[AGDLynn]

Atlanta Journal Constitution 4/2/04

By RICHARD L. ELDREDGE


A WEEK'S BUZZ

It sounded like an April Fools joke, but it wasn't.

Star 94 planned to bring together the two most colorful characters from Donald Trump's NBC reality show, "The Apprentice" -- Sam Solovey and Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth -- to "take over" the Steve & Vikki morning show Thursday.

Solovey was game but divalike Manigault-Stallworth gave producer Jake Ray such a hard time, Ray booked contestant Ereka Vetrini as a backup. ("I had to change Omarosa's flight seven times, and then she couldn't make it until 8:30 a.m. the day of the show," Ray said.)

Manigault-Stallworth flew into Atlanta from D.C. on Thursday and was on her way to the studio via limo on I-75/85, when to her surprise, she heard Vetrini was there. She refused to go on air to face Vetrini.

The pair didn't get along during the show and had a supposed racial tiff on camera. Fueling the fire, Manigault-Stallworth told "The View" a few weeks ago that a contestant had called her the n-word. Vetrini assumed she was the target and denied she ever said that.

Off air, Buzz was in the studio and eavesdropped as Solovey tried to persuade Manigault-Stallworth to join them, but she told him that she'd rather confront Vetrini on "Oprah" because "I'd prefer to go on a national stage" as opposed to "a little Atlanta station."

"I'm going to drop the bomb on her," Manigault-Stallworth promised.

She then told the limo driver to take her back to Hartsfield, where she paid for her own flight home.

Vetrini rolled her eyes off air: "I'm so over her." Later, she crooned, "Ding dong, the witch is dead."