Martha Stewart

[princess 1,712]

Lol, you crack me up. How about instead of sending Martha to jail, we make her wear britney outfits for 5 months instead. As long as Martha is sentenced to whatever any other blow-joe would be sentenced to is fine with me. They caught her, just because they haven't caught people that are worse then her yet doesn't mean they should go easy on her.

[BobbyD 2]

Yes, she was caught. But they sure take their sweet time to prosecute those other corporate CEO's. Martha was hook line and sinker. Trial went like clockwork.I loved Dave Chappell's Show, the skit on CEO's being prosecuted like drug dealers. That sums up special treatment for White Collar criminals. "Please feel free to turn yourself in when convenient, LOL!"Yeah, P...I think Martha will be running things in her Britney outfits. Can you imagine? Cell Block C belongs to Martha!! But, don't corporate criminals go to club med prisons? I would love to see her be someone's bitch...like ALL corporate criminals should be.

[soho2chelsea 3]

It just bothers me that what Martha did is something relatively little that people we all know do all the time with their brokers, and those people never get singled out for jail time...yet, some of these other guys loot their companies and steal millions from their shareholders and that is considered okay. I just have to wonder why.Not to say Martha shouldn't go to jail, but I think everyone else doing this stuff should too - it just bothers me that a successful woman is attacked and punished disproportionately to all these other "CEOs gone wild."BTW I knew one of the guys on the Martha Stewart jury and he said that the defense did a horrible job.Sorry to get all political on a gossip board...it just ticks me off.

[soho2chelsea 3]

PS seeing *Britney* in some of Britney's outfits makes me shudder, so seing MARTHA in such outfits is almost incomprehensible. Her punishment should be only punishment for her, NOT punishment for all of America. LOL.

[princess 1,712]

Martha Compares Self to Nelson Mandela

Monday Jul 19, 2004 8:00am EST

By Stephen M. Silverman

people.com

 

 

Facing tough questioning from Barbara Walters on Friday ? the same day a federal judge sentenced her to five months in prison ? a stoic Martha Stewart declared: "Many good people have gone to prison. Look at (South African hero) Nelson Mandela."

 

While many critics seized upon comment to blast Stewart, the domestic diva also managed to surprise the generally unflappable Walters during the ABC interview.

 

"Martha, you are too much," said Walters after Stewart, who is known for her painstaking attention to detail, admitted that she has done absolutely no research whatsoever into prison life. (Stewart remains free on bail pending the appeal of her case, stemming from a stock sale she made in 2001.)

 

"I could do it," Stewart, 62, finally said about serving time. "I'm a really good camper. I can sleep on the ground."

 

Stewart balked when Walters brought up the issue of strip searches, telling the journalist: "I don't think in a minimum security prison there will be strip searches."

 

"Oh, yes," insisted Walters.

 

"Maybe I'm uninformed," Stewart said.

 

By contrast, the domestic diva ? who appeared to make light of how difficult it was to accept the fact she's a convicted felon ? smiled and grew positively animated when she started describing details of the upcoming issues of her magazine, Martha Stewart Living.

 

Several times during the interview, such as when Walters asked Stewart about altering a message in her telephone-log book, Stewart declined to respond, citing the fact that her case is on appeal.

 

In addition to her five-month prison sentence, Stewart will also get five months of home confinement and two years' supervised probation.

[BobbyD 2]

[BobbyD 2]

[princess 1,712]

MARTHA WAITS OUT CELL CRUNCH

Page Six

 

MARTHA Stewart will surrender to start serving her five-month sentence for obstruction of justice as soon as there is a vacant cell at the Danbury federal prison for women, sources say, leaving her daughter Alexis, 38, to oversee her company.

 

"There is no available bed at Danbury, and hasn't been for a couple weeks," said one insider. "She's just waiting."

 

Anna Cordasco, a spokeswoman for Stewart's legal defense team, told PAGE SIX yesterday: "She is exploring her options and is committed to doing what is right for her company."

