Deal Or No Deal?: Pyramid Power

SPOTTED: A streamlined, structural Bang & Olufsen Beocom 1 phone that looks more like something from MOMA than the utility company, on NBC’s "Deal Or No Deal,” where “The Banker” phones host Howie Mandel to offer contestants a sure-thing cash deal vs. opening shiny briefcases containing $10 to $1 million. Economists are studying contestants to better understand financial risk-taking behavior.

WHAT GRABBED THEIR EYE? “It was the most-interesting-looking phone” of those scouted by set designers, said the show’s art director, John Ivo Gilles. “Standing there on the desk, with the pyramid base station and modern lines, it draws your eye,” he said. “It’s almost like a little piece of sculpture.” Deal’s phone differs from non-Hollywood versions: Special-effects folks folded several feet of neon tubing inside so it lights up when it rings.

GET IT: $895 from Bang & Olufsen stores.

Originally published in the Chicago Tribune.