Martha Stewart knows how to antique a mirror, monogram a tea cozy and now, it seems, resurrect a media and merchandising empire with a dramatic image makeover, all while serving five months in a West Virginia prison camp for lying to the government about a stock sale.
Naturally, it took a lot of hard work -- scrubbing prison bathroom floors, foraging for wild onions on prison grounds, learning to cook with a microwave, befriending women whose lives bore no resemblance to her own, even losing a Christmas decorating contest. But Stewart is more sympathetic, perhaps more human, than she's ever been. After 23 years as the world's most capable hostess, a fantasy so many Americans loved to hate, she seems to have acquired the one useful trait the public felt she lacked: humility.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday March 02, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 3 inches; 115 words Type of Material: Correction
Martha Stewart -- An article Feb. 26 in Section A about Martha Stewart said her childhood home had one bedroom. It was a one-bathroom house with three bedrooms. The article also said that after his conviction, Michael Milken reinvented himself as a philanthropist. Milken had been a philanthropist before his prison term. In addition, the article said that in September, many of Stewart's attorneys wanted to appeal her conviction, but that Stewart chose to begin her sentence. The article did not mean to imply that her decision to begin serving time meant there would be no appeal. Her appeal is scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, on March 17.
People who know Stewart say the ordeal has simply underscored the strengths she acquired during a hard-knocks childhood as one of six kids living in a one-bedroom house in Nutley, N.J. But expert spin doctors recognize good PR when they see it. This kind of rebound, they say, is the work of true genius. Few, if any, have come back this fast, this strong.
Post-conviction comebacks are tricky for celebrities. Many stars, such as Winona Ryder (shoplifting), Paul Reubens (indecent exposure and possession of child porn) and Robert Downey Jr. (drug abuse), have had only limited success in salvaging their careers. Others have had to reinvent themselves completely.
Michael Milken, known in the 1980s as the "junk bond king," served nearly two years in prison for securities fraud before reemerging as a philanthropist. President Nixon's so-called hatchet man, Chuck Colson, who served time for Watergate-related crimes, went on to become a Christian activist and a talk radio star.
But Stewart has a different plan. She intends to immediately reclaim her well-established role, this time as a survivor who is more marketable than ever.
"It's one of the most remarkable turnarounds I've ever seen," says Allan Mayer, managing director of Sitrick & Co., which has handled damage control for such clients as Rush Limbaugh, Paula Poundstone and R. Kelly. "When people saw she was going to suck it up and go to jail, they thought, 'Maybe she is arrogant. Maybe she is overbearing. But she's taking it like a grown-up.' "
