Trump's Tramps: Chicks in the Fox House

[Sylph]

Trump's Tramps: Chicks in the Fox House

By Lisa de Moraes

Thursday, June 14, 2007; C01

Down through the ages, artists have reinterpreted Greek mythology's Pygmalion story, about a sculptor who falls in love with his statue of a woman, which comes to life and they all live happily ever after:

A.D. 2-8: Poet Ovid uses it in "Metamorphoses."

1748: Jean-Philippe Rameau tosses off Pygmalion opera.

1770: Jean-Jacque Rousseau weighs in with Pygmalion melodrama.

1816: Gaetano Donizetti pens opera "Il Pigmalione."

1912: George Bernard Shaw writes play "Pygmalion," in which sculptor is phonetics prof and statue is Cockney girl transformed into lady (adapted into "My Fair Lady" in the '50s).

2007: Donald Trump develops "Lady or a Tramp" for Fox.

Fox, Trump and RDF USA ("Wife Swap," "Ice-T's Rap School") have rolled up their sleeves to develop the reality series in which party girls gone wild -- a.k.a. "tramps" -- are transformed into ladies, or at least debutantes, which is the next best thing.

Fox has fast-tracked "Tramp" to air this coming TV season, if all goes well, RDF USA CEO Chris Coelen told The TV Column.

Like the "My Fair Lady" flick, "Tramp" is an adaptation of a British masterpiece. In this case, the popular reality series "Ladette to Lady" (produced by the U.K. parent of RDF USA), in which a bunch of hard-partying chicks are sent to charm school -- yes, they still have such things -- where they learn the finer points of tea pouring, pearl wearing, flower arranging and needleworking. One girl gets booted each week until just one remains and wins a flashy sports car -- which seems counterproductive.

But Coelen assures us they have not yet worked out those kinds of details for our version.

He says they approached The Donald about participating and, hopefully, providing on-air pointers for the girls for the same reason that when they were developing a reality series in which six obese school kids from Florida are challenged to lose weight and get fit, they asked NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal to star.

Shaq, Coelen explained, cares passionately about the issue of childhood obesity.

The Donald cares passionately about girls gone wild?

The Donald, Coelen explained, became the poster child for giving girls gone wild a second chance when, back in December, he held a news conference to announce he would not sack the then-Miss USA, Tara Conner, for underage hard-partying at New York clubs if she entered rehab and underwent drug testing. Trump owns the Miss Universe Organization with NBC.

"That kind of experience and that kind of interest and passion make him the perfect guy," Coelen said.

"He's been through it. . . . He's a guy who, like it or not, stood up and said, 'This is screwed up and we've got to do something about it.' "

"I never thought of it," Trump told The TV Column when asked about the connection between the Conner incident and his involvement with "Tramp."

"That was a great transformation. Hopefully she'll stay that way -- call me in two years. She's a wonderful girl," he said.

Girls gone wild is an issue whose time has come, Coelen said, citing the February Newsweek cover about The Girls Gone Wild Effect, which featured a picture of Paris Hilton (now in jail) with her arm around the shoulder of newly single Britney Spears (now in training for her lip-syncing comeback, after recently getting out of rehab).

"It's rampant in our culture . . . girls coming out of cars with no underwear, and shaving their heads, and in rehab one day and the next day at the club," Coelen said passionately, but not like you're thinking.

Already Trump and crew have put out a casting call, seeking women between 18 and 30 who "love to party and are full of attitude."

The premise of the show, the casting call explains, is to take these "rude and crude" party girls who don't care what others think about them and, with proper etiquette training, turn them into "modern-day princesses."

Among the life lessons they will learn in the series:

Grinding is not dancing.

and

You could chug Bordeaux, but why?

But this isn't just another exploitation of girls-gone-wild, Coelen insisted.

The U.K. version's "redemptive" story arcs will be part of this version, too, he said. Ditto the "real feeling of personal triumph."

"You accomplish something -- as much as people love the party scene, there is also something very empty about it. As fun and crazy as it is, there's also a loneliness about it."

"I love the concept," Trump told The TV Column.

"It's in a way very entertaining, but it's very educational, because a lot of young women are going to learn from it, just like Tara Conner. I got literally thousands of letters from people thanking me for the Tara Conner thing -- not only people her age, but older. . . . I think this can be highly educational, in terms of young women that are going wild -- Paris and Lindsay . . . there are thousands of young women like that, who destroy their lives before they get a chance."

Trump, who had some issues with NBC's casting of the contestants on his other reality series, "The Apprentice," until he got involved, tells us he plans to be very involved in casting "Tramp."

Yes, they'll look at women who respond to the casting call, he says, but "to be honest, the best casting will be by going into the various clubs and picking them out. That's when you really see somebody in terms of what we're doing.

"It's hard to cast someone when they're in a [casting] line," he explained. But hit the clubs at night, "you can pick a whole room of them."

"Unfortunately, who knows that scene better than I do?" Trump said philosophically, adding, "Somebody's got to do it."

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[poohbear19]

Flavor of Love: Charm School anyone? Sounds just like that premise, only they aren't unknown girls... I hope they add some originality to it.