Posted on 03/03/2005 4:04:47 PM PST by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON : US lifestyle guru Martha Stewart was set to leave jail Friday after a five-month sentence for a stock scandal that boosted her career rather than dooming it.
Stewart's time in jail officially ends Sunday, but the federal prisons bureau can release prisoners on a Friday if their sentences end over the weekend, said US prisons spokeswoman Carla Wilson.
Supporters eagerly awaited her release from the Alderson minimum security prison in West Virginia, which inmates call "Camp Cupcake."
The news media were also outside the prison in force.
Stewart's reputation has made a massive public rebound during her time in Alderson, despite the conviction for lying about a dodgy stock sale.
She will serve five more months under house arrest at her 62-hectare (163-acre) country estate in Bedford, New York.
She will have to wear an electronic ankle bracelet tracking her movements.
Stewart may leave the property for 48 hours a week for work, which she already has lined up.
Indeed, Stewart, 63, has won a contract to host a knock-off of tycoon Donald Trump's successful NBC television reality show "The Apprentice."
She will also star in a show focusing on the same subjects that she built into a multi-million dollar lifestyle empire -- cooking, entertaining, decorating and home renovating.
"People love redemption stories," said "Apprentice" producer Mark Burnett. "You pay your price and Americans allow you to move on."
The businesswoman was convicted in March last year of lying to federal agents investigating her sale of nearly 4,000 shares in biotechnology company ImClone Systems.
She began serving her sentence in October.
Newsweek noted her post-conviction fame in its cover this week headlined: "Martha's Last Laugh: After Prison, She's Thinner, Wealthier and Ready for Prime Time."
However, the newsweekly is also in trouble for using the head of Stewart on the body of a model for the cover picture.
Shares of the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) empire, which she founded, have quadrupled in value since her sentencing in July.
Company shares were up 3.81 percent Thursday, reaching 33.26 dollars in afternoon trading.
In March 2004, she resigned as the company's a director and "chief creative officer" while accepting a new position of "founding editorial director."
According to Stewart's aides, the empire's founder is very optimistic about her future.
"This year, we usher in spring with an extra measure of gratitude, because the month of March not only marks the vernal equinox on the twentieth and the real start of our Northeast growing season, but also Martha's homecoming," Margaret Roach, editor in chief of Martha Stewart Living, wrote in the magazine's March edition.
Roach said Stewart will plant a garden in an old estate she has been renovating in Bedford.
"I can tell you she is, indeed, ready to get planting, having ordered her seeds and made extensive to-do lists, just as she would have done in any winter," the editor wrote.
Roach also recounted some of Stewart's prison activities.
"The tales were always surprising," she said.
Stewart foraged for wild greens such as dandelion on prison property "to augment the limited fresh vegetable offerings in the diet there," helped decorate the chapel for a memorial service and made microwave meals "with whatever very basic ingredients the commissary had for sale."
She also launched a yoga class that she taught for 10 inmates, spent time crocheting and used old ceramic molds to create a nativity scene for her mother.
Roach even told how Stewart had carried out a yoga pose called "downward-facing dog" in the visitors' room at the prison "from which she seamlessly moved into a headstand." - AFP
She was in essence charged with being dishonest under oath. How is it irrelevant that the people accusing her did the same thing they accused he of? Only a Clintonite could make that argument.
That won't wash. You are reaching.
FMC,
There are convicted felons, and then there are convicted felons. Martha was just a high-profile stepping stone for a man who wants to be governor, or maybe even president.
She's a hard nosed stubborn bee-yach who took on someone more hard nosed.... I'm still not convinced she did anything really, really, wrong.
But I like seeing arrogant east coast liberal democrats in prison!
Folks either love her or hate her ... very few in the middle. I do not particularly care for her and felt if she lied then she should suffer consequences. I do not know that going to prison would be my way of punishment but that is what she got and she served it event free as it appears.
The idea of helicopters flying over head just past midnight says something not sure what but by midnight I hope to have a better idea. The mass media. The supporters will be in her town. WOW is all I can say. I do not think she would get it if she were a republican, or for that matter a man.
Would they cover the folks getting out from Enron or WorldCom? I guess they might but it would be different.
She is a felon and one cannot deny that.
thanks i need that
I would ask how you really feel, but, I know and this is not the time to make jokes. It is unseemly and NO others would not get the coverage and it is about the all mighty buck and I suppose if her fans pay it then are we to blame her or our fellow Americans?
So is PMSNBC.
Fire up the Tivo!?
You say you learned a lot from Martha and was just wondering if you could tell me exactly what you learned. I know I learned to roll my eyes real well for the couple of times I watched her show!
Never liked her, she's a phony. The only thing she's interested in is her precious "empire".
Yes, I do blame her and the so-called reporters by making such a big deal out of her getting out of PRISON. What happened to shame?
I'll take that with a grain of salt. I think Martha's PR machine is going all out to rebuild her reputation. Larry King and Newsweak can do all the spinning they want. Martha is STILL an Ex-Con. We'll see what kind of redemption her money has bought her in a few months
No wonder their ratings have hit the bottom. That is SICK!
Martha's company is providing "reporters" with a platform at the airport but she is NOT GOING TO TALK TO THEM. ROFLOL!
What many don't understand is that she is a phony. I know one of the companies that we did business with said that Martha Stewart BOUGHT their cookies and CLAIMED that she made them! It was for Moravian cookies and there is NO WAY in *ell Martha could make "her cookies" look like those but I saw the show and she did CLAIM that she made them. She's a LIAR and a PHONY!
I suppose I am not making myself clear. The media has pounced and I am sure based on their internal numbers (emails and web numbers) that there are many who want to see her as she leaves the prison. This is to avoid the shame that they feel she would get if they did not do this and her product might not hold up, I do not know.
I feel it is wrong but there must be some folks watching and buying. I have never purchased anything by her but I must confess I did go to her sight to see ideas for cooking a turkey and that was it.
If those other people have illegal insider information, and make a profit on that information, and then try to hid their actions ..... yes.
If my good friend robs a bank, and gives me the money, and I keep that money knowing it was from a robbed bank, and then lie to the cops about how I got the money, then I become a defacto accomplice to the crime.
It is very similar here. I think people are letting their affection and admiration for Martha and hatred for the govt. get in the way of their logical common sense.
Well .... Hellary is out trying to get ex-cons to be able to vote again
Are you a Socialist that thinks it's unfair if someone is better off
than you?
Suppose your neighbor that works at a store tells you their
supply truck schedule so you can get down there and get
the best items before they get picked over. That would be
insider trading too. It's not against the law yet, but it's not
fair to others that don't know anyone at the store.
Would you feel obliged to tell your neighbor that you don't
want to know insider information like that because it's not
fair to others.
This is an evil law that asks persons to intentionally suffer
possibly grave financial harm by not acting on information
that could prevent it.
Martha Is about to be released!!!
I see it.
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