Celebrity Mound

Donald Trump isn’t firing “The Celebrity Apprentice,” but he’s bringing back the regular edition of the show with 14 ordinary job-hunters plagued by the economic crisis.

NBC and Trump said Wednesday they want to put America back to work with the show, which is expected to air this fall.

The original civilian version of “The Apprentice” premiered in 2004, then two years ago was replaced by the “Celebrity Apprentice” format.

“But since the economy went down the tubes, people have been saying, ‘Would it be possible to bring back the original?” Trump said. “In a way, it’s more important now than when we first did it.”

Trump’s revived “Apprentice” will recruit candidates who have lost their jobs, are stuck with jobs they don’t like just to get by or have finished college with no offers in sight.

The only common denominator: “Everybody has to be smart,” Trump said. “They all have to have brain power.”

Taping begins this summer.

The winner will land a position with one of Trump’s companies, as in the original. But there will be an added twist each week for every candidate who hears Trump’s dreaded words “You’re fired” in the board room.

“Instead of just sending them off in a cab, I’m going to sit and talk to them about their future – give them a little advice,” Trump said.

The current season of “The Celebrity Apprentice” premiered Sunday and is expected back for another run in spring 2011.

In her book, “If You Have To Cry, Go Outside,” co-written with Observer scribe Meredith Bryan and hitting stores on Feb. 2, Cutrone, whose new Bravo show “Kell on Earth” premieres the day before, chronicles a meeting she claims she had with Trump back when he owned the Plaza Hotel.

“It all started when he invited Eartha Kitt, our client, to perform at the Plaza,” Cutrone writes. After running into Trump at the party, Cutrone says Trump gave her his business card and asked for a meeting.

Cutrone was hesitant at the idea of handling Trump’s publicity, because one of his pals, boxer Mike Tyson, was facing rape charges. Still, Cutrone writes, she took the meeting at Trump’s Fifth Avenue office.

“I’d like to ask you a few questions to see how you’d handle certain situations,” Trump asked her, according to the book.

“He told me that he was going to say a few names and that I was to answer ‘hot,’ ‘very hot,’ or ‘hot hot,’ Cutrone relates. “The first name was Ivana, his newly ex-wife.” When Cutrone replied that she was “hot,” Trump asked why she wasn’t “very hot.” “She hasn’t been away from you long enough for us to know how she’s going to do on her own,” Cutrone explained.

Trump then asked about Marla Maples, Trump’s girlfriend at the time. “She’s not even hot,” Cutrone replied.

Finally, Trump asked about himself. “Barely hot,” Cutrone said, adding that Trump should be “ashamed” of himself for supporting Tyson, and that she found his behavior “disgusting.” “I thanked him politely for seeing me, and I left,” she says.

Trump tells us: “I’ve never heard of the woman. I’ve never had a business card, and I don’t hand them out. This conversation never took place. She’s accusing me of being loyal to Mike Tyson. He’s always been 100 percent loyal with me. What’s wrong with being loyal to someone who is behind you?”

Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump, Milania Trump and Baron Trump

Donald Trump, wife Milania Trump and son Baron Trump

Mike Tollin, the director of ESPN’s upcoming documentary, “Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?,” not only blames Donald Trump for the league’s demise, but doesn’t think he’s much of a movie critic, either. Tollin contends Trump ruined the upstart football league by making it go head-to-head against the NFL in the fall. After Trump bashed the film as “third-rate” on this page, Tollin responded, “The camera doesn’t lie. It shows Trump to be rude, impatient, repetitive and boorish. I can’t imagine he had the attention span to even watch the whole thing.” The movie premieres on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

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In “Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?” — a new documentary from the sports network — director Mike Tollin argues that the long-gone football league, which was established as a competitor to the NFL in 1983, folded mainly because Trump, then the owner of the New Jersey Generals, insisted that the USFL go head-to-head against the NFL and move its season from the spring to the fall. In the movie itself, Trump cuts his interview short and calls the league “small potatoes.” He said yesterday: “The documentary is third-rate, as was spring football. Football was meant to be played in the fall and I realized that early on. Tollin is a sad guy who is living in the past. He ought to get on with his life.”

It’s gonna be one tough lookin race car with that big smilin Oreo on the side – I’m sure everyone will fear it. The people picketing outside the venue with the Oreo – another nice touch. Donald must be using some type of spray tan – his eyelids are white – but the rest of him looks like an Oompa Loompa! Nice look for Summer you got goin there Donald! His face is damn near the same color as his hair.