 

The doyenne of domesticity was sentenced in July to five months in prison and five months of house detention for lying to federal investigators about her well-timed sale of ImClone stock in December 2001, just before the firm's cancer drug was denied FDA approval.

 

The Post's John Crudele reported last month that Stewart, saddled with huge legal bills, is cash-poor. She is selling her $7 million Perry Street apartment and has put one of her East Hampton estates on the market.

 

"The company would like her to get [jail time] over with," a source told Crudele. "Advertisers are pushing. They want closure."

 

Tracy Billingsley , a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, confirmed that both the low-security women's jail and the minimum-security women's "prison camp" in Danbury are "crowded."

 

Stewart's stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic ? who drew the exact same sentence, even though he was convicted of more serious insider trading charges ? is expected to surrender at the same time.

 

Martha's TV show was put on hiatus as her legal woes mounted, and she has nearly vanished from Martha Stewart Living magazine, which used to feature her on the cover each month and in an editor's letter inside.

 

Stewart and her execs at Martha Stewart Omnimedia are busy "debranding" the company and making it less dependent on the image of its founder. Last month, the company bought Body & Soul magazine and Dr. Andrew Weil's Self Healing newsletter.

 

Our insider said, "Alexis has been studying the company and has sold her interest in the Karma Yoga studio on West 65th Street to prepare for her new role."

[Jerrica Benton 60]

oooo. hey i wanna write to martha while in prison

[princess 1,712]

EOnline.com GET REAL: Mark Burnett telling the New York Daily News that he has been in heavy talks with Martha Stewart about reinventing her lifestyles show once she's out of prison.

[princess 1,712]

Martha Stewart Plans Her TV Comeback

Wednesday Sep 22, 2004 6:15pm EST

By Serena Kappes and Sharon Cotliar

people.com

 

She's due to start her jail term Oct. 8, but Martha Stewart is already planning her post-prison career: The domestic diva will premiere a new syndicated daily show in 2005 with help from Survivor creator Mark Burnett.

 

Burnett, described as a "good friend" of Stewart's, confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that he will update her now-canceled Martha Stewart Living TV program. "We will explore new ways to communicate that unique combination of teaching, usefulness, quality, style and impeccable taste that millions of viewers have enjoyed for over a decade," Burnett said. Though it will be a reality show, it won't focus on her prison time, he told New York's Daily News.

 

"Mark and I have forged a bond based on similar creative visions and common respect for strong and distinctive programming," Stewart noted in the statement.

 

Before she can begin production on her show, Stewart will have to serve her five-month sentence for lying to federal investigators about a stock trade.

 

On Tuesday, Judge Miriam Cedarbaum ordered Stewart to surrender by 2 p.m. Oct. 8 and recommended that U.S. officials send her to a prison camp in Danbury, Conn., or Coleman, Fla. (Stewart will receive 72 hours notice of where she will serve her time, her legal team told PEOPLE.) Stewart will then be under house arrest for an additional five months.

 

In a press conference last week, Stewart spoke about her desire to "put this nightmare behind me" and be released in time to plant her spring garden.

 

"I want to reclaim my good life," she said. "I must return to my good works and allow those around me to do the same."

[princess 1,712]

Martha Stewart's Prison Location Determined

Wednesday Sep 29, 2004 12:00pm EST

By Sharon Cotliar and Beth Lipton

people.com

 

Martha Stewart will serve her five-month sentence for lying about a stock trade at a federal prison facility in Alderson, W. Va., a rep confirmed to PEOPLE.

 

"While I had hoped to be designated to a facility closer to my family and more accessible to my appellate attorneys, I am pleased that the Bureau of Prisons has designated me so quickly to FPC Alderson, the first federal prison camp for women in the United States," Stewart, 63, said in a statement. "I look forward to getting this behind me and to vigorously pursuing my appeal."

 

Stewart, who was assigned prisoner number 55170-054, will begin her sentence on or before Oct. 8, and will follow it with five months under house arrest. She has said she would like to serve the latter part of her sentence in her Bedford, N.Y., home. Stewart was convicted on conspiracy, obstruction of justice and other charges related to a 2001 ImClone Systems stock sale.

