About Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart (born August 3, 1941) is a popular Polish-American television and magazine personality known for her cooking, gardening, etiquette, and arts and crafts projects, and as a general lifestyle guide and homemaker. Starting in 2002 her career was rocked by a scandal involving her sale of shares in a drug company days before its application for a new drug was denied. She was eventually convicted of lying to investigators and sentenced to prison in 2004. She was released on March 4, 2005

In 1993, she began hosting a half-hour syndicated television show by the same name. She soon introduced her own line of home products under the name “The Martha Stewart Everyday Collection.” Stewart rose to national prominence with regular appearances on NBC’s The Today Show. By 1997 she had launched her first of nine exclusive product lines. She also hosted a cooking show on the Food Network called From Martha’s Kitchen and a gardening show on Home and Garden TV called From Martha’s Garden. She also founded a website, [1] (http://www.marthastewart.com), to promote her products.

In 1999, she founded the company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia traded on the New York Stock Exchange to combine and control all her enterprises under one corporate entity. She became its chief executive officer and chairman until 2003. Stewart owns approximately 61% of the equity of the company and 94% of the voting power.

As she rose in stature, Stewart became an easy target for mockery and parody on late-night talk shows and Saturday Night Live. Comedians mocked her persona of perfection and her intense attention to the esoteric details of such typically uninteresting topics as ambrosia salad or leaf decorating ideas for tablecloths. She is often the subject of ridicule from late night comedians such as Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel.

Today, Stewart owns upscale homes in Bedford, New York; Westport, Connecticut; Seal Harbor, Maine; and The Hamptons, New York.

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