11/19/2009 4:00 pm
Culture
Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
Cynthia spends two days with Martha Stewart, a 'true original,' and shares their unfiltered conversation.
Image courtesy of ABC
OK, let me just come right out and say it: I had a great time hanging out with Martha Stewart for two days last week for a story on her business empire, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. The company, according to analysts, is at an important moment in its history. The company successfully battled back from steep losses when Stewart was sent to prison for lying to investigators about a stock trade only to be hit hard (like most media companies) by the financial crisis. But Stewart is confident about the future of the company – and points to plenty of evidence of growth, including a new partnership with Home Depot. The company’s headquarters literally buzz with creative activity. There is the scent of success in the air.
That’s not to say being with Stewart is a warm and fuzzy experience. As the old joke goes, if you want the girl next door, go next door. No, Stewart is a hard-charging, demanding, impossibly exacting taskmaster. But she is also a true original. An American master. Creating a brand and a company from scratch. One of the hardest workers I have ever seen. She is also unfiltered. In the two days we spent together it seemed to me she said pretty much whatever she thought about just about everything. From her legal woes ("They should have been investigating Bernie Madoff, not me!") to Rachael Ray’s latest book ( "It’s not good enough for me" ) to the prospects for her company ("We’re going to do very, very well") and even her own finances ("I lost a billion dollars").
To read more about my exclusive interview with Martha Stewart tonight on "Nightline" click here.
Image courtesy of ABC
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I have respected Martha Stewart for quite a long time. I have followed her career, purchased some, but not all of her books, and I used to watcher her shows. I think we both have some things in common with the exception that I have never thought I could make what I do into a multi-million or billion dollar company. I don’t know if Martha knits. If she doesn’t then that is the one thing I do that she doesn’t do.
Oh, and my kitchen does get messy during large meals but it is not as messy as Julia Childs televised accidents. I often wondered if they were infact not staged?
Martha Stewart like any person who gains celebrity status, is either loved or hated regardless of her faults. And she does have them. She made millions in her long life, but not all of it honestly. This is something that many who adore her ignore. In my mind that diminishes any accomplishments she has made because they call into question her integrity and honor. For someone who has made a living on not just cooking perfectly, but decorating and presenting all you do perfectly, I find it hypocritical that she herself is so flawed.
However I love her creations and ideas and have applied many to my homes over the years. I love the fact that she stresses to pay attention to even the smallest details, I live by that rule as well. So a lot of what she has to say is of value, but there is something about her that is simply off pudding to me. It’s as if she is attempting to be a snob, above everyone else when in actuality she is not. She’s too controlled - too focused on perfection. I always feel people who are like that are hiding something.
"Stewart was sent to prison for lying to investigators about a stock trade." This is a media lie…factually, "Stewart was sent to prison" ON CHARGES… She did no "lying to investigators," and no evidence of this existed. Not one word spoken by her or any "investigator" was recorded in a transcript or in sworn testimony. "Stewart was sent to prison" as a direct consequence of grossly incompetent legal representation. The bogus charge of "lying" would never have come into existence if she had competent legal representation. Like any serious male investor, her "stock trade" was based on sound investment management principles and perfectly legal. She sold on no "tip"; only a mere two months earlier, she made the decision to sell ALL of her ImClone stock in a tender offer from Bristol-Myers, which was oversubscribed, leaving her with the remnant "stock trade." She owed nobody any explanation for this sale; and why she made the "stock trade" was nobody’s business, including "the investigators."
Martha Stewart dissing Rachel Ray is a media distortion; nothing new with Martha and the media. "…made millions…not all of it honestly" completely baseless.
I spent many years learning many things from Marth Stewart. And I have the hot glue gun scars to prove it! Seriously, I still create my own holiday wreaths of cranberries according to her directions; I still use her recipes for many wonderful treats; I still think of her whenever I open my tidily organized dresser drawers! She truly did become the diva of domesticity. And frankly, she’s right on when she says the "big boys" should have been spending more time on Bernie Madoff than on her own pecadillo, which by contrast looks like pretty darn small pommes de terre at this point, eh?