[princess 1,712]

Martha's "Cupcake" Assignment

EOnline.com

by Sarah Hall

Sep 30, 2004, 11:40 AM PT

 

Looks like Martha Stewart's time in the slammer will be something of a cakewalk.

 

The homemaking maven, also known as federal inmate 55170-054, has been assigned to her third choice of prison, in Alderson, West Virginia, known to locals as "Camp Cupcake."

 

Stewart had specified that her first choice of prison in which to serve her five-month sentence was the minimum security lockup in Danbury, Connecticut, closer to home so that her 90-year-old mother would be able to visit Stewart more easily.

 

Barring an assignment to "Club Fed," as residents refer to the Connecticut facility, Stewart had requested to be sent to a prison in Coleman, Florida.

 

U.S. District Court Judge Miriam Goldman Cederbaum had also recommended that the Living guru do her time at one of her two preferred facilities.

 

But apparently the U.S. Bureau of Prisons cares little about Stewart's preferences or Cederbaum's recommendations. Instead, inmate 55170-054 must surrender to Camp Cupcake by Oct. 8 to begin her sentence.

 

Despite her disappointment, Stewart tried to put a positive spin on the situation.

 

"While I had hoped to be designated to a facility closer to my family and more accessible to my appellate attorneys, I am pleased that the Bureau of Prisons has designated me so quickly to FPC Alderson, the first federal prison camp for women in the United States," Stewart said in a statement Wednesday. "I look forward to getting this behind me and to vigorously pursuing my appeal."

 

Stewart won't be the first high profile inmate to serve time at Camp Cupcake.

 

Other well known faces to pass through the facility include singer Billie Holiday, who did time on drug charges and former Charles Manson disciple Lynnette "Squeaky" Fromme, who was sentenced to life for trying to shoot President Ford. (Fromme escaped from the prison in 1987, but was recaptured three days later.)

 

Camp Cupcake opened in 1927 and houses about 1,000 women, most on drug-related charges. The facility sits high on a hill and has no fences or gates surrounding it.

 

Stewart can expect to share her living quarters with anywhere from 25 to 89 roommates--there are no individual cells.

 

Prisoners generally rise at about 6 a.m. and toil the day away, performing tasks such as picking up trash, mowing grass and maintaining river banks in the town of Alderson. Other duties include plumbing, painting and kitchen labor. Inmates make anywhere from 12 to 40 cents an hour--a far cry from Stewart's $900,000 yearly salary, which will be suspended while she's incarcerated.

 

Once Stewart completes her five-month sentence, she'll spend five additional months under house arrest at her 153-acre farm in Bedford, New York.

 

"If events unfold as I have been led to believe, I will have this ordeal behind me and be back to work before spring planting season," Stewart wrote on her Marthatalks.com Website.

 

Part of that work will entail reinventing herself as a reality TV star under the tutelage of Mark Burnett. The power duo have inked a contact to remake Stewart's lifestyles show.

 

"Mark and I have forged a bond based on similar creative visions and common respect for strong and distinctive programming," Stewart said in a statement. "I am very pleased to work with him to produce new and useful shows that are pertinent to the audience of today and tomorrow."

 

Sadly, Prison Living apparently didn't make the cut for "new and useful shows."

 

Stewart was convicted in March on charges that she lied to the feds during an investigation of a 2001 stock sale.

 

She was granted a stay of sentence while her case was under appeal, but elected to waive it in the interest of doing "the right thing for me and for my company," according to a statement on her Website.

[princess 1,712]

SQUAT & COUGH

Page Six

 

MARTHA Stewart will get her first taste of prison life with a humiliating strip search ? including a nude squat-and-cough in front of a female guard, jailhouse sources said. All new inmates to the Alderson, W. Va., prison known as Camp Cupcake get the same exam, done by a guard wearing latex gloves. To prove they're not hiding contraband, the jailbirds must lift their breasts, crouch low with their legs spread and cough. "They also make you hold your arms out and look in your mouth and under your tongue," a recently released inmate told The Post's Brad Hamilton. Stewart must report to the prison by Friday to begin her five-month stint for lying about an insider stock sale.

