"yep...that night of boardroom happened to be my first night covering The Apprentice. The executives were in the room, The Donald, standing off stage, came in. The one executive, a tall, youngish, brown-haired guy was seated to Mr. Trump's right and replacing George for the week. He looked strangely familiar. "Is that Ashley Cooper???" I kept thinking in between photographs of the various apprentice cast as they faced The Donald.. "Naw...what the hell would he be doing here?" Somehow I had missed the notices about his connection to the Trump Organization. As the grilling of the apprentices continued and the younger executive talked, I thought to myself: "Gees, that sounds just like Ashley..." Sure enough, Carolyn called him Ashley and I knew that it had to be him. After the wannabe Apprentice (Audrey) was booted and taping finished, I quickly scooted out behind the door and said hello to "Mr. Cooper." He stopped, asked me if i needed anything and then I said.. 'Hey Ashley, it's me, Paul Gero, you might remember me from Ripon College?" He was just as shocked as me to be on in the board room, on one of the highest rated reality shows in history, in the middle of Mannhattan shaking hands with another fellow smalltown cheesehead who happened to be from a small liberal arts college 30 years ago...Dean Harris would've been proud. Small world."
Small world, indeed. Now I must ask him about The Donald's gravity-defying hair.
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