Apprentice Bill's Next Move
What's a dude to do after his reality-TV stint ends? Most guys try workin' their sudden fame to do some big pimpin'. Not Bill Rancic, 33, winner of NBC's The Apprentice. "I'm trying to turn the exposure I had into [something] positive," he says. "I'm not out trying to milk it and go to bars and pick up girls. Honestly, I've been so busy I haven't had a lot of time to date. I'm a red-blooded, heterosexual man, and I love women just as much as the next guy. But I've got a lot to prove."
Rancic, who says he's currently single, has been rumored to be romancing The Bachelor's Jen Scheff since her breakup with Andrew Firestone. "We went out a couple of times," he admits. "We're friends, but we were never boyfriend and girlfriend. [The tabloids] blew it all out of whack."
This year, Rancic's learning how to build Chicago's version of Trump Tower. But he's immersed in what he calls "Donald Trump boot camp" in New York until July. We hear he's partly there as a featured player in The Apprentice 2, now in production, though he "can't confirm that." Translation: He's in it, possibly even sitting beside Trump in the boardroom!
And like several other Apprentice grads, he's cashing in by authoring his own business book. "It's not a book on how to build a high rise," he says. "It's about how I won the show. Prior to The Apprentice, I achieved a fairly moderate level of success in my career and my life. I didn't cut anyone's throat. I wasn't backstabbing. Nice guys can finish first."
To find out what more reality stars — like Survivor's Rupert, The Swan winner and Trista and Ryan — are doing, pick up the current issue of TV Guide magazine.