Posted on 01/27/2003 4:45:49 AM PST by Liz
Martha Stewart, the Queen of Nice?
Martha Stewart insists she has "never not been nice to anybody" - and she doesn't understand why people take such delight in her insider trading troubles. Speaking out for the first time since the scandal broke in June, Stewart sounded bitter and frustrated about the dramatic reversal in her public image.
"That I have been turned into or vilified openly as something other than what I really am has been confusing," Stewart, 61, told the New Yorker for an article in its issue out today. "I mean, we've produced a lot of good stuff for a lot of good people. And to be maligned for that is kind of weird."
The embattled entrepreneur also revealed that one person who had come to her support was Sen. Hillary Clinton.
"Look at her ups and downs," Stewart said. "And she was one of the first people to call me ... and very nicely say, 'You know, you just have to hang in there. It's the process.'"
Stewart - who sources say sent her lawyers to plead with federal prosecutors last week not to file criminal charges against her - attributed her problems with the public to jealousy she thinks some Americans feel at her success.
"I've had a real long way up - along the way my heels being bitten at for various reasons, maybe perfectionism or exactitude or something," she told Jeffrey Toobin, the magazine's legal correspondent. "And now I've had a long way down."
She said she was appalled by the idea, suggested by some, that she should have been nicer to people on the way to the top. "I've never not been nice to anybody," Stewart insisted.
Thin is in
Perhaps the strangest moment in the interview came when Toobin admired the fancy silver chopsticks he and Stewart used to eat homemade Szechuan chicken at her Connecticut mansion.
"You know, in China they say, 'The thinner the chopsticks, the higher the social status.' Of course, I got the thinnest I could find," said Stewart, who was born Martha Kostyra and grew up in working-class Nutley, N.J. "That's why people hate me."
She also vented about the unflattering photographs that have become a staple of newspaper coverage of her story. "I'm a pretty photogenic person, I mean, and they manage to find the doozies," she said.
But she claimed the near-nightly razzing she gets from late-night TV hosts doesn't bother her. "My buddies: Dave [Letterman], Jay [Leno], Conan [O'Brien]. I miss the fun. They have a job to do, they can comment on anybody in a playful way," she said.
Stewart has been under the gun since it was learned that on Dec. 27, 2001, she sold $228,000 worth of ImClone Systems stock and avoided a loss of $45,000 when the stock later plunged.
The Daily News reported exclusively on Saturday that Stewart sent her lawyers to plead with prosecutors to spare her from criminal charges.
Prosecutors are close to deciding whether to file insider trading charges against her for allegedly selling the stock on a tip from a pal, ImClone founder Sam Waksal.
Waksal pleaded guilty to telling his daughter Aliza and father, Jack, about the impending freefall of the stock, which came after news broke that the government was about to shoot down the company's anti-cancer drug.
Stewart and Waksal have both been major donors to the Democratic Party and the political campaigns of both Hillary and former President Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton strongly backed Waksal's other daughter, Elana Posner, in her failed 2001 run for New York City Council.
In thanking Hillary Clinton during the interview, Stewart talked about her admiration for how the ex-First Lady and her husband handled themselves during their own scandals.
In fact, Stewart called Hillary Clinton a role model for her own planned comeback.
"First Lady, knocked to death and now senator," she said. "She's smart, she's worthy, she's great. You know, that's what I hope I'll be thought of as."
Stewart declined to discuss specifics of her case but did say she has lost an estimated $400 million since the scandal broke, mostly through declining value of her Martha Stewart Omnimedia stock.
As for Hillary, have you visited Jamaica recently???
Reason enough for the death penalty, is it not? ;-).
OTOH it made we wonder--what're chances Hillary owned some of this stock and Martha passed along the same insider warning she got? I wouldn't even have thought of that except for MS laying it on soooo heavy about her Hillary connection...
IF, if, if, if prosecutors discovered that Hillary! was in exactly the same situation as MS, would that intensify the investigation or just kill it outright? (Rhetorical)
No, why?! Is that the HildaBeast's kewl new LesboLovenest?!
"Persons familiar with your track record should not be surprised to know that...", in yer eyes, SlickWillie and the HildaBeaast are Gods who walk amongst us MereMortals and thereby not accountable to the Laws that Govern this Nation!!
Thanks fer chimin' in, MM...MUD
Thanks...MUD
I think what she means is that she's never not been nice to anybody WHO IS ANYBODY. A touch of Clintonspeak. Her neighbor is obviously not anyone of consequence (maybe a Reublican?)
I'm nice to ANYONE that I can profit from. I'm really a selfish, greedy bitch who sees herself head and shoulders above the rest of the impoverished peons.
""She [The HildaBeast...aka the ButcherOfWaco] was one of the first poeple to call me ... and very nicely say, 'You know, you just have to hang in there. It's the process,"' Stewart told the magazine. Clinton spokeswoman Karen Dunn would not characterize the phone conversation, or say whether the senator was supportive of Stewart. Clinton "made a phone call to a friend and has not commented on the ongoing investigation," said Dunn, who said the conversation was brief. "I wouldn't say either way about the contents of the call," Dunn said."
So what was it?! NO COMMENT from the HildaBeast, yet Martha 'LeonaHelmsley' Stewart quotes the BEAST directly!! My question is whether or not the HildaBeast was acting in a legal capacity and, if so, how was the HildaBeast compensated by Ms. Helmsley?!
Quite Sincerely...MUD
Not 'til the HildaBeast's Hubby is in the electric chair to pay fer his CrimesAgainstHumanity in Kosovo and Waco!!
IMHO, of course...MUD
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