[princess 1,712]

 

 

BIGGEST LIFESTYLE CHANGE

Martha Stewart slipped past photographers Oct. 8 and entered the confines of "Camp Cupcake," the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. As prisoner No. 55170-54, the domestic diva will fulfill her five-month sentence in the minimum-security facility and join 1,040 other inmates in waking up at 6 a.m., working for 12 to 40 cents an hour for 7-1/2 hours daily and eating cold sandwiches. It'll be a far cry from last weekend, when she spent what she called "the nicest two days" in the Bahamas.

[princess 1,712]

people.com VISITED: Martha Stewart spent the first weekend of her five-month prison sentence getting to know the other inmates at the Alderson, W. Va., facility over games of Scrabble and spending time with her daughter Alexis, who paid two separate visits to see her mother, according to reports. Alexis learned on Saturday that, if she wishes to share a meal with her mom, exact change is required for the food-vending machines, relatives of other inmates told the New York Post and New York's Daily News. By all accounts, Stewart, 63, is facing her ordeal bravely and is cordial to the others. "She patted me on the shoulder," one little boy told the News, "and (my sister) was like, 'Martha Stewart touched you!'"

[princess 1,712]

Martha: Dear Diary, Prison's Great

EOnline.com

by Charlie Amter

Oct 16, 2004, 10:15 AM PT

 

Things aren't so bad at "Camp Cupcake" after all. Just ask Martha Stewart.

 

The locked-up domestic diva took to her marthatalks.com Website Friday to post her first comments since entering prison last week.

 

Stewart says the West Virginia facility, where she is serving out her five-month sentence for lying about a stock sale, is "fine...pretty much what I anticipated."

 

The best news, says Stewart, is that "everyone is nice--both the officials and my fellow inmates."

 

According to a breathless report on Federal Prison Camp Alderson in the new Star magazine, Stewart should be worried about people being too nice.

 

The glossy quotes an unnamed sources inside the so-called Camp Cupcake saying "the guards are 90 percent male, and sex between some of them and the inmates is commonplace." Another inmate told the magazine the female inmates also regularly engage in sexual acts.

 

Nevertheless, Stewart is putting on a happy face just a week into her sentence. "I have adjusted and am very busy," she continues in her letter. "The camp is like an old-fashioned college campus--without the freedom, of course."

 

Of course.

 

"I'll be making postings now and then, but thank you for the concern and good wishes expressed in the thousands of emails you have recently sent to this Website," Stewart writes. "I am also touched that supporters have already sent hundreds of letters to me at Alderson in my first week here."

 

The 63-year-old jailbird's future Internet postings will likely be as brief as her first. Aside from prison restrictions on her outside communication, publishing pundits expect her to save most of the juicy stuff for her prison memoirs, which could fetch upwards of $5 million.

 

Based on her posting, Federal Inmate 55170-054 doesn't seem lonely one week into her stint, but the sometimes dubious Star quotes an unnamed prison source as saying the guru of good things seemed "overwhelmed" and "depressed," despite an early visit from daughter Alexis.

 

Stewart, who was convicted in March of lying to federal investigators about a suspicious stock sale, is pursuing an appeal while she serves in the slammer.

 

In closing out her missive, Stewart asks well-wishers to stop sending her "gifts and money," which are a no-no for inmates--and it's not like she needs the cash. She asks instead that fans make a donation to the American Cancer Society and continue to support her.

 

Says Stewart, "Your goodwill and best wishes will get me through this next chapter in my life."

