The Apprentice's Aimee Sounds Off on Getting Mall'd
February 23, 2007 (TV Guide) On last week's The Apprentice, the Priceline was far from right for Aimee Trottier...TVGuide.com invited the fired femme to share her side of the story...
Fue injusto que Donald Trump despidió a Aimee? On last week's The Apprentice, the Priceline was far from right for Aimee Trottier, whose team came up short on a task to... man, it was so boring, I hesitate to remind myself of it. But to be fair, the 32-year-old Chicagoan was operating on incomplete information, that her target market was significantly Hispanic. TVGuide.com invited the fired femme to share her side of the story. Plus: What exactly did she shout at her foes as she left the camp?
TVGuide.com: I have to say, I can't 100 percent agree with Trump's latest call, because it sends the message that withholding vital information is good strategy.
Aimee Trottier: Well thank you for that, because I felt the same way. I don't know if he just didn't see that or what, but there were flat-out blatant lies coming out of Derek's and Jen's mouths. I specifically asked them the question, and they said I never asked. I'm like, "Please. I asked you twice, that's why we did a whole campaign around families. That's why we chose to do that." So not only were they blatantly lying, but they were very responsible for it. In addition, Derek lives in Los Angeles, as does Heidi and as does Kristine, so you'd think they would know the Santa Ana area more than a girl from Chicago.
TVGuide.com: I don't know why they didn't just pass it along. When you learn something as critical as the fact that half the people in your mall may not be able to read your signs in English, you make sure your project manager knows, even if it is supposedly "obvious."
Aimee: Exactly. And the question was specifically asked of them by me, both before they went to the meeting with the woman who gave them information about the mall demographics, as well as when they returned, and the response I received was "family."
TVGuide.com: But we didn't see you ask them, did we?
Aimee: No, we didn't. But that's the way it went down — at least from my point of view! [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: I've always found it odd that the editing doesn't make a point of including what the producers later learn will be a contested "did it or did it not happen" incident....
Aimee: Right. I don't know why it wasn't in there either, but it wasn't.
TVGuide.com: Are you with me in thinking the task was rather lame overall? I mean, getting people to sign up for a sweepstakes?!
Aimee: The task was lame. There's not much to it. I had to laugh at Kristine saying, "I don't have anything to do in the afternoon." There's really not much to do. It was just a matter of getting signs printed and making sure the computers worked properly.
TVGuide.com: Flagging down people in a mall, that's something you get minimum-wage teenagers to do, not people expecting to work for Donald Trump three months from now.
Aimee: Right. It was a very simple task.
TVGuide.com: When you watched Arrow's surfing reward, did you get shades of the "Greg Brady/Hawaii" thing, like I did?
Aimee: [Laughs] Totally! I totally thought that. When Arrow came back, I'm like, "Did somebody steal the tiki thing?" We got a big laugh out of it.
TVGuide.com: Nicole seemed to be going for Rebecca Jarvis' Season 4 strategy, that maybe a broken ankle was the key to success.
Aimee: Yes. That and the [on-set] romance.
TVGuide.com: Did you ever feel like the tide was turning against you, or did the new rules allow Heidi to gather too much momentum/be elevated to "near-deity" level?
Aimee: For starters, I think Heidi was [Kinetic's first] project manager because she knew how to put a tent together, and the other 17 candidates did not, and she had the opportunity to lead a very talented team. Regardless of how I feel personally about some of the people on my team, there are less than a handful I would actually start a business with, because of their level of integrity. She had people who made decisions for her. Heidi didn't make any decisions, everyone else did it for her. People like Surya, who is phenomenal, and Jen, who's extremely creative with marketing, and Marissa, who's a great devil's advocate. Jen and I fought a lot because we were the ones actually putting ideas on the table; [the two of us] and Marissa were always the ones putting stuff out there. Everyone else was sitting back and not really offering anything.
TVGuide.com: So in other words, Heidi is not necessarily all that.
Aimee: No, Heidi is not necessarily all that, and I think we'll see that in the weeks to come.
TVGuide.com: Well, then, she should wipe that smug smirk off her face whenever the camera cuts to her.
Aimee: [Laughs] Yes, Heidi, smug. She's not one of my personal favorites. That is true.
TVGuide.com: If it is printable, what did you shout to Jen and Derek as you were getting into the car to leave?
Aimee: That's the best part. I called them despicable liars. I said, "You're despicable liars, and it makes me sick."
TVGuide.com: The show is moving to 10 pm when it returns next week. Is that because the night-vision cameras caught Nicole and Tim doing something TV-MA-rated?
Aimee: [Laughs] Yeah, maybe that's what it is. No, I'm sure it's probably due to ratings. The show hasn't done as well as we would have hoped.
TVGuide.com: What's next for you?
Aimee: I'm working for a fantastic medical-device company, and I sell acellular dermal tissue to trauma surgeons and to breast-reconstruction surgeons [treating] cancer patients. It's an amazing job, and I really get to see the impact it makes on patients and how it improves their lives. So life is good!
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