The Art of the Real

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And it's fascinating, if not heartening, to see how the sexes wittingly embrace their stereotypes. The men (competing under the testosterone-y name Versacorp) exude enough arrogance and aggression to fill a trading pit. The women (doing business as Protege Corp.) don sexy stewardess outfits to pitch an ad campaign for a jet-leasing company. Their "manager" advertising executive Donny Deutsch sounds both appalled and impressed as he says, "You've set the women's movement back 70 years."

But the real star is Trump, who commits a surprising amount of time to the camera. A little jowlier than you may remember from his '80s heyday yet still imposing, he's a stiff narrator but comes alive in the "boardroom," site of the climactic firing meetings, charming his candidates one minute, curtly smacking them down the next. Trump and Burnett, trying to distinguish The Apprentice as the brainy reality alternative, like to say there is "no dating" on it. That's not true. The men and women alike try to win Trump's heart, to learn what moves him, to find the je ne sais quoi that will make Trump see a soul mate in them. He is not just the host; he is the Bachelor.

Is that an inaccurate reflection of the corporate world? If only. The Apprentice is about cunning and sales savvy, yes, but even more about who can like Burnett did learn how to say "all the right things" to a man of great accomplishment and greater ego. That person will walk away not with an engagement but perhaps sexier in a still tight employment market a job. And if really lucky, maybe even a handshake.