[princess 1,712]

Stewart Writes Prison Book

imdb.com

 

Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart 's five-month jail stint could become a lucrative experience for her - she's penning her prison memoirs. Stewart has reportedly asked her lawyer Allen Grubman's aides to pitch her proposed literary offering to New York publishers, while she serves her sentence in a West Virginia institution. One book industry insider says, "You'd think that they would wait until she got out to pitch this so that she has the credibility to do it as a redemption story. It sort of seems like they've got the whole thing a**-backwards." However, New York magazine claims many publishers are excited by the prospect. Judith Regan says, "If it's a good story, I'm always interested." Miramax Books are also reportedly interest in winning the rights to Stewart's work. In March, Stewart was convicted of lying to federal investigators about a suspicious sale of her ImClone shares and is pursuing an appeal while she serves time behind bars.

[Jerrica Benton 60]

martha never passes a money making opportunity like prison does she?

[princess 1,712]

Martha Stewart Writes Thanksgiving Letter

Tuesday Nov 23, 2004 12:00pm EST

By Marla Lehner

people.com

 

Jailed domestic diva Martha Stewart has penned a Thanksgiving letter in which she thanks fans for their support and says she's "making the best" of her time behind bars.

 

"I want to extend my deepest thanks and appreciation for the steadfast support I continue to receive from so many of you," Stewart says in a statement posted on marthatalks.com, referring to supportive letters and e-mails she has received since being convicted of conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of justice in March.

 

In her holiday letter Stewart also aims to dispel rumors that she and the staff at Alderson Federal Prison Camp ? also known as "Camp Cupcake" ? are not getting along.

 

"As you would expect, the loss of freedom and the lack of privacy are extremely difficult. But I am safe, fit and healthy, and I am pleased to report that, contrary to rumors you might have heard, my daily interactions with the staff and fellow inmates here at Alderson are marked by fair treatment and mutual respect.

 

In October, just as Stewart was preparing to check into Alderson, her friend Charles Simonyi told PEOPLE: "She is afraid about whether she can remain strong and continue to keep up her spirit."

 

But Stewart, 63, who is serving a five-month prison term, says her mood is good under the circumstances.

 

"I am in good spirits and making the best of this difficult situation," she writes. "Visits from my friends, family and colleagues ? together with your goodwill and best wishes ? will get me through this chapter in my life. For this friendship and support, I am very grateful this Thanksgiving."

[colorine 26]

Blah, blah, blah. She wants us to feel sorry for her? She still making a fortune.

[princess 1,712]

EOnline.com

 

TOUGH LOSS: Martha Stewart 's team losing a holiday decorating contest in West Virginia's Alderson Federal Prison, People.com reports. Their entry, paper cranes that hung on the ceiling, "wasn't all that great," according to one inmate.

[colorine 26]

She probably had to do it herself and had no one to do it for her.

[Krista 0]

Poor Martha. How will she ever recoup after this! ? !

[princess 1,712]

Martha Stewart to Star in Reality Show

Wednesday Jan 19, 2005 1:00pm EST

By Sharon Cotliar

people.com

 

Martha Stewart, who recently passed the midway point of her five-month prison stint, is already cooking up plans for the next phase of her career, including a prime-time spinoff of NBC's The Apprentice, a source tells PEOPLE.

 

The new show, however, won't be a carbon copy of the reality hit that stars real estate mogul Donald Trump, according to another source, who says: "I couldn't imagine they would use a boardroom. They would tailor something more appropriate for Martha."

 

Then again, Trump hasn't yet signed on for a fourth season of The Apprentice, which raises the possibility of Stewart simply sliding into his boardroom seat. Last month NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker said Trump will "hopefully" be the star of the show for years to come. As for Stewart's prime-time project, NBC had no comment.

 

Apprentice producer Mark Burnett, who confirmed to the New York Post that a reality show with Stewart is in the works, tells PEOPLE: "I've always been fascinated by Martha."

 

Also in the works for Stewart is a daily syndicated homemaking show on NBC to start next fall. NBC-owned stations in 14 major cities have already agreed to air the daytime program, which will feature a live audience and celebrity guests, starting in September.

 

Stewart, 63, is currently in a federal prison in West Virginia serving time for obstruction of justice.