] to do it. TV Guide: Did you take a pay raise or a pay cut?
Rancic: It's safe to say I'll be doing better than I did last year. TV Guide: As the first big $250,000 Apprentice winner, how sweet was your average take-home pay?
Rancic: After taxes? Nice. About $6,000 every two weeks. But I don't know if I want to publish that. TV Guide: Hey, if we weren't so lazy, we'd do the math ourselves. ($250,000 divided by 26 weeks is... Ugh, math.) So you traveled a lot doing celebrity golf tournaments and fundraisers last year. How did you find time to do your job?
Rancic: Well, I wasn't [just] doing all those things. That's only 10 percent of the job — that's what makes the papers. TV Guide: And the other 90 percent?
Rancic: I spent a lot of time with Greg Cuneo, chairman of HRH Construction. Some days I'm out promoting condo sales. Other days, it's a lot of meetings. TV Guide: What about the fun stuff?
Rancic: Riding in Trump's private jet with him was pretty wild. It's got bedrooms, couches, high-end bathrooms and mahogany wood throughout. The seat belts are gold-plated. TV Guide: So has Trump rubbed off on you over the past year?
Rancic: Well, obviously, my confidence level has gone up significantly. And I've had to step up the wardrobe. But most importantly, he has reinforced the importance of relationships. He's so loyal to his people. And in return they are loyal to him. TV Guide: Since winning The Apprentice, have you been more popular with the ladies?
Rancic: I haven't been on a date in a couple of months. It's depressing. But I'm working on it. This is my year. |
Top Model's Stewardess Grounded
TVGuide.com: Do you think you got cut because Miss Tyra was feeling cranky?
Rebecca Epley: Oh, that never even crossed my mind until you said it just now. TVG: Never? Seriously?
Rebecca: No. I don't think [that's why I got cut]. I think the reason I went home was exactly what Tyra said: My progression wasn't as strong as the other girls' from week to week, and I couldn't do the sexy photo shoots. TVG: Well, you get an A for perspective, anyway. What went through your head when you saw that the photo in Tyra's hands was blank?
Rebecca: I was hoping the blank photo meant [Tiffany and I would] both be sticking around! That's what I was really hoping she would say, but she pulled it out and kind of looked at us and said, "You've both been eliminated." That caught me off guard. But I said, "OK, Tyra's the boss; we gotta go." TVG: When she called you and Tiffany back to stand in front of her again, did you think, "Oh, my god, she's changing her mind! I'm going to get another chance!"?
Rebecca: Oh, I had, like, half a second of hope. But I kind of knew. We'd already said our goodbyes. I didn't think she would really wait until the last second to say, "OK, surprise! Come back!" I didn't know why she was really calling us back, and then [her fight with Tiffany] went down... I was really shocked. I was just worried about saying goodbye to all of my friends. Reality just smacked me in the face that I was going, and then it was like, "OK, now what?" TVG: How awkward was it to stand next to Tiffany all through Tyra's tirade?
Rebecca: I just sort of put my head down a little bit and took a half step backward. I didn't want her to look over at me and all of a sudden say I'd done something wrong, so I just wanted to back out and be a spectator. TVG: Aside from that incident, what was the worst part of doing the show — fear of getting fleas from working with the dogs, fear of getting cooties from working with Michelle or passing out during the judging?
Rebecca: [Laughs] Well, there was a lot of hard stuff, but it really did throw me off when the whole passing-out episode happened. What an inopportune moment! And it was physically hard to do the ballet challenge right after. I had just fallen on my head, pretty much, and my whole body was extremely sore, and then the ballet [teacher] starts coming around and whapping [sic] on people with a stick. So that was kind of hard! TVG: Going home to get married after being eliminated had to be a nice consolation prize. How are the wedding plans coming?
Rebecca: It's already done! I got married in January! When I came home, it was like, "All right, we know this is what we want to do, so let's just do it!" We put a small wedding together, just family and friends, and did it all very quickly. It took about two weeks to get everything done, and I had the best day of my life! TVG: Were you tempted to ask Janice Dickinson to be your flower girl?
Rebecca: [Laughs] You know, I called her, but she said she was busy. That would have been a sight, huh? Janice walking down the aisle! You know she'd be sashaying, taking all the attention away from me. I couldn't let that happen! |
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